Leave it to the media to spoil any party; and I must admit, at Tuesday’s presentation of the fourth- and eighth-grade NAEP results in math and reading, I did my small part.
I’m sure you know the news by now: Average reading scores were up for all students, as were the scores of African Americans and Hispanics (although racial and ethic gaps showed little change). And the math increases were even bigger.
So, naturally, the second question from the media was:
“What’s wrong with Oklahoma?”
Yeah, what is wrong with Oklahoma, anyway? I’m sure that was foremost in your mind. (The state posted gains in math, but was down in reading from the 1990s.)
Next question? More nattering negativism: “Is the three-to-five-year estimate for closing the racial achievement gap [the estimate from Sacramento Superintendent David W. Gordon] overly optimistic?”
No, Gordon said.
And finally, from this reporter: “To what extent did NCLB have anything whatsoever to do with these increases?” (I didn’t mean to put such a pejorative spin on it, but what can I do? I’m in the media.)
“I don’t know how you would sort out the impact of one from another [state reforms from NCLB],” said Darvin M. Winick, chair of the National Assessment Governing Board. “But I think that the focus on data that NCLB encourages is a very positive impact.”
That was it: four questions. And, as the meeting was breaking up, I overheard someone remark that the media don’t know what to ask when the news is good. Oh, how the truth hurts!
But, seriously, when it comes to NCLB, I really do have an open mind. So open, in fact, that I don’t know what to think. Dedicated policy analysts from the Education Trust say the law is tantamount to educational civil rights for poor and minority children. On the other side, renowned author Jonathan Kozol is weeks into a partial hunger strike to protest the law’s impact on …. poor and minority children.
Is it a great law, a flawed bill that just needs tweaking, or a drill-and-kill abomination? I honestly don’t know. But as the law’s reauthorization makes its way through Congress this fall, I promise to keep asking those downbeat questions.
I’m in the media. It’s what we do.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor