Why did only six states win approval to participate in the “differentiated accountability” pilot project? After all, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said she would let up to 10 states into the program.
The answer comes in the Word document summarizing peer reviewers’ perspectives on the proposals.
The methods appeared largely to be based on methods of convenience rather than a focus on the underlying causes of schools inability to meet AYP.
The boldface is in the original. That’s like getting a D- on the paper you stayed up all night to write. Never a good day when that happens.
The folks at Ed Sector aren’t impressed either. Andy Rotherham calls the plans “underwhelming” and suggests Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ decision were “pretty political.” (Another blogger uses Georgia’s participation in the program as a chance to make a political attack.) Chad Aldeman says the pilot project “backtracks” on NCLB’s core principles of disaggregating data and helping students in those groups. “Millions weren’t spent today to tarnish NCLB,” he writes. “The secretary did it herself.”
Susan Ohanian is outraged (as she usually is when NCLB is in the news). This time, she complains about the quality of curriculum offered in the states participating in the pilot project.
