Huffington Post, By Elaine Weiss
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We have been increasingly occupied in recent years with giving grades to schools and those who work in them — from the use of student standardized test scores to evaluate teachers’ effectiveness, principals’ leadership capacity, or even the characterization of an entire school as “failing,” to actual A-through-F grades for schools in Florida and elsewhere. A recent report, however, suggests that this is misguided. We ought to be grading ourselves as a nation and as a society. First Focus and Save the Children have done so, and found us severely lacking.
As The Huffington Post reports, “America’s Report Card 2012′ Gives U.S. A C-Minus On Ensuring Educational Opportunities, Providing For Children.” Specifically, the comprehensive report assesses U.S. treatment of its children in five categories: economic security, early childhood, K-12 education, permanency and stability, and health and safety. The introduction’s title, “We can do better,” lets us know how bad the rest is going to be. It notes that, “A majority of American voters believe, for the first time in history, the lives of children have become worse over the last ten years. And they expect this generation will be the first to fare worse than their parents.” Unfortunately, “They are right.”
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