The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction just released the state's preliminary school ratings under the No Child Left Behind act, and a mere 79 schools were found to be "needing improvement." That's about three percent of all public schools in Wisconsin--practically a rounding error! Wisconsin has figured it out. It has virtually no failing schools!
Or wait, maybe the state has just made it almost impossible for schools to be snagged by NCLB's net. As we wrote in The Accountability Illusion:
In a few of the 28 states we studied, such as Wisconsin and Arizona, almost all of the elementary schools in our sample made AYP; in other states, such as Massachusetts and Nevada, almost none did. To put it colloquially, most of the schools in our sample would be considered failures in some states but just fine, even deserving of praise, in others. These are the same exact schools, mind you. Same students. Same teachers. Same achievement. What's different--sometimes drastically different--are the arcane rules that vary from state to state.
Or as we wrote in Education Week, "officials in Madison have gamed NCLB's accountability provisions in almost every way possible, by setting low passing scores on their tests, adopting rules that exempt many schools from accountability for minority students and other 'subgroups,' and using statistical gyrations that have the effect of lowering standards even further."
But see for yourself. Play our "Fix that Failing School" video game. Here's a hint: If you always move the school to Wisconsin, you'll never go wrong.
UPDATE: Wisconsin has also closed the achievement gap in math! Wow, what a story!
