School Information System: Education 'group think' gets in the way of teaching kids to read

March 27, 2011

Education 'group think' gets in the way of teaching kids to read

School administrators should end their obsession with average test scores and focus instead on an absolute standard: Can each child actually read?

For more than two decades now, the Seattle school district has been telling us that its most important goal is "closing the achievement gap." Nevertheless, it is not unfair to say that only incremental progress has been made.

Seattle, as everyone knows, is not alone. "Closing the achievement gap" has come to stand for the perennial problems of American K-12 education -- though the inability of high schools to graduate more than two-thirds of their students has been running a close second.

Among the results of this frustratingly persistent problem is a vast, energetic industry of school reform, headlined in recent years by the involvement of powerful private foundations and the policy directives of the federal government: "No Child Left Behind" in the "Race to the Top."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at March 27, 2011 5:10 AM
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Comments

From the article...."small schools, mayoral governance, charter schools, (more) intensive professional development for teachers, (more) leadership training for principals. Testing and more testing, along with the loss of federal funds and wholesale staff changes when schools have failed to improve scores (many states dumbed down their tests to avoid the consequences). And lately, paying teachers based on student test results....."

Typical blah blah blah article about how to improve reading. Blather on about all the issues listed above and always fail to mention the most crucial. The curriculum being delivered.

Posted by: rcs at March 27, 2011 5:44 AM