Let’s Scrap No Child Left Behind
By Rep. Scott Garrett Posted in Policy — Comments (23) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I have been increasingly outspoken about the negative impact that NCLB has had on our children’s education, and consequently on our children’s future. I will continue to speak out against the problems of NCLB until they are fixed and I will continue to speak out against NCLB until parents and educators are empowered to make the changes that will ensure an environment in which schools can teach and children can learn. More and more information is coming to light, attracting more and more supporters to the belief that not only should No Child Left Behind not be reauthorized at this time but it should be completely scrapped.
Read on...
In a recent New York Times op-ed, Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University and former assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, wrote that “the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 is fundamentally flawed” and that it should be “overhauled not just tweaked.”
She wrote:
The latest national tests, released last week, show that academic gains since 2003 have been modest, less even than those posted in the years before the law was put in place. In eighth-grade, reading, there have been no gains at all since 1998.
The main goal of the law – that all children in the United States will be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014 – is simply unattainable. The primary strategy – to test all children in those subjects in grades three through eight every year – has unleashed an unhealthy obsession with standardized testing that has reduced the time available for teaching other important subjects. Furthermore, the law completely fractures the traditional limits on federal interference in the operation of local schools.
And, let me repeat that lost point because I believe that it is the missing piece in this jigsaw puzzle: NCLB “completely fractures the traditional limits on federal interference in the operation of local schools.”
Many times, I have referenced the work of Neil McCluskey, a CATO institute scholar who shares my concerns about education policy.
In his 2007 study entitled “End it, Don’t Mend it,” McCluskey concluded that “NCLB has been ineffective in achieving its intended goals, has had negative unintended consequences, is incompatible with policies that do work, is the mercy of a political process that can only worsen its prospects AND is based on the premises that are fundamentally flawed.”
Using several shocking statistics, McCluskey points out how states are lowering their education standards and creating a “race to the bottom” to ensure that their schools will not be denied federal funding.
- In 2003, the State of Texas decreased the number of questions students needed to answer correctly to the pass the NCLB test from 24 to 20.
- In Michigan, when 1, 513 schools were placed on NCLB’s “need improvement list,” the state lowered the percentage of students required to pass high school English from 75 % to 42 %.
-The State of Ohio back-loaded its adequate yearly progress goals, aiming to increase proficiency by just 3.3 % per year for the law’s first six years but then by 40 percent in the last 6 years. They did this in hopes of meeting NCLB’s unrealistic goal to have 100% efficiency in math and reading in ALL schools in the United States.
And, there are other studies that lead to similar conclusions.
In 2005, the Fordham Foundations compared the state proficiency scores to NAEP (or National Assessment of Education Progress) test scores, and the results are striking. The NAEP test has generally maintained its standards over the years and can serve as an external audit of sorts on the NCLB state tests. It is a universal test taken by a sample of students across the nation.
In the Fordham study, of the 20 states that reported gains on their test in 8th grade reading proficiency, ONLY 3 showed any progress at even the “basic” level of the NAEP test. Furthermore, in a new study released today by the Fordham Foundation, researchers note that “in at least two grades, twice as many states in the US have seen their test become easier rather than more difficult.”
This research startles me, and quite frankly, it outrages me. If Washington is forcing our schools to lower their standards, putting our children’s education at risk, we must act to reverse this trend. And, now with NCLB’s reauthorization on the table is the time to do something about it. NCLB has made education policy not about improving students’ skills but about meeting numeric demands from Washington.
I believe that the decisions about education are best left in the hands of parents, educators and local school boards and that the way to improve children’s prospects for the future is to return authority and accountability in education to those decision-makers. That’s why I’m bringing a new solution to the table.
I have introduced HR 3177, the Local Education Authority Returns Now (LEARN) Act. This bill would allow states the ability to opt out of the requirements of NCLB, without penalizing them. Their federal education funding would remain within the state.
It’s obvious that states have grown tired of Washington dangling money over their heads and holding them accountable to ridiculous federal standards. We can no longer allow states to lower their standards for education to meet somewhat arbitrary and absolutely burdensome requirements. We need to allow states to set their own accountability and proficiency standards without fear of repercussions from DC.
