Must-reads for February 10, 2012

Colorado has received a waiver from No Child Left Behind, and the most significant change is that the state will use its own performance framework to judge schools, and not adding NCLB’s Adequate Yearly Progress as well. My take? There will be no appreciable difference, because schools and kids and teachers will STILL be judged by the CSAP/TCAP alone. Well, I take that somewhat back. It appears the state will start using the English proficiency exam as part of the framework, which is a step in the right direction. It’s unclear, though, how much they will use it. Of course, I advocate for a complete substitution for the English reading and writing CSAPs.
Here’s a summary of Colorado’s NCLB waiver application.
Some folks have launched a petition to make “whole-child education” part of the palette of reforms. I agree. Check it out.
The Chalk Face podcast talks about standardized testing and the notion of firing the bottom 5% of teachers…but they advocate for firing the economists that look at education statistics!