Professional Oklahoma Educators

Friday, May 23

An interesting report was
issued on Tuesday of this week by the Washington-based Center on Education
Policy. The report states that Oklahoma is one of 23 states that soon could
face a huge challenge in meeting the standards set by the federal No Child Left
Behind Act. The goal of No Child Left Behind, which was passed by Congress in
2002, is to get all children performing at grade level in math and
reading skills by the year 2014. The report says that our state has adopted
lower goals in the early years of the federal mandates and will now need large,
steady annual gains to meet the requirements. In preparing the report, the
center analyzed student achievement objectives established by the states in
their accountability plans. Oklahoma’s progress goals did not increase in 2008
from the previous year, nor did our plan show any anticipated gains for the
2009 year. After 2009, our state’s academic performance index, which indicates
school performance based primarily upon state-mandated tests, must jump by
15.2% in math and 16% in reading by the 2010 school year.