Crib Sheet: Reauthorizing No Child Left Behind
Why it hasn’t saved American education.
By Jim Downie, Columbia University, and Zach Marks, Yale University
Thursday June 7, 2007
 Third graders in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
What methods does NCLB use to improve education?
NCLB increases the standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools in three primary areas: student proficiency, teacher qualifications, and performance in math and reading.
First, each state is required to hold its districts accountable for moving all their students to a level of “proficiency” by 2014. Districts must report test scores and other measures for every school and show how these metrics break down by subgroups, including major racial and ethnic groups, low income students, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency. Schools that fail to make “adequate yearly progress” toward state goals for two years are required to provide students with public school choice: the option to transfer to other designated public schools in their districts for the next school year.
Second, the act required that, by the end of the 2005 to 2006 school year, all teachers be “fully qualified” under the law’s conditions, including new teachers having a bachelor’s degree and passing a state test in their subject or subjects. In addition, middle and high school teachers must have some sort of advanced certification, such as an undergraduate major or graduate degree in the subjects they teach.
Third, the act emphasizes the importance of reading and math as core subjects. State standards are required in those subjects, but each state has great latitude in defining their own standards. Furthermore, the act is supposed to put significant money into early reading classes, with the goal of every child being able to read by the third grade.
Where has NCLB succeeded?
No Child Left Behind has greatly increased accountability, making it much more difficult for school districts to hide low-performing schools and achievement gaps between more and less privileged students. Because of NCLB, large suburban schools can no longer rely on the excellent overall performance of a majority of students as cover for the failures among a minority group or special-ed students.
Possibly more lasting is the expansion of the federal government’s role in education through NCLB. Through the law, the federal government is now playing a far larger role in education standard-setting and student performance than ever before. As the desegregation battles of the second half of the 20th century proved, while it is ultimately states and local governments that implement reforms in education, it often helps to have the power and funding of the federal government to expedite that process.
Where has NCLB fallen short?
While NCLB has done an excellent job in highlighting shortfalls in American education, it has a far less impressive record in terms of actually fixing those problems.
Most unfortunately, states have been allowed to develop their own tests for assessing reading and math skills. This has led to serious discrepancies in measuring student performance. In Mississippi, for example, 89 percent of students scored proficient or better on the state assessment. Yet on the federal National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tests a sample of students in every state, only 18 percent of Mississippi students scored proficient or better. In math, some two-thirds of Tennessee students who met the state standards did not meet the federal goal; 87 percent passed the state exam, but only 21 percent passed the NAEP. With such gaps in test results, states are able to meet federal requirements despite the poor performance of their students.
NCLB has also encouraged a narrow focus on math and reading. “Teaching to the test,” a phenomenon familiar in high school, is now commonplace at the elementary and middle school level, with some schools going so far as to cut out basic subjects like history or lab science to increase time studying reading and math skills.
What needs to be done now?
Federal law should continue to emphasize results-based accountability for all student subgroups, set explicit timelines and goals for closing gaps between groups, and ensure that districts provide the public with information about schools so parents can advocate for their children. Going forward, NCLB should aim to have every student not only “proficient,” but “ready for college work.” The three keys to having every student “college work-ready” are better data, better teachers, and better curricula.
Better Data
If educators and policymakers cannot identify the challenges they face in closing the achievement gap, the gap will never be closed. Since many states still cannot collect good data in a timely fashion, the Education Trust, a national nonprofit that does research on education and advocates for reform, recommends that Congress create a $100 million-per-year grant fund to assist states in developing, improving, maintaining, and operating statewide longitudinal education data systems. This money would be used to track individual students’ test records from year to year, student attainment in high school, and performance on college admissions assessments, as well as to collect information on untested students, including the reasons why they were not tested.
Better Teachers
Policymakers must focus on improving teaching quality, especially in high-poverty and high-minority schools where students are twice as likely to be taught by novice teachers. Districts must address inequities in teacher distribution and eliminate disproportionate assignment of ineffective teachers to high-poverty and high-minority schools. States must provide principals in high-poverty schools with additional resources to boost teacher quality.
Better Curricula
A recent report revealed that the core curriculum taught in public schools left three out of four ACT-tested 2006 high school graduates unprepared to earn a C in an entry-level college course. Congress should target funding so states can help teachers be more effective in producing student learning gains. These funds should be focused on helping high-poverty schools develop high-quality curricula, provide professional development around these materials, and create better tests.
What can you do to improve public education?
Our generation must step up to face the education challenge. School districts around the country are in desperate need of qualified teachers. According to the National Education Association, America will need more than 2 million new teachers in the next decade. A number of programs have emerged to address this impending shortage: Teach for America recruits recent college graduates to commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools. NYC Teaching Fellows trains recent college graduates to become teachers in New York City public schools and subsidizes a master’s degree in education—8,000 active fellows currently account for about 11 percent of all teachers citywide, including one-fourth of all math teachers. Mississippi Teacher Corps operates under a similar model, bringing recent college graduates to teach in high-poverty schools in the Mississippi Delta for two years while giving them a full scholarship to receive their teacher certification and master’s degree in education.
