Common Sense in P&C Editorial on NCLB

"And if the Adequate Yearly Progress reports remind educators of how crucial it is for schools to educate all students, they have served a worthy purpose."

So ends the lead editorial in Monday's P&C. Since I so frequently criticize the P&C's coverage of local education, I find it only fair to compliment this writer. When NCLB was adopted into law, everyone knew that the targets would be difficult to reach and more difficult as time marched on, due to increasing expectations for every year. The rationale behind such Draconian measures was that the students presently in school couldn't afford to wait for decades for the schools to improve.

Nothing's changed except increasing cries of outrage that the goals are too tough. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is worried that 80 percent of American schools "could face penalties" unless standards are lowered.

Penalties? You would think we were talking about walking the plank! The penalties, as we in CCSD well know, involve required tutoring, allowing students to transfer to non-failing schools, and after several years of failure, restructuring of the school. Horrors!

The editorial writer is correct in assessing that students with disabilities have for too long been pushed to the sidelines in terms of attention. And CCSD has students with many differing degrees of disability that have not been challenged properly despite the heroic efforts of special education teachers.

Despite its flaws, NCLB tries to live up to its name.