Student Movement.

• Author: HALL, THAD
• Position: Analysis of Bush's education plan

The fatal flaw in the Bush education plan

AS A FIFTH-GRADER AT OAK VIEW Elementary School in Silver Spring, Maryland, 11-year-old Roberto knew how to get his teachers attention. Sometimes he would sit in class and loudly click his tongue. Other times he'd drop things on the floor or pretend to fall asleep. Roberto talked in class, often using vulgar language, and interrupted other students. And he rarely came to school with his homework completed. His teacher's reprobations were always met with a sardonic roll of the eyes.

It wasn't long before Roberto landed in Peggy Salazar's office to discuss his disruptive behavior and poor academic performance. The acting principal of Oak View Elementary School coaxed some information out of her young student that helped to explain why he was struggling. Salazar learned that Roberto's parents were divorced. Sometimes he lived with his mother, sometimes his father--it depended upon whose financial situation was more stable at the moment. (Both parents work several low-paying jobs.) When Roberto switched parents, he also switched schools. As a result, he's attended four schools just in the last five years.

Peggy Salazar's school is filled with kids like Roberto. The majority are African American or Hispanic; 84 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunches; and a quarter have limited proficiency in English. More important, they come and go as frequently as Roberto does. Of the roughly 300 students at Oak View Elementary, only one in four arrived from the local feeder school; the rest came from elsewhere. Which is to say, Roberto's situation is not the exception, but the rule.

This problem plagues principals like Salazar, whose schools are judged by how well students perform on standardized tests. Oak View's fate hinges on the Maryland School Performance Report, a test that includes the scores of transient students like Roberto, who may not have been in that school last year and may not be around next year. Salazar was never able to get Roberto to improve his classroom performance. "I am not going to be here long anyway, because I move a lot," he reasoned. "My report card doesn't even catch up with me." With standardized testing poised to play a more prominent role under President Bush's education plan, the problem of how to reach students like Roberto without punishing principals like Salazar is growing more acute.

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