Young people complain all the time that they want to change the world but aren’t given the opportunity to do so. Public education is a place where you can make a difference.
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“Going forward, NCLB should aim to have every student not only “proficient,” but “ready for college work.” The three keys to having every student “college work-ready” are better data, better teachers, and better curricula.”
Oh, my God. How out of touch is this writer with reality? Currently, only 30-40% of our population has a college degree. Yet “everyone” is supposed to be up to doing college work? Why? Why are we so biased towards college graduates? Look at all of the important jobs out there that are being done by non-college graduates. Jobs that are much more important thand being an educator at Columbia University.
This writer says we need “better data and better teachers.” What about better students who are motivated towards an education or parents who are better at controlling thier children. This letter is filled with so many myths about public education that it’s obvious this person has never work in a public high school, especially a low, socio-economic one like I do. He must be bucking for a Margaret Spelling’s job because he is as naive as she is. It’s just too bad that we only require credentials to teach and not also to write or make educational policies. Maybe then our public schools would be doing a better job.
— Debra Craig - Jun 9, 10:00 PM - #above 1. A police detail should be on the alert to steer kids who are hanging out instead of being in class, back to their classes.
— van Thel, Mathias NMN - Jun 11, 12:45 PM - #2. Teacher pay, especially in poor areas must be increased.
3. Fund special after school programs to improve selected students’ learning/proficiency and mental outlook.
4. Evaluate the costs to steer legislation
This article is ill-informed at best. At a minimum, I would suggest that you read “Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Let Behind Act is Damaging our Children and our Schools,” Meier, Kohn, Darling-Hammond, Sizer, Wood and revisit your conclusions.
— Rose - Jun 11, 03:49 PM - #Debra, you seem to suggest we should lower our standards for the students our education system has been failing. The fact that such a low percentage of our population has a college degree isn’t an excuse to give up and not prepare them for college. We have done a great disservice to minority students, students with disabilities and students from poor families by tolerating low graduation rates and graduating students who haven’t received the instruction they deserve and aren’t prepared for postsecondary education. I understand getting students to “college-ready level” would be a serious stretch for states and teachers. As Kati Haycock, president of the EdTrust, says: “The standards in too many states are just too low—so low that meeting them doesn’t even come close to ensuring that students are adequately prepared to meet the real world challenges of college and careers. Some states are telling parents that their children are proficient even when those same children are performing below even the basic level on the NAEP.” But Haycock goes on: “If we want to encourage higher level teaching, and diminish educational practices that focus inordinately on low-level instruction and rote learning which have characterized too many of our classrooms in both the pre- and post-NCLB era, this step [stepping up standards] is essential. More than three-quarters of our high school graduates are entering college now, and the numbers are growing every year. Yet, more than one-third of them land in remedial courses that provide them with no college credit, cost them precious tuition dollars, and imperil their chances of ever earning that critically important college degree.”
You’re right that I can’t imagine what it’s like to face a class every day and have the responsibilities of a teacher (I hope to one day, but I’m still in college…although for the record, you suggest I don’t know what it’s like in an inner-city public high school – I graduated from one in Philadelphia.) I appreciate the great work you and countless other teachers do. That’s why I don’t just suggest raising standards – I say Congress and states should put money where their mouths are and dedicate funds to ensure that teachers are equipped to prepare every student for college.
— Zach - Jun 13, 04:56 PM - #You make a good point about the benefits of measurement – with more hard data out there, bureaucracies find it harder to hide their failings and innovators can more easily test their ideas. Your point that NCLB can narrow the focus of education is also well taken. In this system, what role, if any should charter, specialty (e.g. New York’s Aviation High School), and magnet schools play? Will they only frustrate the intentions of NCLB by draining high scoring students away from low-performing schools?
— Sal - Jun 14, 10:38 AM - #Also, any attempt at increasing teacher standards and remedying the unfair apportionment of good teachers must inevitably reckon with the teachers’ unions. To what extent is NCLB relevant given their power?
No Child Left Behind Papaer for Argumentative paper. Draw backs of No Child Left Behind
— Jose Flores - Oct 3, 05:49 PM - #Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007 Print This | Email This
Tenn. Public Schools’ Special Diploma Unfair, Student Suit SaysBy TRICIA GORMAN, Andrews Publications Staff WriterThe Tennessee Department of Education discriminates against special needs and poor students by giving different diplomas to students who fail a standard assessment exam, according to a federal court lawsuit.All public school students in Tennessee must take the “Gateway Examination” before graduating from high school. Any student who does not pass all three parts of the test does not receive a diploma.The Federal Class Action Law suit that was filed against the Tennessee Department of Education will go to pretrial on 9/05/2008 at 9:30 am.The pretrial will be held in the Federal Building.The class action law suit was filed on July 24,2007 ,on behalf of thousands of students that did not receive a high school diploma for failure to pass the Gateway/ Exam.The Gateway exam is a high school graduation requirement.This law suit is challenging the constitutionality of the testing requirement.This is the first time that a standardized test has been legally challenged within the state of Tennessee.The class action lawsuit filed is the first law suit to be filed in the state to challenge the No Child Left Behind & State Law requirement in this state.For further information contact me ,Latricia Wilson at (901) 336-1046.
