The Measure of Success

I hear the outcry, daily, about No Child Left Behind. I hear it in my cross cultural competency class when we talk about the inherent biases against groups and schools in the test. I hear it from my fellow teachers. My professors quietly dismiss it under their breath in class. With all the debate, our jobs can require that we not only follow it, but that our children do well on the standardized tests.

Like Ms. Beers, I think it is tragic that a student can improve in a subject as much as Derek (page 2, Adolescent Literacky) did and still be told he's not doing enough. I think it's time we apply another thing we are taught in our education classes, that we need to get to know students as individuals. If we look at students and how the progress, we can better ideas about how much we've learned than numbers and figures can ever tell us. And the things that will reap the greatest student improvement are things that go on in classrooms, not just what happens in Washington and Frankfort.