Tag Archive for 'NCLB'

“Universal Proficiency is Unattainable. Period”

Published by Robert Pondiscio on November 11, 2008 in Assessment and Testing, Curriculum and Educational Policy. 8 Comments

The current economic climate make it unlikely that President-elect Obama can enact the full range of education intitiatives his campaign promised, but one pressing issue cannot be deferred, writes Diane Ravitch on Forbes.com.  The reauthorization and redesign of NCLB.  Six years after its bipartisan passage, she notes, we have nothing to show for it.

NCLB has turned every school into a test-preparation factory, focused solely on reading and mathematics. They are the only subjects that count in a school’s ranking, so teachers routinely reduce attention to history, science, foreign language, literature, geography, the arts and other non-tested subjects. With this narrowing of the curriculum, students may be getting dumbed down even if their scores go up. Do we really want a society where our fellow citizens know nothing of history, literature, science and the arts?

First, Ravitch says, the Obama administration should “eliminate the goal of universal proficiency by 2014, because it is unattainable. Period. No state or nation has ever achieved 100% proficiency.” 

Second, it should recognize that the federal government is best at providing accurate information, such as what children in each grade need to know to be abreast of international standards (that is known as the curriculum) and whether our children are meeting those standards (that is, testing); third, the administration should expect states and districts to fashion appropriate reforms and remedies for their schools.

Congress, Ravitch concludes, is not the right place to decide how to fix our schools. And more money isn’t the answer if we don’t have the right vision for improving education.

The Rent Comes Due on NCLB

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 13, 2008 in Educational Policy. 3 Comments

Even successful schools in California are suddenly having trouble keeping up with mandated AYP, thanks to the performance equivalent of a mortgage balloon payment that kicked in this year, requiring all tested subgroups to make a sudden big leap. 

The New York Times looks at one such school, Prairie Elementary School in Sacramento, which has steadily improved each of its student groups — Hispanics, blacks, Asians, whites, American Indians, Filipinos, Pacific Islanders, English learners, the disabled — toward higher proficiency under NCLB.   But this year, they were required to jump by 11 percentage points. 

Across the nation, far more schools failed to meet the federal law’s testing targets than in any previous year, according to new state-by-state data. And in California and some other states, the problem traces in part to the fact that officials chose to require only minimal gains in the first years after the law passed and then very rapid annual gains later.

“And they’re asking for another 11 percent increase next year and the next, and that’s where I’m saying I just don’t know how,” says Fawzia Keval, Prarie Elementary’s principal. “I’m spending sleepless nights.”

“Part of the reason for the troubles was that the states gambled the law would have been softened when it came up for reauthorization in 2007, but efforts to change it stalled,” notes the Times’ Sam Dillon. ”This year Congress made no organized attempt to reconsider the law. With the nation facing urgent challenges, including two wars and economic turmoil, it could be a year or more before the new president can work with Congress to rewrite the law.”

Translation: Expect to hear this story over and over and over again.

Disadvantaged DC Kids Gaining Under NCLB

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 2, 2008 in Assessment and Testing and Educational Policy. 0 Comments

Students from poor families in the Washington, DC area have made major gains on reading and math tests and are starting to catch up with those from middle-class and affluent backgrounds, a Washington Post analysis shows.

In Montgomery County, for instance, students in poverty have earned better scores on Maryland’s reading test in each of the past five years, slicing in half the 28 percentage-point gulf that separated their pass rate from the county average. They also have made a major dent in the math gap. In Fairfax County, another suburban academic powerhouse, such students have slashed the achievement gaps on Virginia tests.

In the DC proper, reading and math scores have risen since 2006, but fewer that half passed last Spring’s tests.  “The results show substantial progress in the Washington area toward the law’s core goal: raising performance of disadvantaged children,” the paper reports.  “Although concerns persist about the law’s emphasis on standardized tests, many educators say it has forced schools to concentrate more systematically on each struggling student.”

