Friday Dissonance

So, the tests are too easy…then why are so many schools struggling with them?

Actually, some are too easy, some aren’t, but No Child Left Behind is laying bare the serious struggle that too many schools face to deliver a powerful instructional program. Most of these tests should be a floor, that they’re not, and that schools aren’t going way past them, should be the big cause for concern…

Still, using NCLB to give states some play to be more ambitious makes a lot of sense, if it’s indeed real and not cosmetic. Ed Trust has put one such idea on the table (pdf).