News Archives – September 2007
September 26, 2007 – Express-News - “Texas bests nation on testing gap”
In Texas, for the most part, the achievement gap between Anglo and minority students, including Hispanics, narrowed between 2005 and 2007, according to results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said nearly three decades of breaking out test scores by ethnicity and gender has helped Texas improve its results.
September 26, 2007 - Oakland Tribune - “Students Make Gains Nationwide”
Nationwide, fourth and eighth-graders in nearly all ethnic groups have improved their math and reading scores over the last decade and a half, but black and Latino students still lag their white counterparts in California and throughout the country, according to test results released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education.
September 26, 2007 - Washington Post - “‘Nation’s Report Card’ Shows Improvement”
The nation's fourth- and eighth-graders continue to improve steadily in mathematics, and fourth-grade reading achievement is on the rise, according to test scores released September 25, 2007. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings credited the five-year-old No Child Left Behind law for providing more accountability and more attention to needy students. "We are going in the right direction, and we don't need to let up now," she said.
September 21, 2007 - Associated Press - “US School Chief Touts No Child Left Behind”
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings visited an Indianapolis charter school and the city's children's museum on September 21, 2007, as part of a Midwest bus tour to promote a federal accountability law. Secretary Spellings said the No Child Left Behind law, which is now up for renewal, holds schools accountable while empowering parents and students. "The law is working," she said. "More kids are performing better since this law passed. We need to stay the course."
September 20, 2007 -- Cincinnati Enquirer -- "Spellings: Expand No Child Left Behind"
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.
September 17, 2007 -- Roll Call -- "No Testing Company Left Behind"
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.”
September 6, 2007 – New York Times – “Secretary of Education Criticizes Proposal”
In a speech before a business group and at a news conference, Secretary Margaret Spellings said that a series of proposals in draft legislation circulated by Democrats and Republicans on the House education committee, taken together, would allow states to remove children from testing regimes and tutoring services, and would make it too difficult for parents to know whether students and schools are making progress.
September 6, 2007 – Associated Press – “Spellings Criticizes Education Reforms”
A congressional proposal to make No Child Left Behind more flexible would riddle the five-year-old education law with loopholes, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday. "We must refuse to make any changes that would make us less accountable for educating every child to grade-level standards in reading and math," she said in a speech to business leaders
September 6, 2007 – Washington Post – “‘No Child’ Loopholes Decried”
In a speech to the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, Secretary Margaret Spellings said she is willing to consider proposals for No Child Left Behind that allow states to use more than just annual tests in reading and math to rate schools and to treat differently schools that fall only slightly short of targets. But she said she is not willing to bend if the changes mean struggling students won't get the extra help they need.
Sept 5, 2007 – Education Week – “Draft NCLB Bill Intensifies the Discussion”
The release this week of a preliminary proposal for reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act starts a busy fall in Congress, as both the House and the Senate try to revamp the NCLB accountability system and ramp up efforts to improve struggling schools.
