War of attrition

Two really interesting NCLB-related stories today:

• Spellings is going to let Chicago run its own Supplemental Educational Services program (SES), even though the district as a whole is not making AYP
• The people of California are annoyed that schools that look good under their own accountability system are not making AYP.

What's the connection here? They represent two of the big flaws of NCLB: that you can't be a SES provider if you're not making AYP yourself; and that to make AYP you have to hit a specific percentage of students reaching proficiency, a number which goes up at unrealistic rates and has the perverse effect of encouraging schools to focus on the kids at the margin and ignore the growth of the other students.

Spellings is wise to give flexibility in the first case, and would be wise to give flexibility in the second. Addressing these two issues is a reasonable thing to do, and doesn't detract from what, to me, is the important part of NCLB: making sure that all subgroups of students are on their way to proficiency, and aren't being ignored.