Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
ETA: It just dawned on me, while reading ASUADPi's post that, since states develop their own tests for their schools, but the Feds are the ones who developed NCLB, what motivation is there for a state to make their tests more and more difficult? It would seem that states would be motivated to make tests that most of their students could pass to ensure continued Federal funding and make their states look good. I'm not familiar enough with the law to know what might prevent that...
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When NCLB started, states submitted their plans for the tests they would use. In some cases, like Georgia's graduation test, the tests in place weren't rigorous enough, so they had to add harder questions for NCLB.
(It's interesting because the new questions count towards the NCLB data, but not towards the kids' graduation test scores. It could hurt the school, but not the kid, in other words. Go Georgia!)
So states would probably get "caught" if they went back and dumbed it down, but I agree that there doesn't seem to be a NCLB incentive for a state making the test harder.
(And this is one of those cases where I think states and districts are blaming NCLB for something that it isn't really responsible for. I encourage all teachers to look carefully at what your district says NCLB requires; you're often being lied to. Your district has decided to address a certain issue a certain way, but NCLB probably didn't mandate that plan.)
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