I am very glad I have no children in grades K-12 in Oregon. Thanks to President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, Oregon is scurrying to meet educational standards so that every child can receive a proper education and advance to the next grade level, and that includes minorities and children from low-income families.
Well, Oregon just isn’t making the grade. According to the recent report card given by the Oregon Department of Education, 247 schools earned an “unsatisfactory” grade. This could potentially make Oregon school districts nervous about another provision in No Child Left Behind — parents being given vouchers to move children out of underperforming public schools and into “charter schools,” which are publicly funded on five-year grants but have higher accountability than regular schools.
Success in schools will be measured by whether every child is learning, according to documents on www.nochildleftbehind.gov. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, billions of dollars in new money are being thrust into struggling schools so they won’t feel forced to advance students who aren’t reading past the ABCs.
On the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessment, 40 percent of white fourth-graders in America scored proficient while only 12 percent of black students and 16 percent of Hispanics scored well. In math, 35 percent of white fourth-graders scored acceptably while five percent of blacks scored satisfactory and 10 percent of Hispanics scored soundly.
The state wants to temporarily pretend students are earning a C+ instead of an F. This isn’t really a stated policy but something that will gradually be played with in Oregon schools, according to reports by Fox News. If this had been in effect when I was in school, I would have protested. I may not have received any F’s, but damn it, they would have been mine. I wouldn’t want a grade for my achievements that I had not earned.
Lowering the educational standards will definitely have an effect, but I doubt it’s the one the state is looking for. I think many parents will pull their children out of school and either homeschool them or send them to private schools, and the self-esteem of these students will sink lower — or these students will take advantage of the situation and deliberately slack off. If parents don’t pull their children out because of this, what are they really saying?
In doing this, the state thinks it will be able to equally comply with other states by 2014 and perform equally. Children who can barely comprehend “Dick and Jane” and have yet to learn the alphabet will pass, and no one will ever know they needed the extra help because their grades will reflect their supposed “achievements.”
In Oregon schools’ defense, the state just raised the educational standards, which is to say that schools rated “excellent” last year have been found merely “satisfactory” this year.
Pretending students are grasping everything they learn and advancing them without the reports to prove that they have learned it is a mistake. If they get a free ride through elementary school and high school and can’t make it in college, who will society have to blame but itself?
Oregon has received a failing grade in education for three years, as stated by the Oregon Department of Education on its report cards. It is time to fix the problem instead of making it worse. We may not want a child to be left behind, but wouldn’t that be better than letting them believe they earned it, even if they never really made the grade?
Rather than hindering the process, Oregon, why not do what the No Child Left Behind Act says — honestly meet those standards and help the children who are struggling with tutors, individual attention and special classes. In short, let the teachers do their job — that is what they are there for.