Running Head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUE PAPER
Contemporary Issue Paper Presented to: Dr. Gwendolyn EDUC 740: Leadership Principles and Ethics Liberty University Written by: L. Frank The contemporary issue that I would like to discuss is Alabama’s present & future academic grading system for K-12. The issue at hand is that the Alabama State Department of Education (ASDE) has decided to join other states in moving to the federal government’s Common Core Standards, and away from the No Child Left Behind’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) grading procedure for K-12. ASDE will be rolling out the initial phase of the Common Core Standards for the 2012-2013 school year. However, the AYP report card for the 2011-2012 school year was released with seventy-five percent of the state schools making the passing score. Therefore, I wonder what God had to say about educating his children, and all of these changes the federal & state governments are taking them through. God said “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18, KJV). God want his children to be educated by opening their eyes from the darkness to the light. First, let us find an understanding of the Adequate Yearly Progress. According to Education Week July 18, 2011 “AYP is the measure by which schools, districts, and states are held accountable for student performance under Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. AYP, however, is not a new concept; it was introduced into federal law in the ESEA’s 1994 reauthorization.” ESEA stands for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was passed in the War on Poverty of 1965. Education week broke down the NCLB requirements (2011): According to the law,…