Gates draws the line a ‘public shaming’

Microsoft chief Bill Gates made a strong argument last week that, while teachers should be evaluated in part on the value they add to their students’ test scores, those ratings shouldn’t be made public. “Value-added ratings are one important piece of a complete personnel system,” Gates wrote in the New York Times. “But student test [...]

Indiana’s revised NCLB waiver request gives more attention to subgroups

Indiana appears to have made significant changes in its application for a waiver from No Child Left Behind act requirements in order to get the U.S. Department of Education to approve the request. In particular, it added a lot of language spelling out that, no, it won’t walk away from holding schools accountable for subgroups [...]

Indiana’s new grading system to challenge schools

The curve just got tougher for Indiana elementary and middle schools with the State Board of Education’s approval Wednesday of new criteria for the state’s A-to-F grading system. We know this because the Indiana Department of Education recently made available a spreadsheet of estimated grades that schools would have received in 2011 if the new [...]

Does Indiana’s grading system for schools leave some groups behind?

Arguably the best thing about the federal No Child Left Behind act was the way it focused attention on achievement gaps. Under NCLB, schools have been responsible for the performance of students who are poor, have disabilities, are from racial and ethnic groups, or aren’t proficient in English. They can’t hide low test scores for [...]

Note to Indiana lawmakers: stop monkeying around with ‘creation science’

It’s ironic that just as the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation was praising Indiana for having some of the best science education standards in the country, the Indiana Senate was debating legislation to authorize the teaching of “creation science.” Fortunately, an amendment offered by Bloomington Democrat Vi Simpson made the legislation relatively harmless, at least for [...]