Tilting at Windmills

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 17, 2008 in Educational Policy. 0 Comments

Apparently no one told Ed Secretary Margaret Spellings that No Child Left Behind is a damaged brand.  In a speech to the Aspen Institute, Spellings urged support for the law’s core principle: requiring states, school systems and schools to show that students can handle reading and math at grade level, the Washington Post reports. 

“We must resist pressure to weaken or water down accountability,” Spellings said. “To those who reject this goal, I ask, ‘What’s your answer?’ I have yet to meet a parent who doesn’t want their child on grade level right now, today, not 2014.”

Why NCLB is MIA

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 9, 2008 in Educational Policy. 0 Comments

Checker Finn noticed that the words “No Child Left Behind” never even crossed the lips of Obama or McCain in their convention acceptance speeches.

In the education sphere, that’s roughly equivalent to talking about America’s foreign and defense challenges without mentioning Iraq. NCLB is the 800-pound gorilla of federal K-12 education policy and the foremost topic of conversation whenever this domain is touched on. In fact, as I roam the land, it’s the only federal education issue that non-educators invariably ask about. Yet in their major campaign kick-off addresses, both wannabee presidents managed to talk about education without disclosing that they’re even aware of its existence.

NCLB is a “damaged brand,” Finn writes, even while the public still supports standards, assessment, and school accountability.  But the silence from the candidates has as much to do with “real and serious” internal schisms in each party, Finn says.  Democrats are split over the role of teachers’ unions, and if schools alone can boost performance, or if problems beyond schools’ control need to be addressed first. 

The GOP, too, faces a pair of big (and also overlapped) splits, both reverberating with past vs. present, of what might be called Reagan-era vs. Bush-era thinking about education priorities. One involves Uncle Sam’s role: forceful driver of reform or an undemanding source of dollars to states, districts and parents to do pretty much what they think best in the K-12 sphere. The other Republican schism is between supporters of school choice as the surest path to better education and advocates of standards, testing and results-based accountability, i.e. between reliance on the marketplace or on government-driven change.

The upshot: the less McCain and Obama say about NCLB the better. “Stick with the crowd pleasers today and save for tomorrow — some tomorrow after November 4 — any clear plans for what to do when statutory reality can no longer be avoided,” Finn concludes.

The Biggest Loser

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 4, 2008 in Educational Policy. 1 Comment

Who you callin’ a loser?  You’re not a loser.  I’m the loser! 

That’s the upshot of Mike Petrilli’s post over at Flypaper on who’s doing a worse job on education, the Dems or the GOP.  Ed Sector’s Kevin Carey has written a piece for the American Prospect titled “How the Dems Lost on Education,” which per Petrilli, ”is a call for Democrats to get on board the school reform train, particularly when it comes to NCLB-style accountability, charter schools, and public school choice.”

Not so fast, says Mike.  “I don’t mean to be ungracious, but if we’re talking about winners and losers, there’s a strong case to be made that NCLB has been a boon to the left and an embarrassment to the right.”

What with its race-based accountability system, Great Society-style aspiration for “universal proficiency,” disdain for the needs of high-achieving students (not to mention white and middle class kids), and enthusiastic expansion of the federal role in education, it looks to me that the Dems are winning big on education lately. And here’s the kicker: they get to promote progressive policies and regain their historical political advantage on the issue to boot. Compare that to the “Republican” scorecard. How are we doing on promoting educational excellence? Cutting red tape? Promoting private school choice? Making the public schools system more efficient? Getting rid of terrible teachers?

Petrilli says he’s going to write a piece on “How the GOP Lost on Education.”  I think he’s kidding.  Maybe.

More questioning of assumptions:  Eduflack wonders why accountability is seen as a Republican idea.  And why supporting teachers is associated with Democrats.

Poll: Confidence in Public Schools & NCLB Slipping

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 13, 2008 in Education News and Educational Policy. 2 Comments

A nationwide poll shows confidence in America’s public schools and the No Child Left Behind Act is declining.  The survey by Education Next also shows Americans believe Democrats are the party “more likely to improve the nation’s schools.”

