The Owl Newsletter

ISSUE 41 | NOVEMBER 5, 2001

THE BUSH EDUCATION BILL COULD SPELL TROUBLE OR OPPORTUNITY

The reauthorization of the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) will soon be returning to the legislative front burner. In the opinion of veteran K-12 reporter and Brookings scholar Tom Toch, it could prove to be a "disaster in the making."

This appears in the November issue of the Washington Monthly. You can read the complete on-line article.

He argues that the bill could establish an accountability system so flawed that it would be unable to gauge school effectiveness correctly. When the bill's initial measurement system was applied to the schools in three states where NAEP scores had improved over several years Connecticut, North Carolina and Texas Bush's system would have labeled these systems as failures.

The problem still wasn't fixed as of Labor Day. And then September 11 put the brakes on debate. Toch writes that the pressure to pass a bill quickly could be a disaster:

"So, rather than openly debate the bill's many defects, Congress is now under intense pressure to pass something, anything fast. And the likely result will be legislation that hurts the nation's students more than it helps them, promotes lower rather than higher standards; misleads the public about school performance; pushes top teachers out of schools where they are most needed; and drives down the level of instruction in many classrooms."

In the midst of all this, Toch sees an opportunity for a national test combined with a value-added assessment system. And he urges Pres. Bush to capitalize on citizens' new-found confidence in the federal government, and incorporate both into a revised, wiser ESEA.

For more information on value-added assessment, go to the Value-Added Assessment section of our Virtual Library.

ACTION YOU CAN TAKE

The Owl suggests you let Congressman George Miller (Democrat, Contra Costa) know what you think. He's the ranking Californian on the House Education committee. You can email him at:

george.miller@mail.house.gov

And you can find his own web page at the following URL:

http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For a profile of William Sanders, the grand-daddy of value-added assessment, and abstracts of articles on his work in Tennessee, go to our web-site page.

To see what William Sanders is doing with SAS in Schools to bring the power of value-added assessment to districts nationally, go to this page.

For a look at why Michigan and Pennsylvania have turned to Standard & Poors for an information management system that makes education data accessible, look at this opinion essay in the Wall Street Journal.

OWL ARCHIVE | BACK TO NEWSLETTER REGISTRATION PAGE