Inside the Mind of an Educator

The Iowa Department of Education has developed a plan to hold schools accountable for test scores by publishing how they rank against other schools in the state.  Schools in Iowa will now be placed on a scale of achievement, to help educate families about the ranking of their child's school. Another school in our area gathered the details from the Iowa DOE website and posted it to the local newspaper. Therefore, t he past few weeks Cardinal has faced some challenges based on those published achievement scores.    Many people in our surrounding community have been balking about the low scores our little district has received in the past. There are nasty responses posted on social media sites and negative comments being traded back and forth because of these test scores.  Some have even criticized our district for the positive press we have received. They feel we should not be highlighted in the local media as an amazing, and innovative district because our scores are too low. As an