Social justice for all students...

One of the goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was to bring all students up to minimum standards. After years of having many students, mainly poor, minority students, falling behind in reading and math, the law was enacted to help bring them up to set standards in reading and math.

With the importance of AYP, many schools and districts have placed a bigger emphasis on testing grades. In some cases, schools will interrupt the curriculum to spend weeks or months on the test (see Linda Perlstein's Tested as one example of an elementary school's focus on state standarized tests)

Because the federal govt. has ceded decisions on education to states, each state sets is own bar for passing AYP. Furthermore, each state determines which grades will be tested to determine AYP. Often times, the secondary school comes during 10th grade. While getting all students up to 10th grade skills is noble and necessary, what about those students who are already at or above grade level?

As a colleague of mine recently noted, the goal of public school should not end with simply getting kids up to 10th grade proficiency in reading and math. Yes, for some students who begin 9th grade four or five grades behind grade level, such a goal is admirable. Yet it appears that some districts are not focusing as much energy at the 11th and 12th grade level. With so many dollars put towards 9th and 10th grade, what happens to preparing students for college (or other post-secondary education options?) What happens with the kids that are already proficient?

Schools and districts must do a better job providing justice for all students, not just the ones that are behind. Assumptions cannot be made that those that are proficient or advanced in 10th grade don't need extra support. Schools should be working to maximize the potential of all students.

A Chance to Think...

Let me introduce myself. I am a 10 year teaching veteran (teaching middle and high school mathematics) who is taking a leave of absence from teaching to take care of my twin daughters. Now, some may think that taking care of six month olds would not give me that much time to think. But over the last 10 years, after teaching in urban and suburban schools, public and private schools, I have gathered lots of thoughts on education. In 2003, I began a degree in education policy at the University of Maryland, which I completed in August 2008 (an M.Ed. that is actually an Ph.D, A.B.D)

I am eager to share thoughts, and enter dialogue on various topics of education, including things like curriculum, teachers, urban and suburban teaching, AP, IB, etc..