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July 11, 2003

Well, It's Progress, I Guess

Students in my great homestate of Alabama are kickin' butt, takin' names, and movin' on up the charts when it comes to their writing ability:

The state Department of Education said 20 percent of eighth-graders scored proficient or above in 2002, as compared to 17 percent in 1998.

That is great news!

So, as of last year, only 80 out of every 100 Alabama eighth-graders were incapable of writing "an organized and coherent response with clear language and supporting detail," as opposed to that awful, awful statistic of 83 out of every 100 from 1998.

Wow!

Let's get those kids blogging ASAP!

"Our schools are doing a great job of developing writing plans for students in every grade," said Alice Doran, student assessment director for Montgomery Public Schools.

Now, if only we could get the kids to do a great job of writing, we might be on to something. In the real world (read: not the government), we reward planning followed by poor execution with another big word: termination.

I wonder if any eighth-graders know that word. Hopefuly some administrators will soon.