It was no real surprise when the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress numbers pointed out that, after untold millions of dollars invested in NCLB, the achievement gap between white and minority students is not closing. Since the law’s passage the single-minded focus on standardized test scores has done little to improve our schools. Rather, ideologically driven curriculum reforms such as Reading First and a lack of attention to supports that would genuinely improve our schools has led to changes that have had little positive effect on students and children.
No doubt more tests are being taken and more ‘drill and kill’ activities being run in order to prepare children for these high-stakes exercises. But clearly this is not making the difference many hoped for with the passage of the law. And it is narrowing the school experience for many of our most disadvantaged children as their schools are pressed to ‘produce or else.’
With the entry of the new administration and congress, we have the possibility of reforming NCLB and returning to the original intent of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The editorial writer in the Las Vegas Sun captured this, “No Child Left Behind Act requires more than a few modifications… At minimum, Congress should completely overhaul the law before any more children are left behind.
Of course the danger is that the NCLB will either be just tinkered with or replaced with something that does not undertake the hard work necessary to make equal educational opportunity an American reality.
On the first point, one had to chuckle reading a recent Education Week opinion piece suggesting that one reform necessary in NCLB is to “monitor how educators prepare students for accountability tests—whether they improve their instruction or resort to inappropriate forms of test preparation.” Outside of cheating, what would this inappropriate preparation be? When the only thing that matters is the test score, not what children have learned, and when the test results are linked to school closure, pay increases, and student advancement, of course kids are going to be drilled on practice questions, test strategies, and how to guess. Remember, all that matters on these standardized measures is the right answer, not how you get there.
Which brings us to the real work necessary to support every school so that every child has access to an education that prepares him or her for life in our democracy. It starts with ensuring that education is not just about filling in bubbles on tests, but rather is engaging and challenging and results are measured by real performance. To make this happen for every child requires a well-prepared and supported teacher in every classroom, not just in the most well-to-do districts. And the support these teachers need comes from communities who have equitable resources with which to educate their children. Coupled with insuring that every child has access to adequate health care, housing, and nutrition and we would have a strategy that would indeed leave no child behind.
The Forum is committed to promoting this agenda and our Will We Really Campaign (www.willwereally.org) has enlisted over 10,000 others in this work. As a high school principal I can only hope that policy makers will rethink NCLB with a focus on what matters in the lives of our children and teachers as opposed to simply cranking out more tests.