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Letter: Educators must step up

The Columbian
Published: August 31, 2014, 5:00pm

The Aug. 28 story “Scores: Schools miss No Child goals,” assumes that everybody knows why the federal government withdrew the No Child Left Behind waiver from Washington state. The waiver was withdrawn because the Washington Education Association teachers union lobbied the Washington state legislators to refuse to link teacher evaluations to test scores as required by the NCLB regulations. Washington state is the first state to lose its waiver. This results in losing control of $40 million of federal Title I money, and the money formerly used for disadvantaged children will now have to be used for tutoring and school choice.

Forty-three states have waivers; however, three ( Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon ) are on shaky ground because of the requirement to link teacher evaluations to test scores. Educators say the test scores are not the only means of evaluating student performance, stating that they use other means (whatever they are). Unfortunately for the students, universities, colleges and other institutions use test results to determine who is to be admitted or hired.

U.S. students rank 17th or lower in math, science and reading compared to the 33 other member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, even though we spend more money per pupil than most, if not all, countries. This does not bode well for America’s future. Educators need to do something tangible, not just talk about it.

Michael D. Moore

Battle Ground

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