Why Are more Schools facing NCLB Sanctions?

More Schools Facing Sanctions Under NCLB Data on adequate yearly progress show that 1 in 5 public schools are in some stage of penalties under the federal law. By David J. Hoff
Almost 30,000 schools in the United States failed to make adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act in the 2007-08 school year. For states with comparable data for the 2006-07 school year, the number of such schools increased by 28 percent.
Half those schools missed their achievement goals for two or more years, putting almost one in five of the nation’s public schools in some stage of a federally mandated process designed to improve student achievement. The number facing sanctions represents a 13 percent increase for states with comparable data over the 2006-07 school year.
Of those falling short of their academic-achievement goals, 3,559 schools—4 percent of all schools rated based on their progress—are facing the law’s more serious interventions in the current school year. That’s double the number that were in that... (The full story was released online 19 Dec 08 at Edweek.org)

The report above regarding the number of schools failing to meet AYP is just forerunner of reports to come.

Why? Simple; the states had to set up scheduled performance increases as part of the AYP system. The ultimate goal being that all schools are to achieve 100% student proficiency on the core subjects of reading and math by the year 2014. The situation facing the schools at this point is that the easy part of the schedule is over and more schools will start to fall behind as the standards grow in difficulty.

What few people know is the fact that the AYP standards for most states were initially set so low that most of the schools could meet AYP without any difficulty, without effort. As the standards increase and surpass the ability of the schools to meet the targets, more schools will fall into the failing category.

Thus each year the standards go up, more schools will fail to meet AYP. This is not because the standards are too difficult, it is simply because the schools are not capable of delivering any semblance of a quality education. This is why the education establishment objects to NCLB.

Think about it.