Ed Source – John Fensterwald
“Differences in proposed federal and state criteria for intervening in the lowest-performing schools could lead to what California education officials have insisted they want to avoid: two conflicting school improvement systems. The Legislature required and the California State Board of Education is designing a multidimensional school accountability system that will incorporate measures of school climate and students’ readiness for college and careers. But, according to a new analysis, proposed federal regulations would, in effect, prohibit states from using these and other indicators to determine which schools receiving federal aid require intensive state assistance. It would be an echo of the decade under the former No Child Left Behind Act, when most California schools gradually improved under the state’s Academic Performance Index, or API, but at the same time fell farther behind under the federal government’s rising proficiency targets under NCLB. The mixed signals confounded educators and parents alike.”(more)