NCLB News

MANIFESTO

I'm not sure I can get too upset about this:

Although the nation's lowest-performing students have made great progress in the No Child Left Behind era of testing, the top students are not making similar strides, according to a report by the Fordham Institute ...

Students who scored in the 90th percentile and above are making the least progress on national standardized tests.

Wouldn't this stand to reason? That is, if a kid goes from the 20th percentile to the 21st, he's improved 5%. Whereas, if a kid goes from the 90th percentile to the 91st—a similar gain of one percentile (or whatever the psychometric term is)—he's gained not much more than 1%. Or am I reading this wrong?

The truth remains: When you're at the top, you don't have many directions to go.