History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Race to the Top and reality
- 02-04-2010
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Editorial/Los Angeles Times
In California's effort to qualify for up to $700 million in federal Race to the Top school funding, there's been a lot of talk about open enrollment and linking teacher evaluations to student performance. As they are framed in the state's new school reform law, however, neither of those provisions is likely to bring dramatic improvement to the schools that need it most. Instead, the most promising idea is contained in the state's application for funding: a request to change the way school improvement is measured. For years we've railed against the provision in the No Child Left Behind Act that credits schools solely for how many students test as "proficient," one of five levels of achievement. From the bottom, those are: far below basic, below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. A school might bring the majority of its students from the lowest level to basic and still be categorized as failing. (more...)
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