North Carolina's state accountability model, adopted to improve education by tracking and being more strict about student progress, is slowly being enacted by local school officials.
One part of the system tests students on their comprehension of general subject matter to make sure they are prepared to advance to the next grade level.
The tests aim to identify students' problems so teachers can address them and ensure future success, said Emily Bivins, director of elementary instruction and staff development for the school system.
But David Thaden, principal of East Chapel Hill High School, said he worries that the new standards will have a negative effect on some students, forcing them to take more tests to move on. "Clearly the system has ratcheted up expectations of students," he said. "This could singlehandedly double the number of kids who don't graduate."
The new state accountability model focuses on four "gateway" years -- third, fifth, eighth and 11th grades. At the end of these years, students must pass an exit test in order to graduate to the next grade.
Parents can learn more about the new standards at a meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at the Arbor Meadows Community Room, 112 N.C. 54 Bypass.
Thaden and Carrboro Elementary School Principal Randy Marshall both said they worry that too much emphasis on testing will cause students who do not perform well to be discouraged.
Marshall's main concern is for third-graders who he said he feels are too young to be tested so definitively.
"I'd prefer a situation where kids are given more time to become proficient. No matter how much we help them, we can end up creating frustration, and they'll decide they're not going to succeed."
