No Child Left Behind, No Exceptions for Flooding

In an interview on NPR, head of the Department of Education Margaret Spellings said that she did not want to write off this school year for children from New Orleans schools.

There are now conflicting reports, but initially the indication was that children from these schools would not be exempted from No Child Left Behind testing regulations. Sounds like a good thing, right?

Well, no, not exactly. Because the testing regulations require certain standards of learning of students and of their schools. These students have been through hell. The odds of any of them managing to stay even with students who did NOT watch their homes, schools and lives washed away (along with some of their neighbors) are low. Odds are many of them won't even find a steady place to live and attend school for several weeks. At a time like this, a few days of grade school are not a priority.

However, schools which take these children in will now have their test results pulled down BY those children. Schools which take in refugee children may find themselves punished by reduced federal funding in coming years when their aggregate test scores for THIS year drop.

Hopefully the second report that I read was correct, and the "adequate yearly progress" requirements for children of the affected areas will be waived for at least this year. But it's worth being aware that at least one report says they will not be.

Liam.