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I'm with you, including the concern that poor districts would be unduly punished, if their students do not attend college for other reasons. You wrote a post before about the difference between college skills and actually attending college. We shouldn't expect 100% of our HS graduates to go to a 4 year school. We should expect them to have those *skills*.

Do you expand data to performance in trade school? Community College? What about other post-HS tracks? I don't really know either, but should a school's "rank" get docked because their graduates say, enlist in the army instead of attending State U?

Certainly grading a building simply by the virtues on a reading/math test isn't sufficient, but like you say, the devil is in the details.

While I was teaching, I was not aware of any standardized test that was designed to evaluate the progress of each child during the course of a year. Norm-referenced tests such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills were designed to compare populations and correlated very highly with SES. Criterion-referenced tests were designed to test grade-level standards but did not evaluate students who were significantly above or below grade level. Nor did these tests adequately measure the progress of English Language learners. The only reliable test I knew of was one given one-on-one by a teacher or a psychologist. This test had to be given in September and then again in the spring. So, when people say they want to evaluate teachers by standardized test scores, which tests are they referring to? Thank you.

Mr. Brown, you raise good questions. Will all post-secondary choices be created equal in this model? Would it assume 100% attendance in and graduation from college by 2014? Will it allow low-income schools to catch up with high-income schools, whose students often go to college as a matter of course? Tough questions, but I think the vision Aldeman offers is a great jumping off point for discussion. You're right that everyone should have the preparation to go to 4-year college, even if that's not the choice they make. Now, that choice is often made for low-income kids, because they too often lack the resources and the preparation to succeed.

It's interesting to look at the success of Say Yes to Education in this context. That program has almost closed the college graduation gap between low-income urban students and their suburban peers. But that program provides both academic and non-academic supports. It's critical to remember that it also provides college scholarships. In that kind of world, there would be fewer Devils in Aldeman's details. That said, his report is compelling in any context.

Linda--You hit on an important point. Many assessment experts are concerned that state tests aren't currently designed for teacher evaluation purposes. The National Academies cautioned the Education Department that merit pay programs tied to growth models aren't yet ready for prime time. This is not to say that they won't ever be ready, but it should make us deliberate in how we proceed with teacher evaluation.

Thanks Claus, for a very kind review!

Mr. Brown, the report strives to be agnostic in the college/ career choice. For our analysis in Florida, we included students who attended community or technical colleges or who chose to enter the workforce instead of attending a postsecondary school. The only situation where high schools were dinged is if the school was unable to graduate students or if graduates failed to find gainful employment or either a postsecondary institution ready to succeed.

My pleasure, Chad! And thanks to you for your thoughtful response to Mr. Brown's question. Do you have any sense of whether affordability issues--ones that could affect enrollment & persistent--could skew the results for schools?

This is absolutely true. The poor students are not given the opportunity to reach their full success. It is easy to sweep it under the rug and say that the students that are receiving poor tests scores are "lazy" but this is not the case. Most students that do not have the financial means to pursue higher education are going to feel unmotivated to excel in high school, understandably. Once we open our eyes and stop ignoring the issue we will see many students that are willing to learn and are just looking for a means.