Out with NCLB and In with NCSFS (No Child Should Feel Stupid)
It's been over a week since my high school reunion but I've still got it on my mind. One thing that happened on the tour of Los Alamos High School (LAHS) has been churning and eating away at me... We were standing in the A wing hallway, and the new superintendent of Los Alamos Public Schools, Kurt Steinhaus, talked about successes of the high school. He boasted that they had more National Merit semi-finalists than APS and Las Cruces schools combined. And I thought, Big woo. I wanted to ask what the schools were doing to ensure that the needs of struggling students are met but didn't. It wasn't the time or place. LAHS, actually Los Alamos in general, is the perfect example of how No Child Left Behind (NCLB) works when it works "well". It's all about the data. How can they raise test scores? How can they get their graduation rate up? I hear nothing about how they can serve the kids in their community. The only people I ever heard from in that town we...