Let’s give control back to states and local authorities, let’s put education policy back in the hands where it belongs.
And I do not mean that as a smartAZ comment, I am just curious if you do and feel that NCLB is OK, or do not and seriously think that NCLB is a good thing...
We are "lucky" to live in a great school district (or I would move). My sons' high school repeatedly has double digit "perfect" SAT (gee, yet another test...) math scores. While not necessarily a fan of NCLB, i think it is a good idea with little support and/or execution. I think we must demand measurability and accountability in our schools, "for the children".
I have two sixth graders and one first grader. I think NCLB is a complete disaster, and it may be because of the difference in the age of our children (congratulations, by the way!)
In districts that are average or below average, teaching to the test begins on day one. Guess what the test doesn't require? Spelling, for one. I have had to do tons of remedial work with my kids after I found this out.
"Measurability and accountability" is a joke. There are two mostly black high schools in our area that have had the lowest rating possible for a number of years, and should be shut down, but aren't because of the militant organizations in our area. They ran a white Superintendent out of town (Durham, NC - heard of us before?) because these schools were failing, but the black Superintendent brought in to replace her is finding out that the situation is nearly unsalvagable. The parents don't give a crap because schools are babysitting while they go score crack or a 16 oz, and their children are left alone at night with no chance - NO CHANCE - to even complete homework, much less perform well on any test.
Teachers teach to the lowest common denominator, and if you are a ESL student, or ADHD, or simply inattentive, you get most of the attention. If your child is normal, can spell, and does not bring a knife to school, they sit in the corner and do busy work until the test. As a result, whites and Asians are fleeing to private schools or better districts, which excacerbates the problem.
Thanks for listening, and this rant is not directed at you at all - just NCLB. Here are my points:
1) Test, test and retest all you want. If the nuclear family is in chaos, it will never matter. The children do not have a chance. Don't even get me started about ESL and the resources THAT sucks up.
2) Rate all you want. I can tell as soon as I walk in the door whether a school is right for my kids. Some, very few, but some public schools in this area are doing well. Like I said, I can tell, and not from any rating system. It is whether pants are pulled up, mouths are closed, behinds are in seats and pens are in motion.
Solutions:
1) Federal government out of education. Right now. Period. When Republicans were Conservatives, this used to be on the table.
2) Hold PARENTS accountable for their children, hold fathers accountable for their responsibilities, and have minority leaders address the collapse of the black family before the damage cannot be undone.
If Jena were burned to the ground, if the "n" word word made illegal under penalty of death, if Don Imus was dead and buried and the Rutgers basketball team were handed the state of New Jersey, and if the levees in New Orleans were 50 feet high and 100 feet thick, it would not make a dime's worth of difference until the dissolution of the nuclear family is addressed.
Here in Phoenix we have had AIMS - a standards program the state uses to allocate funding. They test every couple of years, and withold funding for poor performers. The theory is you get what you pay for (or get less of what you don't). Yes, there is much screaming (mostly from teachers), and our Dem. governor doesn't like it much, but we make her do it (albeit half-assed). I think the biggest problems with it come from poor execution and poorer enforcement. Everyone is real quick to come up with their excuse du jour for any failing test score, and they are given a pass. It is a harsh program, but it could work if the teachers got behind it. Currently, they are just teaching to the test. If you make the test consist of what you want the students to learn, then the teacher would be teaching what you want taught. I hate to think what they would teach to if there were no test. It sounds like your test could use an upgrade.
So, how is the new superintendant working out? How many more students need to be failed by this broken down system before we toss the whole thing out and start over? I think the last 60 years have proven that if you use schools as babysitters, you graduate babies. Time for a little "tough love". They do (did?) pretty well with this at the catholic schools.
Yes, I understand that you aren't directing your comments to me specifically, nor am I to you.
