Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central's 'The Colbert Report' takes great satisfaction in ripping on Mississippi and its state testing program, saying the state has lowered its standards in order to improve proficiency rates on state tests as part of No Child Left Behind.
Using statistics from 2005, he derides the state for making the tests easier in order to show a high rate of proficiency, thereby assuring itself of federal dollars for education.
Far be it from me to tell Mr. Colbert how to amuse himself. But if he and his staff were to do a little research, he would have seen that students in the state -- at all grade levels -- raised their scores in reading and in math.
And that the accountability program in the state was one of the first approved and is closely aligned with the national No Child Left Behind.
It is not a perfect system, to be sure. The Sun Herald recently published a story saying the proficiency levels of a fourth-grader in Mississippi would not be passing in Massachusetts. But the fact remains that progress is being made.
However, all Mr. Colbert seems to be able to see is the glass half-empty. Perhaps I'm being naive, but I choose to see it as glass half-full.
Why shouldn't we celebrate the successes as we work to improve?
State Superintendent Hank Bounds has set goals of reach the national average set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in the next five to seven years and to reduce the dropout rate by 50 percent in that same time period.
Bounds and his staff also are working to strengthen the state's curriculum and assessment tools; they also are working with higher education officials to change the way teachers and principals are trained.
Is that progress? What do you think, South Mississippi?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Educating Colbert
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
While I agree that Mississippi's successes are to be celebrated, I think it's important to remember that Mr. Colbert is a comedian. It's neither his job to be factually accurate (in fact, his character is proudly ignorant), nor to present reasoned and balanced discussion on issues (his character satirises those news personalities who do exactly the opposite).
"Far be it from me to tell Mr. Colbert how to amuse himself. But if he and his staff were to do a little research, he would have seen that students in the state -- at all grade levels -- raised their scores in reading and in math."
I'm not sure if this paragraph is completely clear. Colbert's point in this segment is that the reason the scores are higher is because the tests were made easier. If that is the case, this would not necessarily illustrate that children are learning more; just that they are recieveing higher scores for the same level of knowledge.
Also, I agree that it's important that you shouldn't take Mr. Colbert seriously.
Do not educate Colbert, he may bite...
No Child Left Behind is yet another of our current President's failures....
ask any teacher how they feel about this crummy program.
This is exactly what is meant by the "soft bigotry of low expectations". Until students are given a challenging work load they will not excel. News Flash, some students are not very bright. Stop punishing other children by dumbing all of them down. That's what LD classes are for and it is better to honestly address that rather than sugar-coat it in fear of harming a child's "self-esteem". The greater harm is turning out poorly educated children.
I agree with the person who said that this no child left behind is a terrible program. It allows uneducated children to advance without having to really learn anything. It also helps those teachers who are only there for a paycheck not have to worry about having to teach. Children need to learn at an early age to be responsible for their own actions and parents need to start being parents and teach them responsiblity. Of course most of these so-called parents probably need to be taught responsiblity before they can teach it.
All of the national news media are wrong in regard to MS "dumbing down" the Mississppi test in order to look better for NCLB. MS's test was in place prior to the advent of NCLB... the national media is not interested in the truth.
Do you not understand our children are doing better because we are making the tests easier?
I think Colbert is making an excellent point. This federal initiative is causing states to compete against other states more than it is simply challenging states to raise the bar on their own education system.
Mississippi has always been near the bottom when rated against other states. If we are going to attract more business to our state, we need to provide better education for the families that move here with the new business and to have enough educated kids graduating and being able to work at these new companies that move in.
A good example of what I am talking about is the Casinos. They can't find enough qualified people for their executive jobs, so they do not hire Mississippians for the higher paying positions. And our state, while making it legel for our out of state guests to gamble here, still consider it illegal to teach our kids at college how to get some of that money for their own by working in the offices of a casino.
Sure we can make beds and serve cocktails, but most jobs requiring an education are done by people who were educated in other states.
And That's the Word!
Post a Comment