Students with learning disabilities who pass their classes but not the assessment exam receive a “special diploma,” rather than the standard certificate.Two former students in the state’s public school system are suing over the certificate in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. They say it is discriminatory for the schools to give some students a different nonequivalent diploma that is not accepted by some colleges and employers.The students, Latricia Wilson and Corey Robinson, seek to represent a class of thousands of current and former students. Wilson has a mild learning disability and needs some accommodations to help her in her coursework and tests, the complaint says.But she says no accommodations were made when she took the Gateway Exam, and she failed the math portion of the test. Although she passed all her classes, she received a special diploma upon graduating.Wilson says in the complaint that she has been turned down by every college she has applied to because she does not have a regular diploma.Robinson also passed all his classes but failed the Gateway Exam and received a special diploma. Colleges and employers have rejected him also, according to the complaint.A special diploma is not the equivalent of a standard high school diploma, the suit says, and carries with it social and economic stigmas. No major college or employer will accept it as proof of the ability to perform at the high school level, the plaintiffs say.Some students with special diplomas have gone on to get GEDs even though they have completed high school courses just to have some proof to offer prospective employers, the suit says.The plaintiffs say many of the students who have passed the coursework but failed some part of the final exam have learning disabilities that could be overcome with reasonable accommodations for the exam.The suit alleges that the Tennessee Department of Education violates the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by not providing mandatory accommodations, such as an alternative assessment test.The defendant’s failure to inform students that the special diploma is not equivalent to a standard diploma and provide the students some opportunity to object to the certificate violates the constitutional due-process guarantees of the Fifth and 14th Amendments, the suit says.Since more affluent students are able to circumvent the assessment exam by attending private or parochial schools, they can graduate with standard diplomas.Poorer students do not have that opportunity, in violation of the equal-protection clause of the Constitution, the plaintiffs say.The suit seeks to stop the state from using the Gateway Exam to assess students until a less oppressive means can be found and asks the court to monitor the progress toward a new assessment.The plaintiffs further request $60 million in damages.To comment, ask questions or contribute articles, contact West.Andrews.Editor@Thomson.com. Wilson et al. v. Tennessee Department of Education, No. 2:07 CV 2490, amended complaint filed (W.D. Tenn. July 26, 2007).Class Action Litigation ReporterVolume 14, Issue 0708/07/2007
Second – There’s a young lady in Memphis who needs your help in demonstrating how the Memphis City Schools have failed her, and other students who are given a “certificate of completion” for finishing high school, passing required coursework, and yet, due to an exam, which the curriculum for the students is not being taught, they are set up for certain failure on the Gateway Exam, and will continue to add to the negative statistics of poverty, murder, gang violence, substance abuse and under or unemployment running rampant in Memphis. The young lady who is taking on this effort to expose just how “No Child Left Behind” is an abysmal failure in Memphis is named Latricia Wilson, and her story has been covered by the local media. She introduced herself to me and my editor, Bruce Dixon, when we were there in Memphis back in January, at the media convention. I hosted her in my home in June, when she came to present her issue to Representative Steve Cohen.
BTW, Ms. Wilson has managed to file a class-action suit against the Memphis City Schools for this failure, so stay tuned.
Anyway, what impressed me about your current Congressman is that (a) he didn’t blow her off, and (b) when she began to articulate her issue, he immediately offered to put her in touch with the Chairman of the Education sub-committee, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif). Rep. Cohen gave Ms. Wilson a two-hour meeting on a Friday morning (when many of his collegues, including some members of the CBC, were busy blowing town for parts unknown, if not back to their districts).
Expect Latricia to become a “shining star” on the Hill when she gives that testimony before Rep. Miller’s subcommittee, later this year, after the August recess.
I took the opportunity to inform Rep. Cohen that he will be featured in the upcoming CBC Report Card, and he told me he welcomed being evaluated on his performance. He also stated that his only ambition as a Congressman was to represent the 9th district of Memphis, and he also stated he uses the CBC Report Card as a benchmark to stay on top of issues that will be germane to the 9th district in order to provide effective representation. Rep. Cohen also told me that he represents a unique district in terms of demographics, (60% African-American), and in order to provide effective representation, he relies on his collegues, such as Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA, my home rep) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). All are progressive members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Which leads me to:
Third – the Congressional Black Caucus Report Card – is going to a new level this year. We are featuring not only CBC members, but members of the House of Representatives with 25% or more African-Americans in their district, and we will be comparing their legislative records to that of their African-American peers. The card will include Republicans as well as Democrats and Independents, so it should be a whopper! At present, that’s consuming most of my time, as well as preparing for the CBC Legislative Weekend in September (where African-American bloggers will be desending on DC to raise hell with the CBC members who supported that Democratic Presidential Debate on Fox Propaganda Network). I will try to post as much as my schedule will allow, so have patience and thanks for the support.
— Latricia Wilson - Nov 24, 07:50 PM - #Labels: CBCMonitor, New York Times, Noam Schieber, Steve Cohen
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