As to your points:
1. MY children mean everything to me, so I would move in a heartbeat if I felt my kids were not getting the education they should be getting. My own personal form of vouchers. MY children have a nuclear family, so I'm covered. As for ESL, I'm sitting 180 miles from our nations southern border. There are schools on the border with students who cross over every day to attend AZ schools (for free!), and go back home at night. Yeah, we feel your pain.
2. MY children are in excellent schools, and I too, would be able to tell very quickly. I was keenly aware of this when we moved into our neighborhood.
And your solutions:
1. Yup, and Yup. But until the fence is built and works, AZ will be paying a big price (not just $$$, but quality, too) for education. I don't think they fully appreciate this point in Wisconsin...
2. Holding parents (and students) accountable should be step 1. I also think that weaning people off of entitlements will (would) be key to ending this horrible cycle. Throwing money at problems doesn't seem to work. Doesn't it seem obvious that rewarding bad behavior begets more bad behavior?
Excellent points, and I agree with you.
It sounds like AIMS has potential, and I get your "if it were enforced" angle. The failing schools here are given chance after chance after chance, with no improvement, so the "if enforced" caveat probably also applies here. Generally these schools are majority minority, so there is no chance that the hammer drops on them.
Fortunately we are in a charter school, so I do not have to move or home school. We initially liked the fact that our kids were exposed to a lot of diversity among the students and families in traditional public schools, but the cost soon became too high.
As for our test, it was indeed upgraded recently. The scores plummeted and everyone panicked. It seems as though some states keep the graduation mill going by dumbing down the end-of-grade test and giving false rankings. NC decided not to do that, and the first year out of the gate for the new test was not a good one.
The Superintendent here is actually pretty good, but the improvements he is getting mostly involve cutting red tape and getting individual schools to take responsibility for themselves (what a concept!). He is able to do that because he is black, which removes the race angle from militants. It has not, however, helped improve tradionally black high schools one bit, which is leaving the militants confused.
Right now, we are in a school that is orderly, exciting, nurturing and excellent. It is also hated by the education establishment because it is a charter school. I also made the decision to move / opt out if we could not find suitable education for our children, and fortunately have not had to do so.
In response to your point, I believe the whole system needs to be scrapped and a tax credit system needs to be used - vouchers still give the government one or two fingers in the pie. Schools need to be local, neighborhood schools, where parents and kids know each other and are accountable to one another, where no kid is left behind, but there are also kids who are allowed to get ahead. Public education has long left its core responsibility in favor of one big make-work project for administrators.
Good parents move or opt out, those without the knowledge or skills stay put and accept the inferior product, and the system continues to spiral downward.
and stop pouring federal funds into the states. The fed has no business messing with, or funding, education. It's a state/local matter and there is not only no proof that additional money improves education, there are studies to the contrary.
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
But, with the way this government is set up, it can never happen (when was the last time any department was scrapped?). I would love to see it, though.
A gradual draw-down would be cool, though. The schools are rather dependent on their nanny right now!
Plus, here in AZ we have this little problem with educating the sons and daughters of neighboring nations that is sucking up tremendous amounts of resources. This little problem would need to be remedied first.
You probably supported Prop 200. And you probably think it's a good idea that people have to show a photo id to vote.
Oh wait, so do I.
How about them DBacks!!!!
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
About that fence thingy... Oh, yeah, I want that, too!
And yes, How 'bout them DBacks!!! (More WS Championships this century than the Yankees!)
The only way that I would support scraping NCLB is if you already had a full voucher program in your hands for all states.
I personally know kids who have been able to get out of failing schools and into good schools because of the mechanisms put in place by NCLB.
It's also good to see schools forced to deal with their problems. Is there an over emphasis on teaching for the test? Perhaps. Especially in the pass or fail grades, but as a parent, I prefer it to went on prior to this.
More local control. More rescources should go directly to teachers for educational supplies, not over-paid, underworked district administrators or federal regulators.
Conservatives don't seem to like it, I've never met a teacher who likes, states don't like it, as a parent I don't like it.
It seems as if one can avoid letting other things get in the way, NCLB cold pretty easily be killed in the same bi-partisan style that created it.
and now has a life (and a constituency) of its own. I'd love to kill it (as well as the DofE). But it wouldn't be easy.
