Substandard
We don’t like being a broken record around here, people. Having to consistently call out South Carolina’s education establishment for their unforgivable failure to educate our kids (and their unmitigated contempt for our taxpayers) gives us no great pleasure.
But South Carolina’s public schools – and more precisely our state’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to education – keep stinking up the joint, which is really saying a lot considering it’s hard to do much worse than last in the nation.
Or is it?
With a widening achievement gap between black and white students and test scores that show even our best schools trailing their peers in other states, South Carolina Superintendent Jim Rex is proving that you really can do less with more.
The latest example of this trend is the news that only 18% of South Carolina schools are making adequately yearly progress on federal accountability standards.
From The Voice:
The SC Department of Education has jumped to pawn off this latest failure as nothing more than the natural result of having high academic standards! That’s right, according to our resident architects of underperformance at the SDE, consistently failing to educate children is actually a sign of an appropriately rigorous educational environment.
In the SDE press release announcing this newest low, Superintendent Jim Rex noted that other states are seeing the same downward trends with AYP. “But it’s more dramatic here in South Carolina because our standards for proficiency are higher,” he said. “In other states, it’s easier to clear the bar.”
The hypocrisy of this statement is appalling. Rex has spent the last year expending every shred of political capital he can muster to water down state accountability standards. Now he wants to shirk any responsibility for failing to meet the goals that the State Department of Education’s bureaucrats set for South Carolina in the first place!
The truth is Rex has been trying to gut accountability in this state ever since he got elected, and he’s hoping that slapping a new label on an unpopular test will do the trick.
It really is sad, people. If this guy put half as much effort into educating kids as he does into making excuses, our schools would be the best in the country.
Guess he’s got other plans for South Carolina “making the grade.”
Creative photoshopping courtesy of The Voice.
Comments
By Give Me FITS on October 2nd, 2008 at 9:06 am
PLEASE tell me that photo isn’t shopped.
Gresham…I smell a mailer!
By nope on October 2nd, 2008 at 9:21 am
Today’s Spartanburg Herald-Journal editorial by Sic’s hero, Mike Smith:
Accountability thwarted
Federal rules obscure
Published: Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 7:50 p.m.
Fewer South Carolina schools met federal standards this year for adequate yearly progress.
It isn’t because the schools are getting worse or children aren’t learning as much. The students are learning more, and the schools are improving. The higher test scores on the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT) show that improvement.
But the improvement is deemed inadequate by a failed federal system that twists state processes and obscures any meaningful standard of progress.
The purpose of the state testing and reporting is supposed to be accountability. The state system achieved that goal. But the addition of a federal level of analysis and reporting through the No Child Left Behind law has done nothing but obscure that accountability.
To begin with, when South Carolina created its accountability system, it set a stringent definition of proficient. The state set its goals high. But when No Child Left Behind was passed, it turned those standards against the state. It set goals for how many South Carolina children must meet the proficient standard each year.
It is easy in states with low definitions of proficient. It is difficult in South Carolina.
Then the federal requirements for how many students meet the proficient standard jumped by 50 percent this year. And they will keep rising. By 2014, the federal law demands that every child in the state’s schools be proficient. That’s simply not a reasonable standard.
So while our schools are improving, the No Child Left Behind system indicates that they are getting worse.
That’s not accountability. It’s confusion.
And that confusion hurts schools. It tells parents and taxpayers that the schools are worse than they really are, which erodes support for schools. It demoralizes teachers, administrators and even students.
What makes matters worse is that the federal government has no right to meddle in schools. Education is a state matter. The federal government has no constitutional role to play in running state schools.
Congress should concentrate on all the federal problems that it has created, made worse and put off solving. It should let the states take care of their own schools. This state had created a perfectly good accountability system before Washington ruined it.
No Child Left Behind should be killed. The law actually expired last year, but built in extensions keep it running. Congress has been unable to reach an agreement to reauthorize the law. It should scrap it and let states run their own schools.
This story appeared in print on page A10
By Sally Calder on October 2nd, 2008 at 11:52 am
Kids won’t learn until parents get involved in their kids’ schools. My children’s school did not meet adequate yearly progress, but I couldn’t give a fig. My children are learning and excelling. Their school is a wonderful example of what a school should be. Throwing money at schools is not the answer, and more legislation is not the answer. I am all for teachers furthering their education and keeping up with technology. That will translate into more learning and better grades. One of the biggest problems, however, in a student not learning is simply parents who don’t care.
By BIN News Editorial Staff on October 2nd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
The attempted rape of education by Howie and his carpetbuggers continues.
The good news is the SC Legislature and Voters have seen through their scam, so these paid for political attacks by sic(k) willie are about as interesting and convincing as a loaded diaper. Sticky, stinky and nothing but poop.
Remember what Jakie said when he beat one of Howie’s carpetbuggers.
Vouchers are “dead.”
BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced