Part 2: Who are we talking about

Consider this, in every school there are student criminals, students with Down’s syndrome, students who are blind, students who are deaf, students who are bipolar and prone to extreme emotional outbursts, students from divorced homes, students in wheelchairs, students who are stoned (again), students who are bullied, students who are bullies, students being beaten, students being emotionally abused, students with AIDS, students who are pregnant, students who are gifted, students who are developmentally disabled, students with weapons, students who won’t have the money to eat dinner, and average students. Yet, schools must provide a clean, safe environment for all of them, and still be judged on how well they do on state and district testing, how many of them come to school each day, how many fights occur each year, how many students are suspended, how many students we graduate, how many students we enroll in advanced placement course, and how many students we retain.

Many of these students are entitled to an individualized education plan (IEP) to address their specific needs. The federal government also established individualized student plans in what are known as 504 plans for students with special needs. Parents have grown accustomed to and expect direct access to the teachers of their children. These plans can be as simple as requiring students to sit close to the board. They could be more involved to allow students to have extra time on tests (that the teacher will have to find time to manage). Of course, they could also become quite specific to require a student have an aid or be in a self contained environment for their safety or the safety of other students in the school.

However, all of the students are to make adequate yearly progress. They will have that progress measured on a test demonstrating their growth, yet all year they will receive grades based on the percentage of what they know, and how close they are to a predefined goal. For example, all student performance on a standardized or district made test, will be used as the baseline data for every student in a class. At the end of the year they will take another test for that class. This new test will be compared with the test from the previous year and each student’s growth will be judged (how it is judged is usually a guarded secret to prevent biased discussions). In some places students of similar background are compared together across schools to build a profile of student growth for a specific teacher. At the same time, the student receives grades not based upon their growth, but on their achievement based on a consistent standard. As an example, students may receive an A if they get 90% or more of the questions correct on a test.

These two measures are not necessarily incompatible, but they do offer specific differences. First, students are not aware of their yearly comparative progress. Next, some students are clearly more valuable to a school or teacher's yearly progress than others.

Coming next part 3: What do you mean by testing?