Extra Credit Reading: Friday, November 24, 2006

Under the mandates of the federally-imposed No Child Left Behind Act, schools and their staffs are held 100% accountable for student performance even though parents and students share none of the responsibility for their own success. From Austin, Texas, we have grim confirmation of the preceeding statement: 98% of students who need tutoring won't show-up for it, even though this extra help costs the parents nothing.

Here's an interesting concept that's going to be closely scrutinized across the EduWorld: In Chicago's public school system, school administrators will receive pay increases based upon their performance. (In a city notorious for its political corruption, will this end-up being merit pay for Those of Merit or subjectively-given windfalls for the Sinecured Set?)

"How has NCLB negatively affected your school or district?" That's the question posed by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) in a poll. They are also looking for your comments concerning this landmark federal mandate. (Via Education Sector)

In the British school system, bullies are now out-of-control. Even the teachers are now being sexually harassed and bullied by these students vicious thugs-in-training. (As is the case here in the U.S., we bet that if law makers sent their children to the very school system that they oversee, the quality of the education would improve. Instead, many of the politically powerful in Britain send their offspring to exclusive high schools (called "colleges") such as this, while many of the American elite send theirs to institutions such as this and that. The result is that politicos on both sides of the Atlantic exempt their own from the disastrous policies that they impose on an unsuspecting public.) ----------------------------See our latest EduPosts and yesterday's Extra Credit Reading.