Matthew Ladner
2008-05-16 06:19:00
One of the a-holes here, although a “cogent” a-hole 
I agree with much of what you have written, even about there not being much evidence of dumbing down specifically due to NCLB as yet.
As you point out, however, the tests are backloaded. The pressure for a race to the bottom will increase substantially after 2011, and as you also point out, no one is putting forward a proposal to fix this problem.
The mere sanction of labelling hundreds of schools failing creates a tremendous pressure to dummy the test down. It is what happened here in Arizona when the state tried to enforce decent standards.
