Abstract
The 1988 reauthorization of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act Chapter 1 legislation introduced several significant changes in both program and evaluation features, many of which have benefited students and schools in the School District of Philadelphia. However, some provisions of the legislation, and the accompanying regulations, have unintended consequences which are hampering efforts to provide the best possible program for students. This article addresses the implementation of schoolwide projects in Philadelphia, discusses some of the conceptual problems which exist in interpreting results of those programs, and offers suggestions for alternative assessment methods. As a result of the 1988 reauthorization, schoolwide projects have increased from 37 sites in 1988–1989 to 103 for the 1991–1992 school year. This expansion has occurred because of positive results in test scores and report card grades and because of the satisfaction expressed by school staffs and communities at having the flexibility to design a program tailored especially for the needs of their own students.
Problems with the current legislation, as noted in the article, have stimulated the following attempts at solutions: how to discern which schools are in need of program improvement, how to ensure that schools with successful programs have the opportunity to continue implementing them, how to determine the intent of program improvement, and how to find alternatives to standardized testing. Finally, the article offers suggestions for alternative ways to use standardized test data, as well as performance-based measures of student learning.
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