Joanne Jacobs picked up on the item I posted the other day about the pushback in Congress that may lead to the demise of the Head Start National Reporting System. I noted the criticisms of the technical quality of the test, which has led many experts to say that it doesn't answer the questions it was intended to: in other words, how well are Head Start programs helping children develop skills they need to be ready to learn to read.

You can read a dispassionate overview of the NRS here. One of the criticisms of the test is that it does not evaluate Head Start's performance in helping children develop socially and emotionally. It turns out that the NRS this year is adding an assessment of those domains. Information on that can be found here.

The anti-test position of the National Head Start Association can be found here. The far right opposition to the test is here.

Others have taken positions in favor of the keeping the test. The Fordham Foundation's Checker Finn offers a rousing and rhetorically edgy defense of the test here. In a strange way, Finn and Head Start icon Edward Zigler aren't that far apart on this. Both think that Head Start should help kids get ready to succeed in school.

I'll repeat that I'd like to see a story done this spring that tells me how the NRS actually works in practice, by going out and observing the administration of the test.