I read the paper today and just sort of shook my head. The announcement was made (or sort of made) that most of the schools in Lancaster County failed to reach their "adequate year progress" goals under the No Child Left Behind law. The numbers reaching the goals fell from 78% last year to 44% this year. Now, you might think that my issue is with the progress in public schools. I do worry about this, but my issue is actually with the use of English in the headline. You would imagine it saying something like:
- PSSA AYP Percentages Fall Off the Cliff
- Annual Scores Tumble
- Schools Search for Answers as PSSA Standard Increase
But it does not. It says:
- PSSA news mixed
Here is the story: PSSA news mixed
Mixed? How so? It tumbled (the first line of the story admits this), but the headline gives you the impression that there is some good news. It ain't there. The news is bad. It is going to get worse unless President Obama wins. In that case, he will probably just toggle these standards off. The story even points toward the coming failure next year. I can almost predict the headlines when the AYP percentage goes to 25%. It will say: "PSSA scores meet predicted results". It is just sort of lame use of language. Brian Wallace can write decent stories. This headline, however, is just plain misleading.
Second issue: The story misses the real, actual, interesting story. What happened between this year and last year? Here are few stories from all over the state:
So, the tests dropped across the state and last year the inflated scores were partially (state wide) anyway the result of substantive cheating! Not mentioned in the story. I do not know if any cheating happened in Lancaster County. I would like to know that it did not.
Finally, I would have been fine with a story that both was honest about the tumbling scores, but that stated (strongly) that No Child Left Behind standards have a bad affect on public schools. I believe that they do. I worry that for some schools ANY standards with teeth have negative affects because it seems as if the first order of business in gaming the system. Schools bend to the standards and do so in awful ways: teaching to the test, ignoring average students, focusing on minimal standards (rather than learning throughout the ability levels). Standardized tests are terrible ways to make holistic judgments about schools. Sad thing is this: we do not know any other standards to use. We can not look at things and make judgments. We are plain out of confidence and ideas. I would have applauded a story like this. It would have been a blessing for all. That was not the story that was written, however, and the story that was written was misleading.
