No Child-Loophole: Nearly Two Million Scores Uncounted

      Laquanya Agnew and Victoria Duncan share a desk, a love of reading and a passion for learning. But because of a loophole in the No Child Left Behind Act, one second-grader’s score in Tennessee counts more than the other’s.

      That is because Agnew is Black, and Duncan is White.

      An Associated Press computer analysis found that Agnew is among nearly 2 million children whose scores aren’t counted when it comes to meeting the law’s requirement that schools track how students of different races perform on standardized tests.

      Associated Press found that states are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting that requirement. And minorities — who historically haven’t fared as well as Whites in testing — make up the vast majority of students whose scores are excluded.

      The U.S. Department of Education says that while it is pleased that nearly 25 million students nationwide are now being tested regularly under the law, it is concerned that the Associated Press found so many students who aren’t being counted.

      “Is it too many? You bet,” says Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. “Are there things we need to do to look at that, batten down the hatches, make sure those kids are part of the system? You bet.”

      The story of the two second-graders shows how a loophole in the law is allowing schools to count fewer minorities in required racial categories.

      There are about 220 students at West View Elementary School in Knoxville, Tenn., where President Bush marked the second anniversary of the law’s enactment in 2004. Tennessee schools have federal permission to exclude students’ scores in required racial categories if there are fewer than 45 students in a group.