End NCLB Now; Stop Declaring Our Schools Failures
April 13th, 2010 at 1:37 pm By John Fitzgerald
Most Minnesota students are taking No Child Left Behind-mandated state tests this week. These tests will determine how schools fare under the federal law. Results will be released in August.
As of last year, half of all Minnesota schools failed to meet NCLB standards. Each year the standards rise, so it’s logical to predict that this year more than half of the state’s schools will be found wanting despite any real improvement that may have occurred. In fact, NCLB’s rules are so absurd that they require every school to meet standards by 2014, a standard that dooms every school to failure. This is not only unrealistic, it affects community understanding of their schools. A community’s perception of their school is adversely colored when the school is labeled as “failing.”
In addition, NCLB forces schools to teach to the test. To improve their standardized test scores, schools are spending more time and resources on test preparation and have decreased class time spent on arts and other subjects. The tests’ rules are unrealistic for special education and non-English speaking students. Almost 90 percent of the principals who responded to a Minnesota 2020 survey say special education students should not be tested at grade level, while 88 percent feel the same about Limited English Proficient students.
Minnesota’s NCLB test, MCA-II, is an ineffective measure of student development. Most educators agree that an assessment that measures student growth over many years is more useful than the MCA-II. Principals in the Minnesota 2020 survey also overwhelmingly agreed that the MCA-II is not an effective enough assessment to measure teacher or administrator performance.
In 2007, Minnesota 2020 partnered with Macalester College to survey 87 elementary school teachers in Chaska School District 112 about their attitudes on NCLB. The report, “No Child Left Behind: The Teachers’ Voice,” found that:
- Sixty five percent say identifying schools that have not met Adequate Yearly Progress will not lead to school improvement.
- More than 65 percent say NCLB increases teacher focus onto students just under the passing score at the expense of other students.
- Only 13 percent say sanctions improve teaching.
- Almost 90 percent say they were under unfair pressure to improve student test scores.
- About 88 percent believe NCLB has caused teachers to ignore important aspects of the curriculum.
Clearly, NCLB and the test that supports it are not improving our education system. As parents, we encourage all Minnesota students to do well on these tests, but as citizens we are smart enough to know this test creates as many problems as it’s intended to solve. NCLB is up for reauthorization in Congress, and a new “Blueprint for Reform” is being considered to replace it. With luck the law will change for the better, but until the law is changed, NCLB remains the law of the land and Minnesota teachers must take the test seriously.
Hopefully, NCLB will soon be an unpopular policy of the past. However, if the law isn’t changed fast enough, or if the changes aren’t sufficient, then Minnesota must be ready to do the right thing and pull out of NCLB entirely. Our students, teachers and communities deserve no less.
Tags: Chaska, NCLB, No Child Left Behind, school testing
Since No Child’s funding to the state is unsufficient to cover the cost of the program, why don’t we just refuse the money and let teachers once again teach?
I agree with Bernice Vetsch about letting teachers teach, but I would add that we need to require studying and passing a civics class as a high school graduation requirement. Most of us know too little about our government and governance.
No amount of money, or lack of it, can force a teacher to then FORCE a student to learn something that has no relevance in their lives, even civics. If the student from a home where the law is already being broken, and there is no parental participation in voting, proper licencing, or honesty, its tough for them to care about the rules of society. Schools cannot fix that.
No amount of money can fix the FACT that some kids will never learn chemistry or math beyond the knowledge needed to manufacture and market illicit drugs. Schools can only do so much.
This is why schools have to be cut some slack. The few schools that proclaim to have all of their students doing well in all subject areas do not have an accurate cross section of American society attending their schools. Instead they are filled with middle to upper class kids from positive socioeconomic backgrounds, and few if any special education kids.
However, it sells more newspapers to ignore these facts and just make it a fight between the public, and the public schools. Radio and T.V. are doing the same.
Shame on the press, and shame on the people who are believing it all, especially our elected officials.
The state already requires an American government and politics class that displaced a civics class. The problem with public education is that it has become a football in theculture wars where everyone thinks they are an expert because of their personal educational experience and no one listens to the teachers, the actual practicing experts, because they think they have a vested interest. They do have a vested interest–in the children.