Regarding last week's editorial ("‘Just Do It' just won't do it," November 30th) about bringing every child to proficiency in reading and math by 2014, it should be noted that not even KIPP (or Amistad or Northstar) has achieved 100 percent proficiency. Neither has Singapore or Sweden. In a paper for the Economic Policy Institute, Richard Rothstein and his associates explain that "proficiency for all" is an oxymoron, that it is a goal that has never been attained in any other society, and that it will not be attained in this one, not by 2014 nor any other date.
Isn't it time to denounce phony goals? Goals should be slightly beyond our reach, not completely unattainable. The latter discourages people. Or as John Winn wisely said last week [at the AEI-Fordham conference noted above], NCLB turned an "aspirational goal into an operational goal." An absurd proposition.
