NCLB and growth

I read this on a blog that Dr. Mark Stock, currently a professor at the University of Wyoming wrote when he was a superintendent in Indiana. The post provides a great analogy for implementing a "growth" model for the No Child Left Behind law. It goes to the heart of educating our students to their potential.

I would at least like to see NCLB based on a growth model instead of the current proficiency model.

Here is an example using the track event of high jumping.

If you count the percentage of students who can high jump over 5 feet in your school you have used a proficiency model. In a proficiency model the bean counters don't care how many athletes already jump well over 6 feet or how many students are handicapped, injured or can't jump at all. We hold you accountable for the standard - which is 5 feet. (I would add that most states' department of education have only one "attempt" in which to try to qualify. So if a student had a bad day and slipped and fell and couldn't make 5 feet, they would be labeled as "basic or below basic," when at other times, they were jumping over 5 feet during the year.)

In a growth model you are looking at how many improved their jumping ability and how much. In this model accountability is based on individual improvement of each student as opposed to only a pre-set standard. If a student is jumping 3 feet and they improve to 4 feet they have made more normative progress than a 6 foot high jumper who is only jumping 5 foot now.

There are other side effects of NCLB but at least this would help make the model more "fair" in the minds of some.

I thought the analogy was a good one as we continue to look for ways to move all of our students toward their potential. I was in a discussion just yesterday about some of the obstacles schools face from state departments and legislatures not allowing the flexibility necessary to move beyond a proficiency model. However, the change we need is not impossible, and we must continue to work in that direction and find ways to work with the department of education to provide that flexibility.