On NCLB: half of those surveyed support leaving it as is or renewing it with minimal changes; half think it needs a major overhaul or should be done away with. The survey also shows that Americans–especially African Americans and Hispanics–are more confident in their local police force than in their local schools.

The poll results are here.  Some other noteworthy nuggets:

  • In 2007, the EdNext poll found 57 percent of the public supported renewing NCLB as is or with minimal changes; today only 50 percent of the public do.  Support has declined among African Americans, Hispanics, and whites.
  • Public school teachers are especially critical of NCLB with only 26 percent supporting renewal as is or with minimal changes; 33 percent suggest that Congress completely overhaul the act, and another 42 percent recommend that Congress not renew the act at all.
  • Only 20% of African Americans give public schools an A or a B.  The percentage of Hispanics giving schools a D or F has doubled since last year’s poll, from 16 to 32 percent.   

“The public has more faith in its local police force than it does in its local schools,” notes EdNext.  ”This is especially pronounced among African Americans and Hispanics: Fifty-five percent of African Americans and 64 percent of Hispanics gave their police force an A or B, a significantly higher show of support than for public schools. ”

  • When asked whether students “who have been diagnosed with emotional and behavioral disabilities should be taught in regular classrooms with other students,” only 25 percent of teachers, and 28 percent of the public, favored the idea. The rest said they should be “taught in separate settings.”
  • 37 percent of respondents support the idea of public school districts offering parents the option of sending their child to a single-sex school; 25 percent oppose the idea; and the remainder are undecided.  Support is stronger among public school teachers–47 percent approve the idea.
  • More than two thirds of American parents say they would be willing to have their children take some of their high school courses over the Internet.

Making a Mockery of Accountability

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 12, 2008 in Assessment and Testing and Curriculum. 9 Comments

The drumbeat for national curriculum, standards and assessments gets a little bit louder today with a strongly worded New York Times editorial.

Congress has several concerns as it moves toward reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. Whatever else they do, lawmakers need to strengthen the requirement that states document student performance in yearly tests in exchange for federal aid.  The states have made a mockery of that provision, using weak tests, setting passing scores low or rewriting tests from year to year, making it impossible to compare progress — or its absence — over time.

“The country will have difficulty moving ahead educationally until that changes,” opines the Times, noting that complete lack of a relationship between states that report strong performances on their own tests and performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).  The Times concludes:

Congress needs to take the testing issue head-on. It should instruct the NAEP board, an independent body created by the government, to create a rigorous test that would be given free to states that agreed to use NAEP scoring standards. Then the federal government could actually embarrass the laggard states by naming the ones that cling to weak tests. Without rigorous and consistent testing, there is no way to know whether our children are getting the education they deserve and need.

Sounds an awful lot like what Diane Ravitch was talking about last week.

Sunshine Is Still The Best Disinfectant

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 6, 2008 in Assessment and Testing, Curriculum and Educational Policy. 11 Comments

There are several important threads — the need for national standards and assessments; rethinking the difference between a highly qualified teacher and a highly effective one — at the ongoing NCLB discussion at NewTalk. But one comment raised by CK Board member Diane Ravitch jumps out:

My own preference would be for Congress to authorize national testing (à la NAEP), based on coherent curriculum standards, but without stakes or sanctions. The federal role should be to provide accurate information about student performance. It should be left to states and districts to devise sanctions and reforms. These jurisdictions are closer to the schools and likelier to come up with workable reforms. If states and localities don’t want to improve their schools, then we are in deeper trouble as a nation than any law passed by Congress can fix.

We assume accountability needs teeth to be truly enforceable, but Diane is right — an apples to apples comparison of how schools fare against each other seems likely to pour more sunshine onto what’s really happening than 50 states racing each other to the bottom by lowering proficiency standards. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest.

End It or Mend It?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 5, 2008 in Educational Policy. 0 Comments

There’s a first-rate discussion on what to do with NCLB over at NewTalk.  All the big machers (as we say in New York) are there: Checker Finn, Diane Ravitch, Sol Stern, Randi Weingarten and many, many others.  Great stuff.