The headlines in the Idaho State Journal newspaper read: “District 25 fails to meet federal benchmark.” The subheading said: “Half of district’s schools fall below student progress standards.” The results of the federal mandated “No Child Left Behind” act testing was released. About half the schools here in Pocatello’s school district went on “alert” status — meaning that one or more student classification groups did not test “at grade level”. The “alert” status means that parents can request that their children be transported to a different school. In today’s paper the lead article was about the spin that school officials were putting on the test results. The paper quoted District Curriculum Director Chuck Wegner as saying, “Expecting every child in the public school system to perform on grade-level is unreasonable and infeasible.” There are a couple of interesting (to me) observations:

First, it won’t do any good for parents to request that their high school students be transferred to another high school. All three high schools here in Pocatello are on “alert” status. That’s right: Pocatello High, Century High, and Highland High are failed to provide a sufficiently good educational experience so that all the students were able to test at grade level.

Secondly, even the school officials can’t count. The standards were that 95% of the students in grades 3, 8, and 10 were to be tested. 72% of them needed to test at grade level in Reading and 60% needed to test at grade level for math. Attention please, Mr. Wegner. The requirement is not that every student has to test at grade level. Three or four out of every ten students can fail the test and the school (or the district) will still make the goal. You must think the public is pretty dumb.

Finally, school officials blamed the failure on a lack of funding. Parents should not be alarmed; it was only one or two groups of students, such as those who are disadvantaged, that failed to pass the test. Whoopee. That sure makes me feel better.

When will the schools ever get it? Their job is to educate the students. All of them. Schools hate the testing process because it demonstrates that what the schools are doing best is failing to educate. I learned many years ago that what gets measured gets done. I am fanatically in favor of testing. The schools take a lot of my money. I want my money’s worth back. I want them to teach students to read, to write, to be able to count, to know a bit about history and science, and to know what it means to be a citizen of this country. I don’t want excuses. It isn’t a matter of money. There is more than sufficient money available for education. It’s a matter of accountability.

So, for the record, here’s the report card:

Century High School: Economically disadvantaged — math

Claude A. Wilcox Elementary School: Students with disabilities — reading

Franklin Middle School: Hispanic — reading

Greenacres Elementary School: Economically disadvantaged — reading

Hawthorne Middle School: math proficiency; American Indian — reading and math; Hispanic — math; economically disadvantaged — math; students with disabilities — reading and math (this is a school with lots of “opportunities for improvement”)

Indian Hills Elementary School: Students with disabilities — math

Irving Middle School: Students with disabilities — math

Kinport Academy: reading, math proficiency

New Horizons High School: reading, math proficiency; third indicator — graduation rate

Pocatello High School: Economically disadvantaged — reading, math

Tyhee Elementary School: Reading profiency; third indicator — language arts; American Indians — reading, math; economically disadvantaged — reading, math

The whole report is available at www.sde.state.id.us/admin/ayp05/

The long drive across the country is over. We arrived back in Pocatello a few minutes after 6 p.m., right on schedule. We picked up Bradica (the dog) from the kennel, came home, and unloaded the motorhome. We’re now kicking back and enjoying not having to drive or stay in a campground.

Yesterday was a very long and tiring drive. We arrived at the campground at 8:30 p.m. When we got ready for bed, my nasal CPAP machine would not start. Without that machine there is no sleeping possible. I also didn’t have tools, either. I walked over to the truck stop and bought a phillips screwdriver and a pair of needle nosed pliers. I took it apart and couldn’t figure out what was the problem. Both Nina and Michael were sleeping, so I was trying not to make very much noise. I went to bed thinking I’d just tough it out — but by 12:30 I was still completely unable to sleep. I took the machine into the bathroom where I could turn on the lights and took it apart. This time I found a coil that had come loose on one side from the printed circuit board. I worked some duct tape magic and got the component to make solid contact with the board and the machine would then work. About 1:30 am I was finally able to get into bed and get some sleep. Nina drove the rest of the way home and I stayed in bed asleep until close to 11 a.m. I’ve got two of these machines and I guess I really need to take both of them with me when I’m traveling.

It’s good to be home and have a wife in the house as well. She was right ready to get home as well. Michael will stay here until Friday morning when Nina will meet Heather and exchange the kid. He’s been a lot of fun to have with us and has been a real trooper on this trip. I think I’ll go get a bite to eat and get ready for bed. Tomorrow is a work day….

Iowa leads the nation in corn production and has done so for the past 10 years. Iowa, according to the Corn Use FAQ, produces more corn than any other country in the world (other than the United States). We’ve seen a lot of corn today. In the rare case where there wasn’t a corn field on the side of the freeway, then the farmer was growing soybeans. There aren’t any of the big sprinkler systems here, either. There must be enough natural rainfall that those systems aren’t needed as there also doesn’t seem to be any other irrigation method, either. We’ve got about 28 miles left in the State of Iowa before crossing the Missouri River into Nebraska. We’re going across the northern part of Omaha (Interstate 680) so we can stop at the Winter Quarters Visitor’s Center and Temple for a few minutes. Today is a lovely day for traveling. It isn’t very hot — we don’t even need the air conditioning on in the front seat, yet. There are some high cirrus clouds but otherwise it’s a bright, sunny day. The cornfields are actually quite pretty. Every once in a while we’ll pass a farm with a red barn whereas most of them have white barns. The freeway is very noisey — that is, the concrete on the freeway makes a lot of tire noise. We like asphalt roads much better.

I don’t think I’ve ever driven across Iowa except on I-80. The only time we’ve been off the freeway was back in 1978 when the kids and I followed the ambulance from Ft. Madison up to Iowa City when Nina was being transported to the hospital. After she got out of the hospital a few days later, we did a small amount of exploring in the immediate area around Iowa City and then drove back to Chardon, Ohio and home. Looking at the map I see a number of interesting places in Iowa that would be fun to explore. After I retire we will take a few months to travel around the country driving on roads other than the freeway. Then perhaps we’ll stop in Mamie Eisenhower’s birthplace and look around on a scenic drive through Iowa….

The campground, Colony Country Campground was very nice. It was easy to find, easy to park, and very close to a large mall, great restaurants, and the Amana Colonies area for sightseeing. We pulled out of there about 6:30 a.m. CDT and after stopping for gas and a take-out McDonalds breakfast, we were on the road at about 7. We’ll be in Winter Quarters about 11 a.m. and then will settle in for the very long drive across Nebraska. This state is actually longer than Wyoming! And, at least along the freeway, there isn’t much of redeeming value. We are kind of hoping to get to Laramie, Wyoming by the end of the day. That’s about an nine-hour drive after we leave Omaha. Another long, driving day. But, we’ll soon be leaving the corn behind.