NCLB Program Should Take Its Cue from Dallas Schools
Posted by admin on 15th August and posted in School ratings
Lack educate our country’s neediest students are the most conspicuous and observe social and moral problem in the U.S.. For nearly 20 years, our nation working to improve our schools and student achievement levels. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act should be the answer to this dilemma by holding all schools accountable for student performance through high-stakes testing. P> error in thinking is the belief that NCLB test ratings are fair and correct. The system does not factor out drawbacks and / or advantages of wealth and population, creating an inequity in the rating of schools. Low income schools must provide programs such as preschool, tutoring, special classes and bilingual services, their students, and for more administration is required by state and federal grants, which constitute the largest percentage of their budget. Wealthy schools that primarily depend on local resources (generally from property tax) for their budget, few government restrictions, a few low-income students who require special programs and flexibility in how their budgets are spent. It means that wealthier schools can provide more training opportunities and improvements (ie, access to technology, art and music, extracurricular activities, teacher training and improvement, and teacher administrative support) that poor schools can not afford. P> Dallas Schools have developed their own rating system that factors of these disadvantages / advantages that put all Dallas schools on an even playing field. Funds available, government requirements, level of education for students entering kindergarten, and demographic trends in society are all counted out of Dallas schools test rating metric. P> Under NCLB, all schools across the nation test children in reading and mathematics annually between the third and eighth grades. The State, through the NCLB mandate measures for school performance, calculate the percentage of various student populations that annually meet or exceed state academic standards. Otherwise, they should measure progress students ‘groups’ towards a universal fixed point. P> Dallas schools uses a “value added” school rating system that gives more precise information, measuring individual student progress from a relative starting point. They then compare scores with the same student’s score from the previous year. Dallas schools to score higher if the students on average score higher than predicted by the previous year’s test scores and the schools’ overall performance is better than other Dallas schools within the same demographic. If Dallas schools perform below expectations, they earn a low rating. P> Herbert Marcus Elementary part of the Dallas school system is the ideal candidate for the NCLB program. It is located in the inner city Dallas, building and grounds are rundown, classes are overcrowded and it is located on the edge of a dirty industrial zone. With 1,140 students, almost all from low income families and two-thirds speak English as a second language. Even parents averaged a seventh-grade education. P> The Principal conce Rodriguez, the school has done everything right in recent years – students wear uniforms, teachers submit weekly progress reports on each pupil in all subjects, an expanded preschool program, teacher attendance incentives, and a great tutoring project, just to name a few. A community liaison officers who are hired by Rodriguez, PTA membership has increased 700 (the largest in Dallas schools) and typically 50 parent volunteers daily at the school. Student attendance is at 97 percent, one of the highest in the Dallas school system. P> At Dallas schools rating system that placed Marcus 19: e out of 206 Dallas schools, and a great accomplishment with such difficult demographics. Under NCLB mandated rating system that placed Marcus 76: e as only “acceptable” one step away from being judged as failures. Needless to say that Marcus educators, pupils and parents are not too happy with NCLB’s rating system. Some teachers have left Marcus of sheer frustration with the NCLB system and gone to richer Dallas schools where they believe that their performance will meet with some recognition. A terrible loss to Marcus or impoverished school where quality teachers are scarce. P> Other Dallas schools will also be punished by NCLB’s rating system. Dallas schools ranked 2, 5, 8 and 16 Having Dallas schools rating system was ranked 94: e, 77 e, 83 e and 107 e respectively under NCLB. In addition, the school placed third under the NCLB rating system in Dallas schools ranked 25: e in Dallas schools rating system. This shows the inequality in the NCLB rating system. P> Since shortly after his passage NCLB has been under strong attack by congressional Democrats, Texas Republican lawmakers, and teacher unions. Although the Dallas school educators and parents support the high-stakes testing, they see the unfairness of the rating system used. They want to see NCLB take a cue from the playbook of Dallas schools to accurately measure improvement in student achievement and factors beyond demographics. P> The information on Dallas schools are brought to you by www. schoolsk-12. com. P>
p> Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. Patricia has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on school issues. For more on Dallas schools, visit http://www. schoolsk-12. com / Texas / Dallas / index. html p>