This

is an interesting exchange about high-stakes testing and NCLB.

This question represents a typical attitude from people ignorant of education in general:

Question from Larry -Ind. Observer:
If we have students that cannot read and write at an eighth grade level, the government needs to hold teachers accountable for this. Bottom line.

David Berliner:
This is a simple statement and quite wrong as it stands. You would be right if the eighth grade child were born under lucky stars--a two parent family that earns enough money to provide medical attention and cultural opportunities, a parent that has time to help with homework, parents that provided a high quality preschool, and so forth. But would you hold the teachers responsible for the kids being on "grade level" if it was the kid of a single parent working two jobs while the kid has some responsibility to help his/her sibs? Where no one ever has had health care in the family and so the kid was born a little under weight affecting his/her IQ a little and then misses 20 school days every year due to asthma? Or where the neighborhood is crime and drug ridden so the kid has to live behind locked doors in fear of a bullet? How about the million plus mostly low income kids that are lead poisoned and mercury affected? What about the kids that have immigrated by the millions in recent years and aren't at grade level because they are never given the benefits of good bilingual or dual immersion programs? No, Larry--you are much too glib. Teachers are responsible and so is our nation for the kids we have. If many urban teachers (who may be the newest and the ones most likely to be teaching out of field) get kids who have trouble learning they need to do their best, but they are not the only ones responsible for achievement. Large numbers of our kids live impoverished lives and this is not easily fixed in 6 hours a day for 180 days. Sorry Larry, it takes a village that includes more than its teachers, and we have failed to take that proverb seriously.