More Failures, Please

The NCLB crucible, now picking up steam from the crushing of millions of American school children, has found a motherlode of potential energy in Mississippi. And Hattiesburg officials have just started figured it out:

A change in the way districts administer annual tests has some local superintendents worried about their schools' rankings.

This spring, the final phase of No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush's 2001 educational reform act, requires that school districts begin testing special education students and non-English speaking students at their grade levels rather than at their performance levels.

"There are children in every school district who are reading below grade level. So if one day you're going to test them on grade level, you may be setting them up for failure," said Petal Schools Superintendent James Hutto. . .