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Caffeinating NCLB
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Patrick R. Riccards
Patrick Riccards is the author of Eduflack, a blog focused on the effective communication of education reform. Currently CEO of Exemplar Strategic Communications, an education advocacy agency, Patrick’s work as a senior advisor with the National Reading Panel (1998-2002) and project director for the U.S. Department of Education’s Partnership for Reading (2002-2005) makes him one of the top education communications executives in the nation.
A former aide to members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, Patrick is a contributing author of Why Kids Can’t Read: Challenging the Status Quo in Education, published in 2006 by Rowman Littlefield Education.
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Patrick Riccards | TheApple.com
If we’re to believe the chattering class, the greatest problem in public education today is No Child Left Behind. It has destroyed our schools, bankrupted our districts, frustrated our teachers, and destroyed the morale of our students. Those standards and high stakes testing, in particular, have been the death of us.
You hear it so much that you almost believe it. Then you get that slap upside the head, much like an over-caffeinated espresso, that reminds of you the truth. This week, that slap has come from Seattle, hardly the home of the George W. fan club. It seems the Seattle Times has thrown its editorial muscle behind NCLB (kudos to Ed Trust’s Equity Express for highlighting it.)
In a strongly worded editorial this week, the Seattle Times praises NCLB for “injecting rigor and accountability into a system that previously had little of both.” The editors also note that recent improvements to the law — including demonstrations of flexibility on AYP — will take years for us to see, and we need to be patient. The full article is here.
It’s unusual to see such pieces these days, when NCLB has been left as a punchline to a national education joke. But as the Seattle Times and many others have noted, there is value to the law. Forget, for a moment, that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act isn’t going away. There are real positives in this law, and states, municipalities, and schools are seeing that.
The Times is absolutely correct. We are a better nation because of NCLB. A national commitment to academic rigor is a good thing. A national commitment to student achievement is a good thing. A national commitment to doing what works in getting kids to learn is a good thing. And a national belief that EVERY kid can succeed, given the right opportunities and circumstances, is indeed a good thing.
These were the sorts of messages we needed to hear three years ago, when we actually had the chance to reauthorize NCLB. As Spellings and ED now play out the clock, there are few sane policy-wonks that believe reauthorization will happen this year. Most don’t even believe it will happen in 2009.
That could be a very different story if editorials like those appearing in Seattle had been printed years ago, and with in greater numbers. And the responsibility, or the failed responsibility, for that falls squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. Department of Education. They want us to drink the kool-aid, but they failed to market it to us as the end-all, be-all thirst quencher for our educational woes. They failed to build demand for NCLB, and instead tried to force it upon us, no questions asked. Thus, we are in the situation we’re in today.
The age-old story of opportunities lost and chances squandered. Hopefully, we will always have the intent of NCLB propelling our ed reform sails … even if it goes by a different name and has different champions. Rigor, accountability, achievement, success should have no party affiliation and should always remain in vogue.
vegid
5 months ago
4 comments
It is time for educational reform in this country!!!! I am not opposed of state testing for our students, however, the tests are not the only way to asses the many areas of learning that our students tackle in the classroom on a day to day basis. Maybe it would be a note worthy evaluation if the tests were actually written by people in the classrooms, and graded by educators and not Kelly Services. Stop cutting the arts!!! the areas that make our students well rounded learners. Make and Keep Learning Fun, so that great teachers don't leave the field.
etrapp
5 months ago
62 comments
The biggest problem with NCLB is that it isn't implemented at home. If you want to see changes in America's students then parents need to be concerned. It isn't a lack of good teachers (who are already expected to raise everyone else's children), programs, and funding. It's a severe lack of morals and good parenting. EDUCATION STARTS AT HOME. If only more people were concerned with giving their children strong moral traits instead of an X Box, where would we be?
tfteacher
5 months ago
2 comments
NCLB is a bit like drilling for more oil. It won't solve the long term problem. If the problem is rigor, its hard to force rigor when it is not pushed at home. If the problem is resources, they should give us some. If the problem is poverty, disenfranchisement, and other more socioeconomic causes, then NCLB is useless. I am pretty sure students were being taught before NCLB.
