EDITORIAL – Tests scores left behind, ignored

Shaunta Winston doesn’t count. Well, at least her test scores don’t. Winston is one of two… Shaunta Winston doesn’t count. Well, at least her test scores don’t. Winston is one of two dozen black students at her Kansas City, Mo., high school whose standardized test scores are being ignored – and they’re not alone.

Nearly 2 million students’ test scores aren’t being counted, according to the Associated Press. Special education students in Virginia don’t count. Neither do Hispanic students in California who don’t speak English proficiently. And what about Native Americans in the Northwest? Nope.

How are all of these children being left behind? Apparently, a loophole in President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, created to make sure that schools didn’t “unfairly fail” or “compromise student privacy,” is being exploited by states to help their schools meet requirements. The loophole allows states to decide if the number of students in a racial group is statistically significant. If the state decides the group is too small, their test scores are not counted.

By not counting all scores, we are constructing a false picture of academic progress. And while millions of minorities are being disenfranchised by states, race really is a moot point. If states could find a way to filter out poor scores from white students, they’d do it. While traditionally minority students have had lower test scores, students classified in these groups who are performing well aren’t counting, either.

Schools and states don’t care. They don’t care what they have to do, as long as they meet the requirements of a defunct initiative. While every score should be counted, President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program offers schools no incentive to report bad scores. Under the plan, schools have to report scores in a variety of ways. No score can be omitted from the overall score report. However, schools must also provide a report by category, including race, English proficiency, migrant status, etc. If a school fails in any one of these categories, it fails completely and faces punishment in the form of lengthened school years and firing of administration and faculty. Schools are not only expected to meet testing requirements, but they are also supposed to show improvement every year.

States are successfully petitioning the government to allow them to omit scores of larger groups of students, too.

Educators are cheating the system, and that’s not good. What’s even more unfortunate is that their actions are only a function of this ridiculous law. Educators don’t trust the system and science and social studies teachers are being forced to manipulate or abandon their lesson plans in favor of a more math- and English-friendly curriculum.

Schools are forced to be racist under this law, and there is plenty of incentive for them to forget about students just to keep their jobs. The real problem is the law itself. We need to abandon Bush’s experiment in education and take a more realistic approach to bettering our educational system, one in which people aren’t afraid to report their flaws. When lawmakers and educators at all levels can openly look at their problem areas, they can come up with a plan that brings weaknesses in the system to the forefront where they will get the attention they need.