ANOTHER NCLB CASUALTY
School time is too precious to waste on even a smidgen of real-world education:
One Naperville school district is warning parents that kids who participate in “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work” day next year will be charged an unexcused absence.
For two years, Oak Park elementary school officials have scheduled a teacher training day for the fourth Thursday in April rather than holding classes for the few students who show up.
In Arizona, the state superintendent of public instruction last year blasted the event as promoting truancy and unilaterally rescheduled the day during summer to avoid a conflict with a state-mandated test.
As millions of kids nationwide prepare to spend Thursday at work with their parents, a growing number of educators are questioning whether the event is worth missing a day of school.
School officials say classroom time has become more precious with the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which holds schools more accountable for student performance on annual achievement tests. Others note that state aid tied to daily attendance figures also is at stake.
Standardized testing shows that the average sixth-grader who’s taken part in the annual event since kindergarten is an almost insurmountable six days behind his peers.
2 Responses to “ANOTHER NCLB CASUALTY”
 Comment by Chris April 27th, 2005 at 2:25 pm |
Can’t have the kiddies out of school for even a day. Who knows what anti-statist thoughts might get planted in their minds? |
 Comment by Cindy April 27th, 2005 at 3:26 pm |
My personal favorite for best line of the day.. “It’s not that we discourage it, but we definitely don’t promote it,” he said. Still, Ludwig said, “I love the concept.” |