tattatu
5 months ago
2 comments
SPS just gave their superintendent a 10% raise and they have an official record dropout rate of 48%. The entire state is in crisis mode and your writing kudos for NCLB. What have low academic programs accomplished? Increased educational costs 240% for the past 5 years. Schools are now more resegregated. Over half the high school graduates are taking remedial math classes. Alternative programs with record numbers of minorities that will not graduate. Should I continue.....
johnslat
5 months ago
1750 comments
I've always liked that old adage - the road to heck is paved with good intentions.
That pretty much sums up how I feel about NCLB.
Here's an interesting article from AFT:
The AFT has long championed the principles underlying the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act: high standards for all children, with appropriate tests to measure whether the standards are being met; disaggregation of student achievement data; "highly qualified" teachers and well-trained paraprofessionals in every classroom; and extra support for students and schools performing below proficient levels.
NCLB represents the federal government's commitment to these principles and to the goal of eliminating the existing achievement gap. Since the bill's passage in 2002, the AFT and its state and local affiliates have worked with the Department of Education, state and local education authorities and others in the civil rights and education communities to help achieve the positive goals of NCLB. The AFT recognizes that the principles and goals of the law cannot be met without changes in the law, proper implementation and the necessary funding.
The adequate yearly progress (AYP) formula is a highly inaccurate and arbitrary yardstick for measuring progress. The law sets predetermined benchmarks for students' proficiency without taking into account schools' starting points. Furthermore, its testing of students with disabilities and English language learners is neither valid nor reliable.
The "highly qualified" teacher requirements, as currently implemented, are unworkable for some teachers and do not apply to all individuals, such as supplemental service providers and charter school teachers, who teach public school students. Paraprofessionals are not being provided with the range of options necessary to demonstrate that they are qualified, nor the financial support necessary to meet the requirements.
While the AFT supports targeting resources to disadvantaged students who are struggling to reach state standards, the narrow set of school improvement interventions are not research based and may be punitive rather than helpful to the schools and children they serve. Furthermore, requiring schools to divert scarce Title I resources to support public school choice and supplemental services diverts already limited classroom resources to these unproven interventions.
These problems with the structure and implementation of the law have been exacerbated by a lack of adequate funding from the federal government. It is clear that the increases in funding recommended by the administration for the upcoming fiscal year are far short of what is necessary to get the job done, and what the Congress anticipated would be required to meet the mandates of the law.
To this end, the AFT is working tirelessly to achieve the necessary changes in NCLB so that its promised benefits reach every child.
http://www.aft.org/topics/nclb/index.htm
MisterD
5 months ago
452 comments
Certainly not a silver bullet nor overwhelmingly effective, yet in the light of honest analysis it has done more good than harm, and historically even that little improvement has been very very difficult to achieve.
hotteacher1976
5 months ago
372 comments
NCLB's problem is the lack of implementation for the vast spectrum of educational needs in America's schools. Furthermore, I agree with bfulgham!
bfulgham
5 months ago
10 comments
I, for one, do not believe the problems with NCLB was marketing! I agree that strong marketing may have made many non-educators think it would be the b"end-all, be-all thirst quencher for our educational woes", in fact I think that is what most people believed. Nor is the problem with NCLB that it set high expectations for our educational system. The problem is that it set forth a "one-size fits all" plan. An excellent plan would have set high expectations for individual student growth rather than say that every child must reach the same goal. Rather than setting educational goals for "highly qualified" teachers it would have developed a scoring rubric for classroom performance and would have rewarded teachers and districts that showed continued INDIVIDUAL growth! We are supposed to be a nation that prizes individuality, creativity, and the desire to achieve, but what we are creating with NCLB is a nation that only knows how to do exactly what it takes to meet expectations set by a nebulous bureaucracy that has no respect or regard for effort, growth, or the individual.