Number crunching

As has been mentioned here before, some of the stimulus money is going to be directed to better tracking individual students. The Boston Globe report on Massachusetts' implementation makes it clear that, well, let's say there's a lot of distance between both the Globe and the Education Commissioner and the local school districts:

State education leaders plan to inject a reality check this fall into the "good class vs bad class" debate by tracking the performance of individual students as they advance from one grade to the next. The new measurement could shed light on who is falling short -- teacher or pupil -- and lead to fundamental changes in the way students are taught.

Mitchell D. Chester, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said yesterday that the new analysis will make it harder for local school leaders to be dismissive of poor test scores.

"It takes away a lot of the excuse-making," Chester said at yesterday's meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education where the new system was unveiled.

Or it might demonstrate that those who are in closest contact with the students actually know what they're talking about. It's been known to happen.