The Anacortes American

• Four generations of special teachers
  You could say teaching special education is in their genes.
  
  But after talking to one Anacortes family, you realize it’s in their hearts.
  
  Three generations of matriarch Helen Minton’s family have followed in her footsteps, choosing a career as special education teachers — son Fritz Schroeder, Schroeder’s son-in-law John Rains and Rains’s step-son Michael Noel. ...
  
  Her son Fritz Schroeder followed in her footsteps.
  
  He graduated from Central Washington University and earned a master’s degree from Western Washington University. He taught special education at Anacortes Middle School for 17 years and then at the high school.

The Century Foundation

• No Child Left Behind’s Incentive Game
  At a recent education policy gathering of top social scientists from fifteen universities and several policy research organizations, the best line of the day came from a reporter at the back of the room.
  
  Various longitudinal studies of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) had been presented at a conference dedicated to evaluating the 2001 Act by the time a young reporter raised his hand, stood up, and asked with a straight face: “Could any of today’s speakers please tell us whether or not the No Child Left Behind Act is working?” ...
  
  A study by Professor John Krieg of Western Washington University, for example, found that students of races deemed proficient one year might produce worse scores the next year if they attend a school where students of a different race failed. The reason is that NCLB’s incentives encourage schools to withdraw resources from the proficient group and redirect them to the failing group. Similarly, teachers give more attention to students on the margin of passing and, as a corollary, less attention to low- and high-achieving students.