September 25 , 2007
BUSINESS COALITION FOR STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 25, 2007
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NAEP To Release 2007 results for Reading and Math The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), better known as the Nation's Report Card, will release the 2007 results in Mathematics and Reading at 10 a.m. ET today. The data release event will be Web cast live; please click here to join the event. The U.S. Department of Education will host a conference call to brief key stakeholders, including the BCSA members, about the national and state-by-state results of the 2007 Nation's Report Card. Details are below: WHO: David Dunn, Chief of Staff, U.S. Department of Education These newly-released results will indicate how individual states and the nation as a whole have done. Based on the 2005 results, we have every reason to be optimistic. From 1999 to 2004, U.S. nine-year-olds made more progress in reading than in the previous 28 years combined, and math scores have reached record highs across the board. Test scores are at all-time highs for African-American and Hispanic students, showing that national progress is helping close the achievement gap. |
Recent NEWS ON NCLB
“Spellings: Expand No Child Left Behind.” Cincinnati Enquirer. September 20, 2007
As the U.S. Congress contemplates changes to the six-year-old No Child Left Behind law, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings holds that America’s schools need even more accountability standards. She met with business leaders in Cincinnati during a three-day, four-city bus tour to discuss how the simple, clear goals, while demanding, have forced achievement improvements at long-struggling schools.
“No Child Left Behind Needs Lift, Not Recess.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution. September 17, 2007
The federal No Child Left Behind Act forced a new and ambitious standard on public education that prevented schools from masking or ignoring low achievement. Districts could no longer hide behind average scores or trot out their top performers. Every student – whether poor, minority or special education – was expected to learn. No Child Left Behind remains the best hope for at-risk students to wrest a good education out of a system that has historically been indifferent to their needs.
“Stick to High Standards.” Hartford Courant. September 18, 2007
There have been many NCLB success stories in Connecticut. In Hartford, Jumoke Academy, a charter school in the North End, was removed from the watch list for meeting federal goals two years in a row. Betances School, despite being in one of Hartford's poorest neighborhoods, made an enormous leap in reading and math scores, the largest in the district. Lawmakers should concentrate not on ways to ease restrictions, but on how better to help teachers and school districts meet the challenge of No Child Left Behind and beyond.
“No Testing Company Left Behind.” Roll Call. September 17, 2007
No Child Left Behind has nurtured a now-booming industry of tutoring and testing enterprises that have blossomed on the government’s dime. When it comes to the tutoring and other private companies, Business Roundtable favors keeping schools in charge of which types of contractors to use. Susan Traiman, director of education and workforce policy at Business Roundtable was quoted, stating that, “we don’t think they should be cut back, but we think all providers, whether public or private, should be evaluated and should be able to demonstrate their effectiveness.”
For more information, visit http://biz4achievement.org/