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Tough tests necessary
to improve schools

THE ISSUE A study finds Hawaii's public school exams among the most demanding in the nation.

HAWAII'S unsteady footing when compared to public schools nationwide troubles taxpayers and parents, especially when test scores fall below acceptable levels. A new study in the journal Education Next that shows the state's exams are among the most demanding in the country should put the matter in a different light.

However, as tough as the tests are, education officials should not yield to calls to make them easier. High expectations pull students toward higher achievement.

Hawaii placed sixth in an analysis of various tests administered in 40 participating states for compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The contentious law requires that all public school students be proficient in math and reading by 2014 and places sanctions on schools that don't meet certain benchmarks.

Besides insufficient federal funding, NCLB's weakness is that it fails to institute nationwide baselines. With little oversight, states set their own tests and passing scores. While some, such as Hawaii and first-ranked South Carolina, have established strong tests, others, like Oklahoma and Texas, inflate student performance through lower standards.

The result? Schools in states that have embraced the challenge are assessed as deficient and face penalties, incurring extra costs as they are forced to adopt reforms.

At present, 24 Hawaii schools deemed underperforming have been placed in the restructuring category. All have high-poverty student populations that persistently do poorly in the classroom. Because the law requires such subgroups and others, like non-native English speakers and disabled students, to perform equally, the schools are said to be failing.

While some school systems and states are defying the law, Hawaii has chosen to keep at it because improving education is what the public has demanded and because the stigma and costs are passing consequences. More damaging is that students in lax states are not given opportunities for a better education, leaving the law's intent unfulfilled.

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Lower rhetoric to
restart Korea talks

THE ISSUE North Korea said it has harvested a nuclear reactor for weapons fuel.

NORTH Korea's claim to have extracted weapons-grade fuel from a nuclear reactor has set off a new flurry of speculation about its nuclear capability. The Bush administration needs to re-engage China to use its influence over its neighbor to resume talks aimed at ending any nuclear threat.

U.S. intelligence officials say they have no evidence to either confirm or disprove North Korea's claim to have removed 8,000 spent fuel rods from a reactor at its main nuclear complex. If true, it could produce fuel-grade plutonium for one to three nuclear bombs during the next 18 months.

Pyongyang's nuclear potential is of increasing concern. When Senator Inouye asked in a Senate hearing how many minutes the U.S. defense system would have to decide whether to intercept a missile, Gen. James Cartwright, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, gave a disturbing answer.

"The system is designed so that we can have a characterization of the threat in the first three to four minutes," Cartwright said. "And then we have a decision window, depending on where the threat missile is moving. It's probably in the next three to five minutes in the short scenario like Hawaii and Alaska, and expands out as you go further." President Bush would have the ultimate say.

"As you can imagine," he added, "getting the president, the (defense) secretary, the regional combat commander into a conversation and a conference in a three- to four-minute time frame is going to be challenging."

The administration has been trying to get China to pressure North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. Following North Korea's latest claim, a senior Chinese diplomat accused Bush of undermining efforts to revive talks in April by calling Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, a "tyrant." Cool-headed diplomacy is needed to restart talks that were cut off nearly a year ago.

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