More on NCLB – from ‘across the pond’
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I hope we don’t end up having to rename this the “No Child Left Behind” blog, but there is just so much wrong with this piece of legislation that we could probably post on it every day. The Economist recently had an article about NCLB, in which they describe it as a ‘noble attempt to impose discipline on American schools,’ (I prefer to describe it as a deeply cynical attempt to undermine public education). The magazine does lay out one of the fundamental problems with NCLB, that federal penalties and subsidies are dependent on standards that states themselves set.
States thus have a multi-billion-dollar incentive to game the system. In Arizona, for example, only one-fifth of eighth-graders were rated ‘proficient’ at maths after taking the state test in 2003. Two years later, that proportion had magically tripled. Does this mean that the test got easier to pass? “Yes,” says Janet Napolitano, Arizona’s plain-talking governor.
In Massachusetts, we have a very difficult test, and the trend is to make it even harder. I don’t have a problem with that, but I think that before people throw around the terms ‘underperforming schools’ and ‘failing schools’ they ought to understand that these are labels imposed by the federal government that do not necessarily reflect the reality on the ground here in Lowell.