0.7 Ward, s. (february 2009). what every educator should know about

A testing standard that says getting 33 percent of the questions right is a passing grade teaches all the wrong lessons to the kids – and to those who are suppose to be educating them. Yet New Jersey has been setting the mark as low as that for the tests that are used to judge student proficiency and school performance under the federal No Child Left Behind program (Mooney J., 2008, p. E14).

Background

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), ratified December 12, 2001, states that all public schools receiving Title 1 funds must make adequate yearly progress and that by the year 2014, all students must be proficient. Section 1001 of the NCLB Act, states, “The purpose of this title (Title 1) is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency in challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments” (NCLB Act of 2001, 2002, p. 17).

By participating in Title I, a program that funds in excess of $12 billion annually to eligible schools and districts, states agree to commit themselves to bringing all students to proficiency in language arts and math by 2014. In order to determine if schools and districts are on-track to meet this goal, the NCLB law mandates that each state set benchmark goals to measure whether schools and districts are making “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) toward teaching all students what they need to know (Ed Trust West, 2003). Hence, every state is mandated to create an accountability system, each with its own set of standards and aligned benchmark assessments.