Still, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education, Mitchell Chester, seems very positive with their results this year. They had one school in Brockton that was up for restructuring and the school has shown major improvement and may be off of the list for improvement in another year. Chester is of the mind that the schools are doing well but with the benchmarks being put higher every year the progress that the schools make never seems to measure up to new standards.
This raises the question about what can be done on a national basis about schools meeting the criteria set by the No Child Left Behind act. Massachusetts has always been seen as a great state for education, right now 937 statewide do not meet all the criteria. Makes one wonder where the problem lies. Public schools and charter schools are basically having the same issues, one does not test better than another.
This past year 378 schools were up for restructuring and so there were changes made to school administration, staff, curriculum and more. It's hard to say if this is a federal or a state problem. The No Child Left Behind act wants all students proficient in English and Math by 2014. However, they leave the meaning of "proficient" up to the states to govern. It could be then, that Massachusetts has set the bar for their proficient score a tad too high and is having trouble reaching it.
The saddest part of all of this is that because of varying expectations and the constant need to require more of students, the success of the students is not being appreciated.