It's war -- so when can we start shooting back at the enemy Democrats?
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
NCLB cold pretty easily be killed in the same bi-partisan style that created it.
The only way I see NCLB being killed is to leave the carrots (the massive increase in spending) and take out the sticks (the standards). I'd be all for repealing NCLB in its entirety, but realistically, that money has been long gone the moment it was appropriated for the first time and it is never coming back.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
While the abolition of the DoE would be best, any steps toward reducing federal involvment are great. I hope your bill can gain traction.
If we can't get rid of DoE, at least limit its power. Education control should be as local as possible, which is only possible with most funding being local.
You WILL NOT get the federal government out of public education without repealing all the federal civil rights laws and eliminating all federal spending on education.
I attribute the fact that I did not spend my life working for the minimum wage at a plant somewhere in the rural South to the National Defense Eduction Act, which allowed my poor rural schools to replace the History books that still speculated over whether railroads would some day crisscross the Country. Seriously, it only took a little spending to dramatically increase both the quality and the direction of education. I really don't want to give up the ability to target educational priorities towards national priorities. The fact that I at times do not agree with those priorities doesn't mean that I want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
The most important factor though, is the impact of federal civil rights laws on public education, and especially the impact of disparate treatment theories on civil rights litigation. In the early days of a showing that a person was a member of a protected class combined with a showing that something "bad" had happened to that person pretty much assured either an EEOC finding against a school or an employer or a jury verdict against same. If an advocacy group could show that a curriculum or testing scheme, or job qualification in employment cases, produced an outcome where members of the protected class had lower test scores, graduation rates, hiring rates, etc., that scheme was deemed to be definitionally discriminatory. Employers reacted by reducing their minimum qualifications for most jobs not requiring a specific degree or certification to "body still warm." Schools reacted, either to actual verdicts or out of fear, by "dumbing down" curriculum and in large measure eliminating objective testing. If no one, or more correctly no group, can fail, then there can be no discrimination. Of course, this dynamic was helped along by all sorts of groovy theories from the ed schools and advocacy groups about cultural bias in testing and language, remember ebonics, and generally "celebrating diversity;" failing a test was not a bad thing, it was just your thing, your answer wasn't wrong, it was just different.
Civil rights law has evolved to usually require both an intent to discriminate and actual damage to the plaintiff, but fears of litigation and groovy theories have stuck to education and to a lesser extent to employers, especially public employers. First some state governments and later the fed through NCLB tried to reverse the dumbing down by imposing state level and now national level standardized testing to determine if those always ever so successful schools were actually teaching anything. What most parents already knew was confirmed by testing that, at least initially, hadn't been manipulated by the teachers and educrats; Johnny not only can't read, he can't do math, he can't write, and he doesn't know much about anything. The notion of imposing an outside standard to try to reverse the dumbing down is, I believe, both admirable and necessary.
Thank God I no longer have kids in public education; I endured sending four through it though if anyone is contemplating the education version of chickenhawking. So, I don't know how well the testing is or isn't working. Since the educrats and teachers hate it, I think it must be doing something good. The cries of "it's not fair" coming from the usual suspects mean it must be at least showing something if not doing something.
With all deference to federalism, the states and localities completely lost control of educational standards and the dive to the shallow end of the gene pool started there, not with NCLB. Once is accepting the NEA/Liberal lie if one attributes causation to NCLB; NCLB was instituted to stop what the liberals/educrats/teachers started, the abysmal dumbing down of education. Now it appears that many on the Right want to remove the fed from this. I can only ask if you are willing to back that up by donning your shield and buckler to take on the educational establishment in your town or state and insist on educational standards. If you're not, let the fed do it.
In Vino Veritas
Or, just continue to fund it, while not holding the schools accountable? In the real world (you know where you are judged by performance) there are standards and measurements. If you don't meet them, you are demoted or fired. This needs to happen in the education "business" as well, or our children will be forever mediocre. Meritocracy always beets mediocracy.