See how good your child's school really is

[pabarker]

The Nebraska Department of Education released the yearly State of the Schools report last week. You can search their website (see link below) to see how well students in a particular school did on standardized tests of reading, math and writing. There's even some info on science proficiency this year. Students tested were in grades 3 - 8 and 11.

http://reportcard.nde.state.ne.us/Main/Home.aspx

[pabarker]

The World-Herald ran a story about this on the 23rd, and printed the following list of the worst-performing schools. Even more depressing is another list they ran (which I can't find at Omaha.com) that had several more schools that are considered underperforming. I looked at the Department of Education website from the earlier post and found the list of the worst-performing schools. To show you how warped the system is, these schools, which by definition have missed progress goals for two or more years in a row, are described as "in School Improvement." "Not Improving" is a more apt description, isn't it?

You can bet it's no coincidence that reports like this are issued in the holiday season when people are not paying as much attention to bad news like this. The State of Iowa released their report in September.

http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10521348

[Rhonda Dunaway]

Late on Christmas Eve, after I had filled Aidan's stocking and arranged his presents from Santa under the tree, I decided to read the newspaper in front of the fireplace before going to bed. I began reading an article on the first page of the "Omaha World-Herald" about Omaha Metro Area schools that had been put on a "watch list" by the government because they had not met the standards of the federal "No Child Left Behind Act" for the past two years. To see the list of schools, you had to turn to the next page. I then had the shock of seeing my son's school on the list. I definitely hadn't expected that, and I've been wondering since then what being on that list really means in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, the article provided no specific information. I also love how they put the information in the paper on Christmas Eve, a time when you can be sure that the smallest number of people possible will be reading the paper. Coincidence? I doubt it.