Jennifer Kelley's List: Paper 2 Sources

• According to a new report, student statewide reading and math scores have in fact risen and achievement gaps between various groups of students have also narrowed since NCLB went into effect
• 21 states made moderate-to-large gains in elementary math, 22 states showed gains in middle school, and 12 states posted such gains for high school. In reading, 17 states had moderate-to-large gains at the elementary level, while 14 states made such gains for middle school, and eight states showed gains for high schoo
• achievement gaps have also narrowed more often than widened on state tests and NAEP, except for eighth grade math
• “Through NCLB and many state and local efforts, the nation has sought to raise test scores and to narrow the achievement gap. These results show that we are making progress, although much more work needs to be done,

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• Forty-one percent of blacks and 39 percent of Hispanics believe that NCLB has helped improve their schools. Only 21 percent of African-Americans and 23 percent of Hispanics say the law is hurting their schools. (The rest says there's no difference.) By contrast, 27 percent of whites say the law is helping schools, 31 percent say it is hurting, and 27 percent say it hasn't had an impact.
• Combine the three groups and here's what you get: 31 percent say "helping;" 31 percent say "hurting;" and 27 percent say "no difference.

• as a result of putting so much emphasis on the test scores, there's a lot of cheating going on, there's a lot of gaming the system. Instead of raising standards it's actually lowered standards because many states have 'dumbed down' their tests or changed the scoring of their tests to say that more kids are passing than actually are
• Some states contend that 80 to 90 percent of their children are proficient readers and have math proficiency as well, Ravitch notes. But in the same states, only 25 to 30 of the children test at a proficient level on national tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress
• Part of the reason schools were so intent on achieving high tests scores was because they were competing with other schools for resources
• There should not be an education marketplace, there should not be competition
• They're not supposed to hide their trade secrets and have a survival of the fittest competition with the school down the block."

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