List Shows Failure of Law, Not Schools

The release of a list of Wisconsin school districts that did not meet the standards of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act points to a failure of the law, not a failure of the schools, WEAC President Stan Johnson said Monday (September 22, 2003).

“Most of the districts on the list released by the Department of Public Instruction did not satisfy the law’s definition of ‘Adequate Yearly Progress’ only because not enough students were present to take a test on a specific day,” Johnson said. “Others may be on the list because one sub-group of students in a single grade did not show adequate progress on one component of a high-stakes standardized test. This law wrongly condemns districts on the basis of a single statistic from a high-stakes test and fails to take into account other measures of learning. The fact that good districts are on this ‘list’ shows the ESEA is a failure, not the districts.”

The list identifies 110 Wisconsin schools (including four charter schools) and 26 school districts as not meeting the prescribed “adequate yearly progress.”

Under the ESEA, each state must define what constitutes “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) based on their state assessment, with the goal of increasing student achievement so that all students reach grade-level proficiency by the 2013-14 school year. The law requires that AYP be made for every identified subgroup of students, such as low-income and minority students, and that 95% of children overall and in each subgroup take the test.

Johnson said the law relies too much on standardized tests that force teachers to focus inordinately on test material and interfere with real learning.

“Students should be judged by all their work – homework, participation, oral presentations, etc. – not just one test score on one day,” he said. “Tests should improve learning and teaching, not punish.”

Johnson said the law focuses on the wrong priorities by forcing schools to waste scarce resources on additional bureaucracy, paperwork, and standardized testing, pulling time and resources away from classroom instruction.

“Every child can learn, but parents and teachers know that every child can’t learn at the same speed or in the same way,” he said.

“Children need individual attention based on their individual needs. Wisconsin educators are focused on what children really need: quality teaching, smaller classes, more parental involvement, and up-to-date books and materials. The ESEA forces a one-size-fits-all approach on children, regardless of their individual learning differences and needs. This list is proof that the law needs to be fixed and funded – it simply is not working.”

Posted September 22, 2003