Letters: Re-working No Child Left Behind
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Re “LAUSD freed of Bush-era rules,” Aug. 7
Why do California school districts have to agree that test scores are reliable indicators of teacher effectiveness, a premise that has been disproved, to receive a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law?
From its inception, most teachers opposed NCLB’s impossible requirement that by 2014 all students must demonstrate proficiency in every educational standard as measured by one standardized test. Is there any reasonable person who believes that 100% of California’s adult population could demonstrate complete mastery of even the fourth-grade curriculum?
Of course, almost all schools are doomed to “fail” under these criteria, and public schools would eventually become for-profit charter schools.
It’s time for a more realistic version of NCLB written by those who understand what can reasonably be expected. No waivers necessary.
Kurt Page
Laguna Niguel
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