Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion NCLB proposed revisions

If a student were to start class work three grade levels behind and move up two by the end of the school year, that would count as a victory.

states are required to establish annual benchmarks toward a goal of 100 percent student proficiency in reading and math by 2014, with students tested in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school.

Those in the lowest-achieving 5 percent would be required to close, replace at least half their staff, switch to independent management or take other aggressive action, including replacing the principal, to raise achievement. Those in the next-lowest 5 percent would be placed on a warning list and expected to take major steps. Another 5 percent of schools, those with the widest achievement gaps, would be required to narrow those disparities. Schools would be rewarded for making large gains.

I would like to see some emphasis on meeting specific goals as a nation, like when we wanted to go to the moon and set about educating people to achieve it. If we set our sights higher than some arbitrary grade level standard, we are sure to achieve higher as a nation (and focus on the goal instead of equality)

President Obama has launched an �Educate to Innovate� campaign to improve the participation and performance of America�s students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This campaign will include efforts not only from the Federal Government but also from leading companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies to work with young people across America to excel in science and math.

You know, I was in Asia, I think many of you are aware, for a week, and I was having lunch with the President of South Korea, President Lee. And I was interested in education policy -- they've grown enormously over the last 40 years. And I asked him, what are the biggest challenges in your education policy? He said, the biggest challenge that I have is that my parents are too demanding. (Laughter.) He said, even if somebody is dirt poor, they are insisting that their kids are getting the best education. He said, I've had to import thousands of foreign teachers because they're all insisting that Korean children have to learn English in elementary school. That was the biggest education challenge that he had, was an insistence, a demand from parents for excellence in the schools...

That gives you a sense of what's happening around the world. There is a hunger for knowledge, an insistence on excellence, a reverence for science and math and technology and learning. That used to be what we were about. That's what we're going to be about again.

And I have to say that this doesn't get a lot of focus. Not once was I asked about education policy during my trip by the press. And oftentimes events like this get short shrift. They're not what's debated on cable. But this is probably going to make more of a difference in determining how well we do as a country than just about anything else that we do here.

Sadly inky I'm not thinking that "above level" kids will factor into that growth situation at all. I think only years behind will count, .

I'm more hopeful because with the MAP test even "above level" children have growth goals. If schools are answerable to growth then some kind of change will have to take place when advanced students do not meet growth goals. Schools will no longer be able to give a 1st grader the standard 1st grade curriculum when he needs 4th grade math to advance. I don't expect immediate change but I see this as an opening for the grand-kids.