Our Education Standards Must Make Sense
Another school year has begun in Missouri and around the nation. We should be proud that our state has set some of the toughest standards for teachers and students to meet.
Each school is graded on a specific set of criteria to make sure that it is educating its students. When the school falls short, that school is considered "failing" in the eyes of the federal government. Those report cards are being published now and some 82% of our nation's schools are considered to be failing.
If you look closely, you will see that many of Missouri's best schools were listed as failing. The reason is that we treat failing one or two sets of criteria the same as failing all of them. That doesn't make any sense to me. Missing one or two questions on a test is different than getting all of the answers wrong.
I believe in accountability when it comes to education, but I also believe in standards that make sense. One of the solutions to making our education laws work for teachers and parents is for states to be able to differentiate between schools who fail all the criteria and those who fail just one or two of them.
We recognize the difference between getting a B and an F in the classroom. We should also recognize it when it comes to grading our schools. I will propose this common sense change so that we can identify the school districts that truly need help and stop punishing good schools.
Sincerely,
