3A
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Thursday, June 18, 2006
No Child still leaves some behind
Continued from page 1A
showed positive results \mder
NCL.
Under the NCLB, states
can decide which tests to use
for accountahiiity and profi
ciency In turn, states are
reqiiired to look at their
results and sanction low-per-
formir^ schools.
NCLB requires yearly
progress of all groups of stu
dents toward state proficien
cy levels. In Charlotte-
Mecklenburg Sdiools, results
finm End of Grade examina
tions showed the district is
closir^ achievement gaps in
reading between blacks and
whites as both demographics
showed improvement.
Reading scores went up
among third-, fourth- and
seventh-graders and were
unchanged in the fiflh and
sixth grades.
“The EOG reading results
indicate that not only are
reading scores gcdl^ up in
some grades, but CMS is
makii^ steady progress in
narrowing achievement
gaps,” said Muffet Garber,
the district’s associate super
intendent. “The results show
CMS’s efforts to close
achievement gaps while
ensuring all students
improve.”
The gulf between CMS stu
dents receiving fiee and
reduced lunch - a barometer
of poverty - and their affluent
classmates also narrowed.
The Harvard report demon
strated how over tiie past few
years since the NCLB’s incep
tion, state assessment results
show improvements in math
and reading, but students
aren’t showing similar gains
on the NAEP - the only inde
pendent national test hat
randomly samples students
across the covmtry
“Studaits should perform
well on both tests because
they cover, the same sub
jects,” said the study's author
Jaekyung Lee, professor at
the State University of New
York at Buffalo. “What we are
seeing is the higher the
stakes of the assessment, the
hi^er the discrepancies in
the results. Based on the
NAEP, there are no systemic
indications of improving the
average achievement and
narrowing the gap after
NCLB.”
The report also shows that
federal accountability rules
have little to no impact, on
racial and poverty gaps. The
NCLB act ends up leaving
many minority and poor stu
dents, even with additional
educational support, far
behind with little opportunity
to meet the 2014 target.
“This report is depressing
given the tremendous
amovmt of pressiore schools
have been imder and the
damage that a lot of high
poverty racial schools have
undergone by bdng declared
as failing schools,” Said Gary
Orfidd, director of the Civil
Ei^ts Project at Harvard and
professor of education and
social pohcy at Harvard
Graduate School of Education.
‘We have not focused on the
kinds of serious long-term
reforms that can actually pro
duce gains and narrow the
huge gaps in opportunity and
achievement for minority stu
dents.”
Researchers foimd NCLB’s
attempt to scale up the suc
cess of states that adopted •
testrdriven accountability pol
icy prior to NCLB, so-called
first generation accountability
states like North Carolina,
Florida, and Texas didn’t
work. It neither enhanced
first generation states’ earlier
improvement nor transferred
the effects of a test-driven
accountability system to those
that adopted test-based
accoimtabUity under NCLB.
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Caucus split over troubled lawmaker
Continued from page 1A
Committee
“Mr. [Mel] Watt certainly
ably and with great distinc
tion, speaks for the
Congressional Black
Caucus,” says House
Democratic Leader Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif), who spear
headed the movement to
force Jefferson finm the com
mittee after he refused to vol
untarily step down. “But,
quite fi-ankly, a number of
members of the Black Caucus
have given me moral support
on this.”
Some have provided more .
Among Pelosi’s chief allies
in Ihe att^npted ousting is
Congressman John Lewis (D-
Ga.). sources have confirmed.
In a closed door meeting of
tile 50-member Democratic
Caucus Steering Committee
last Thmsday sources say
that Lewis made the motion
to have Jefferson stripped
finm his seat on the House
Ways and Means, which has
oversight on key fiscal mat
ters, such as tax hikes, the
mmimnm w^e and military
spending.
Because the session was
private, some of those present
agreed to discuss the meeting
on condition that they be
granted anonymity
The sources say former
CBC Chairwoman Eddie
Bernice Johnson (D-Ttexas)
also spoke against Jefferson
in the committee meeting. In
addition, they said. Rep.
Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.),
ranking member on the Ways
and Means Committee,
accepted an earlier assign
ment finrn Pelosi to try to
talk Jefferson into stepping
down on his own, an overture
rejected by Jefferson.
Rai^el first won his seat in
the House when he defeated
the late U.S. Rep. Adam
Clayton Powell, who was
under fire for alleged finan
cial improprieties. The House
leadership stripped Powell of
his powerful Education and
Labor Committee chairman
ship and Rangel defeated
him in the 1970 Democratic
primary
Lewis’ motion, seconded by
Pelosi, passed by secret bal
lot.
The motion stated: “The
Committee moves that
Congressman William
Jefferson’s appointment to
the Committee on Ways &
Means be suspended, with
his seniority intact, until
sudi time as a further recom
mendation to restore him to
the Committee is made by
the Steering and Policy
Committee imder the rules of
the Democratic Caucus.”
The entire 201-member
caucus was set to vote on the
issue June 15. If the Caucus
passes the motion for the
removal of Jefferson, the
action will be taken to the
floor for a full House vote.
Throu^ their spokesper
sons, Lewis, Johnson and
Rangel all declined to com
ment.
Watt (D-N.C.) defended the
firmness of the CBCs posi
tion after the FBI raided
Jefferson’s congressional
office two weeks ago, the first
time in the nation’s history
tiiat the executive branch has
raided a legislative office.
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