Many Children Left Behind: Introduction Summary

Many Children Left Behind
Introduction
--George Wood

Summary

No Child Left Behind sounds like a good idea. It has its origins in our proud and hard-won tradition of improving access to and quality of education for all learners. As the reauthorization of 1965’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (which gave us Title 1, among other things), it is designed to close the achievement gap by targeting areas of high need. However, despite forty years’ trying, the achievement gap is still there, and the reauthorization we call NCLB is actually making things worse.

NCLB calls for increases in money for schools that serve poor students, insists that teachers be highly qualified, and forces school districts to disaggregate data so all subgroup scores can be seen. These are not in themselves bad things—but the ways they are implemented are damaging. The mandate is underfunded by an estimated $12 billion dollars, and hits a low blow to underperforming schools (usually the poorest to begin with); restrictive definitions of teacher qualifications make it difficult to hire teachers in rural or multi-subject positions; subgroups like EC and ESL are virtually set up for failure with impossible proficiency targets; and the bill is full of special interest provisions.

NCLB cannot be fixed. Fixation on test scores causes declines in school quality, not increases; equity vanishes as nontested subjects get shunted aside; and the threat of federal takeover erodes local support for and trust in schools. We need instead to look at other types of school reform to increase the quality of education for all children.