EDITORIAL
Keep perspective on 'No Child' demands
Scores of public schools in Hawai'i are bracing for a shake-up as results from the first annual assessment of all schools under the federal No Child Left Behind law show nearly two-thirds of the state's schools are failing to make adequate progress.
The law requires every student to become proficient in English and math by 2014. This year's benchmarks for Hawai'i students were 30 percent proficiency in reading and 10 percent proficiency in math.
As part of an overhaul, DOE officials must consider replacing all or most of the staff at the failing schools, converting them to charter schools or shifting operations to a state or private organization. We would hope any changes are well thought out rather than knee-jerk.
Now, we're all for academic improvement in Hawai'i, but in the case of No Child Left Behind, we suspect this rather bleak Adequate Yearly Progress report reflects more on the difficulty of meeting tough demands than on the rate of progress.
Under the law, schools must have 95 percent of their students take the test, and few high schools can meet that attendance rate on a daily basis.
Moreover, under No Child Left Behind, each state sets its own standards and academic goals. In Hawai'i, where at least half the students are deemed at-risk because of poverty, limited English proficiency or special-education needs, performance standards are on the high side.
And let's not forget that 192 of the schools are still considered in good standing because this is their first failure. However, if they miss the mark again, students can transfer elsewhere. Those schools also face various sanctions and changes ranging from loss of federal money to complete restructuring.
As a result of the sanctions, many states have lowered their standards. But not Hawai'i. And that's admirable. But the reality is, adequate progress can't be made without adequate funding. And the federal government has failed to provide enough of that.
It doesn't hurt to get a wake-up call. We should be doing better. But the last thing we want is for the schools to fail their way into a future voucher system because of unrealistic goals.
