 |
| Making headway... |
March 29, 2004 |
| |
Dear Friends,
We have almost doubled federal aid to New Mexico education in the last 6 years and I support those increases. Our children will need much more education than we had for America to continue to prosper through the twenty-first century.
But in 2001, we also changed the rules of the game with the No Child Left Behind Act. Last week, we got the first sign that the law may be starting to make a significant difference nationwide.
Under the new rules, schools have a lot more flexibility on how to spend federal money. The feds don`t micromanage the "how" anymore. But the law says every state has to have standards and annually assess whether students are achieving to state standards. And not just students "on average" but minorities, children growing up in poverty and children who don`t speak English as a first language -- the kids whom the federal funding was supposed to help and who have been left behind in the past.
In any system from social services to manufacturing to education, what gets measured, gets done.
 Last week the Council of Great City Schools -- a coalition of the largest urban school districts -- released their report on student achievement in reading and math during the first full year of No Child Left Behind.
The gains were particularly impressive in fourth grade reading where scores were up almost 5 percent and math with 7 percent more students at or above expected proficiency.
We have a long way to go and there will be some adjustments along the way. (The Department of Education just adjusted some of the requirements for rural schools, for example.) But this is one of the first signs that major cities are making headway in teaching students to read.
That`s good news.
Wish You Were Here,
 |
|
|
|