Because, as Deeply Concerned has noted, a student who has merely “MET” expectations had not come close to actually passing the test.

I taught at a middle school in APS a few years ago, and it was a mess. The teaching was horrible, the discipline was out of hand across the school, and the administration turnover was like a revolving door. Yet during one of those years I was there, we some how managed to make “AYP”.

Don’t be fooled…making AYP when your school is lousy doesn’t mean much….it just means that you suck less than you did the year before.

As for the “statistics” involved. It has always been amusing to me that people do not realize statistics are easily manipulated to show what a person wants to see. Why do you think one year statistics show that milk does a body good, but the next year milk doesn’t have the same effect. Milk didn’t change. But I digress, it is sad to think that somewhere in some school there aren’t some teachers that can move their class to 100% passing rate on a test that merely requires 48% accuracy. The lack of faith that this is possible is even worse. Does this possibility only exsist in rural schools way out in the middle of nowhere, or the upper crust schools because of their good breeding?

At which point do we put our faith back into our children and off of these tests, statistics, and soap-box pointing which measure nothing but the width of various wallets. Is an accusation enough to permanently tar and feather these people or should there be actual proof? The overwhelming evidence by an outside audit of a company that is paid every time a child has to retest. I think it’s great.

Haven’t you heard, Sammie? We don’t teach Algebra anymore. Georgia is implementing a “new” math program that they have cobbled together from three different programs – from Texas, Japan and South Carolina (interesting mix). They haven’t yet devised tests to see if students are learning the new way or not. Even so – we are jumping on it full steam ahead in DeKalb – Math I, II, III and IV and then things like calculus. Time will tell…..

http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/

You are correct that some students will never be “proficient”…but there are some who might be, or might at least be closer to proficient, IF they knew there were consequences for not passing, or IF we had actual remediation (instead of just social promotion and the relaxing of standards known as “RTI”) in place.