ATLANTA – Nearly half of America's public schools didn't meet federal achievement standards this year, marking the largest failure rate since the much-criticized No Child Left Behind Law took effect a decade ago, according to a national report released Thursday.
The Center on Education Policy report shows more than 43,000 schools -- or 48 percent -- did not make "adequate yearly progress" this year. The failure rates range from a low of 11 percent in Wisconsin to a high of 89 percent in Florida. ...The law requires states to have every student performing at grade level in math and reading by 2014, which most educators agree is an impossible goal. "Whether it's 50 percent, 80 percent or 100 percent of schools being incorrectly labeled as failing, one thing is clear: No Child Left Behind is broken,"... the law requires states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test, and some states put off the largest increase until this year to avoid sanctions. The numbers indicate what federal officials have been saying for more than a year -- that the law, which is four years overdue for a rewrite, is "too crude a measure" to accurately depict what's happening in schools, said Jack Jennings, president of the Washington, D.C.-based center. An overhaul of the law has become mired in the partisan atmosphere in Congress, with lawmakers disagreeing over how to fix it. "No Child Left Behind is defective," Jennings told The Associated Press. "It needs to be changed. If Congress can't do it, then the administration is right to move ahead with waivers."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/14/report-nearly-half-american-schools-fail...
The Center on Education Policy report shows more than 43,000 schools -- or 48 percent -- did not make "adequate yearly progress" this year. The failure rates range from a low of 11 percent in Wisconsin to a high of 89 percent in Florida. ...The law requires states to have every student performing at grade level in math and reading by 2014, which most educators agree is an impossible goal. "Whether it's 50 percent, 80 percent or 100 percent of schools being incorrectly labeled as failing, one thing is clear: No Child Left Behind is broken,"... the law requires states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test, and some states put off the largest increase until this year to avoid sanctions. The numbers indicate what federal officials have been saying for more than a year -- that the law, which is four years overdue for a rewrite, is "too crude a measure" to accurately depict what's happening in schools, said Jack Jennings, president of the Washington, D.C.-based center. An overhaul of the law has become mired in the partisan atmosphere in Congress, with lawmakers disagreeing over how to fix it. "No Child Left Behind is defective," Jennings told The Associated Press. "It needs to be changed. If Congress can't do it, then the administration is right to move ahead with waivers."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/14/report-nearly-half-american-schools-fail...
