The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported today that meeting No Child Left Behind standards of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is proving increasingly difficult for Minnesota schools, which begs the question – even if NCLB is completely fucked, is it that hard to play the game anyway and teach kids how to pass the test anyway?

I honestly don’t pretend to know. Thankfully, neither does my hero*, St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, who has a cameo in the article:

St. Paul Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said many factors are feeding those numbers, including new and more difficult math tests and even how the tests were given. Two months ago, she challenged the validity of the new tests. Now, she’s questioning what this list really shows.

‘Keeps shifting, changing’

“Some of it is simply a challenge to understand,” she said of schools that are showing improvement on many measures, including the district’s own tests, but still miss their goals.

I don’t understand it, either, but something will have to change unless we want to raise generations of young people who have absolutely no faith in their academic abilities.

For full text of the article, go here. As always with Star Tribune articles, you’ll have to do a seven-day free trial, which you can do by making up a birth year and a zip code.

*I suppose if she were really my hero, that would mean that I aspire towards some sort of administrative position. This is not the case.