Of course, no testing advocates are advocating working toward one single end of the year test. Instead, tests are supposed to measure work done the whole year through.
The Administrator's group is one of those pushing for higher spending today, in the absence of concrete accountability. If it were simply a matter of money - rather than how it is spent and who decides - US children would be at the head of the pack. Instead:
* Spending more than $1 billion per year for three years on class size reduction, the state of California tried to lower class sizes for all students. Scores continued to drop, and only recent curricular and textbook changes have begun to reverse the slide.
* In Kansas City, Missouri, the district spent more money per pupil than any other of the largest 280 school districts in the country. Test scores did not rise and the minority student achievement gap stayed the same. Up to 60 percent of its students perform "below proficiency" on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
* Nationally, the level of all education spending per pupil (federal, state and local) has increased 82 percent in constant dollars in the last 30 years. But, as measured by the NAEP, student achievement has remained flat.
* Of the five states with the highest increase in per pupil expenditures between 1977 and 1997, four were below the national average increase on SAT scores. Despite larger numbers of children taking the SAT, actual scores for lower and higher achieving students have declined.
* Where does increased spending go in public schools? Normally it's not on the kids but on administrative bloat that the money is spent. Between 1960 and 1997, the number of guidance counselors increased more than 500 percent, the number of support staff by 170 percent, and the number of teachers by 103 percent.
* PBS REVISES HISTORY THIS WEEK: Speaking of money, Washington spent more than a million dollars on a so-called documentary entitled "School: The Story of American Public Education" that started last night. After viewing it, you'll probably agree that one million dollars could have been better spent on:
* Performance-based, substantial salaries for 27 teachers * 350 scholarships for children seeking a better education * 20 charter school start-up grants
Instead, it was used to tell a story of American education - sort of - from the perspective of Sarah Mondale, niece of former Vice President Walter Mondale and a filmmaker with some familial ties to the unions to boot.
The four-part PBS special casts aspersions on reform efforts throughout the program, but it is the last segment, covering the 1980s through today, that devotes almost all of its time to condemning modern education reform efforts.
Like most films seeking to invoke emotions, this one used the tricks of the filmmaking trade to cleverly invoke responses in its viewers: ominous music vs. cheery tunes; shots making some speakers look very small vs. open shots making other speakers look friendly; and language leading you down the path to a predetermined conclusion.
In the piece, reform ideas are regularly refuted, while untruthful or unproven claims by advocates of the status quo go unchallenged.
But perhaps its best to give you the play-by-play directly. To find out why we, and many others, paint such a disastrous picture of "School", click here.
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The CER Newswire is published by The Center for Education Reform, the nation's leading authority on school reform. CER is dedicated to making schools better for America's children by improving educational access and excellence for all. CER works with parents, teachers and policymakers to advance meaningful education improvement initiatives.
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