Federal education report not constructive

Bozeman Chronicle editorial: August 27, 2003:

State school officials are understandably miffed at a recent report that found 178 Montana schools, including Bozeman High, failed to meet federal standards.

The news was not only troubling to school officials, it was directly contradictory to a great deal of hard data indicating Bozeman students significantly outscore national averages in all areas on standardized tests.

Just a few months ago, we learned Bozeman High ranked in the top 4 percent of schools in the nation in a Newsweek magazine report on the number of students participating in advanced-placement, college-level courses.

Local school officials blamed the failing marks on the fact that Bozeman High, along with Emily Dickinson Elementary and Chief Joseph Middle School, fell just a few students shy of the required 95 percent testing participation level required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Minimum participation levels are certainly necessary if any standard comparisons between schools are to have any validity. But it seems logical that failing to meet that level should be counted according to degree and weighed against other performance standards measured by the program.

Automatic failure for schools just a handful of students short of minimum participation seems arbitrary and capricious. A flu outbreak at the wrong time could push the best schools in the nation over the edge into failure.

That the federal report would find schools the caliber of Bozeman's lacking is symptomatic of the communication gulf between public school educators and the federal government. The relationship seems to verge on hostility, with educators begging for resources from an increasingly disparaging Congress and administration.

Standards need to be reasonable
This much we should all agree on: Public schools are the backbone of our nation's education system and will be for the foreseeable future. And anything we can do to improve those schools is a good thing.

Holding schools to standards can make schools better, but those standards have to be reasonable and achievable. Federal education officials should work with public educators to ensure the standards adopted are the most effective for achieving measurable results.

Surprise reports that label one in five schools as "failures" in a state that has consistently exceeded national test score averages are not constructive.