New Jersey is one of ten states that received a waiver from the U. S. Department of Education making the state exempt from No Child Left Behind Laws (NCLB). The other states that received the waiver include Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee. This means these states will not have to make sure all students test proficient in reading and math by 2014.
There is no way Newark Public Schools students could all test proficient in reading and math by 2014 because currently only 50% of the students pass the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA). The other half either dropped out or are unable to pass the HSPA. The alternative to receiving a diploma is to take the alternative high school assessment (AHSA). ASPA is the alternate exam if the student doesn't pass the HSPA after taking it for the third time. It is scored independently by a company based in North Carolina.
If Newark Public schools can't graduate 50% of their students and how them prepared to take and pass proficiency exams under NCLB, then administrators and teachers going to improve schools and reduce the achievement gap when they aren’t being held accountable by a standard, no matter how flawed. With the waiver, schools have the flexibility as to how they are going to make changes to the curriculum so that they can prepare them for careers and college, improve achievement among all students, reward the best performing schools and focus help on the one doing the worst.
In Florida, another state that received the NCLB waiver, an education school board member, Rick Roach took the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). The FCAT is Florida’s version of the standardized test which measures student’s proficiency in grades 3 -11. Roach is in his fourth term as a board member. Despite his credentials as an educator of over 25 years who holds a bachelor of science degree in education and two masters degrees: in education and educational psychology, failed the FCAT miserably by his own admission.
Now, the real question. What actions must the teachers and the administrators implement to ensure that our kids are career and college ready? Teachers and school administrators should have been educating our kids to prepare them for a career path all along. I am beginning to wonder what my child does in school all day and if it will help him become employable tomorrow. Call me naïve, but I automatically assumed that is what the teachers do. If schools are not preparing the students for career and college readiness, what are they doing now? Do they even know how to make the necessary changes to the curriculum which is measurable? Moreover, if an administrator or school board member can’t pass the standardized test; do they know how to prepare students for college or career?
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