And in keeping with the law s call for continuous improvement, South Dakota s plan raises the graduation target to 84 percent for the following school year. If that benchmark is not met, the state plan asks local teachers and administrators what will be done to improve performance. The law also calls for career and technical education students to meet the same challenging academic proficiencies as other students. California s plan proposes to do this by making vocational students take the same statewide, standards-based assessment exams required of all students. It will then compare results to make sure students in career programs are scoring as high as other students.
Some states admit in their plans that their accountability systems aren t fully developed yet.
We re all trying to implement a new law in a quick time frame, and it puts everybody under pressure.