How has No Child Left Behind (NCLB) affected you, your students, or your school?Educational Leadership wanted to know, so we asked readers to tell us their stories. Some respondents question whether NCLB reflects the true purpose of education, many bemoan the seeming necessity of having to “teach to the test,” and others have surprising insights about how the law has led to improvements in their schools.
For Want of a Lab
In the rush to produce a standardized system of accountability, NCLB has neglected to address the fundamental issue of equity. This not only applies to socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicity, but also to issues of facilities and education resources. We live in one of the most prosperous nations in the world, but I have taught in a science classroom that had no hot water or lab tables and no funding to purchase badly needed equipment. If a student at one school has a well-funded and well-equipped science classroom and a student at another school has no lab tables or basic equipment to learn science effectively, then how can we hold all students and teachers to the same standard?
—Michael A. Flake, science teacher, Indiana
Making School Worthwhile
I work with six socially alienated boys who are involved in a collaborative project in which they play the role of concerned citizens who see a need for a new school. They must name the school, create a mission statement, and define the kind of staff needed to carry out the state curriculum.
One point in their mission statement was insightful. They wrote, “Students will receive a quality education where learning is fun, safe, and worthwhile.” Their choice of vocabulary provided a lot of insight into how they currently view school. To them, school is not fun,not safe from harassing people, andnot worthwhile.
NCLB is draining the fun out of learning. Education has become about “the test.” Students are not developing an appreciation for knowledge or learning, and pressures to cover the standards by spring test dates stifle our creative teachers.
Even children see that there has to be just cause for productivity to occur. If legislatures really care about children becoming productive citizens, then the significant numbers are not in the test scores but in the unemployment rate, the Medicaid enrollment levels, the number of citizens on welfare, and the incarceration rate. What can we give our children so they value learning that leads to responsible citizenship? In the words of six intelligent 5th grade boys, we should provide learning that is “fun, safe, and worthwhile.”
Education is more than a test score; it's about instilling a moral purpose that encompasses an appreciation for lifelong learning and societal responsibility.
—Terese C. Benefield, school counselor, Georgia
The Good, The Bad
NCLB has focused attention on subgroups that previously were often not the school's priority—small groups of minorities, children in special education, and ESL students, for example. In the past, only those heroic teachers who actually worked with the subgroups really cared. Now principals, counselors, and mainstream teachers must all strive to helpevery child—what schools should have been doing all along.
But NCLB has also narrowed the curriculum, focused too much on testing, created complicated accountability systems that the public doesn't understand, and turned off lots of students. By 2010, most schools in the United States will be “under improvement,” and once again public education will take a hit, despite the excellent work done under tough conditions with a continually changing student body.
—Stephen E. Schwartz, former assistant superintendent, Delaware
Speaking as a Special Educator
No one seems to remember that we have always had to set a bar to measure school and student achievement. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was Goals 2000. George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton, with congressional backing, devised a plan in which all students would graduate high school and be proficient readers by the year 2000.
Guess what? We didn't make it. The accountability was less stringent, but curriculum audits found that we needed to hone, redevelop, and enforce more consistent, cohesive standards to better account for the disheveled U.S. public school system's failure to serve many of its students.
Standards-based accountability and this stringent, bipartisan piece of education legislation is a step in the right direction. As a special educator, I find the guidelines and curriculum standards equitable, leveling the playing field for all students. Special education is doing better under the strict regulations of NCLB, and even with the legislation's problems, it's a great step toward the end we wish to attain: setting the next bar to measure our schools' and students' progress.
—Robert Bassett, special educator, California
A School Discredited
NCLB has affected parents more than it has affected students. Failure to meet its standards resulted in our school having to send a letter home to parents declaring our school “a failure.” Along with three options offered to their children, one of which was “remaining at the failing school,” the letter included an array of confusing descriptions about the procedures and reasons for imposing NCLB sanctions. Some parents ended up missing the deadline for submitting their signed form [which indicated their preferred option] either because they misunderstood or because their child failed to bring the letter home.
Adding to their confusion was the fact that our school had received anA on Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) every year, except for one. Parents were shocked to learn that we had failed [the state test] enough times to affect our Title I funding. That the state's FCAT program and NCLB didn't dovetail was no surprise to our teachers. The resulting mismatch served to discredit both programs' validity in many people's eyes.
Whether or not NCLB has succeeded in achieving its goals remains to be seen. However, the controversy it has created locally seems to be its most dramatic accomplishment. Many educators see NCLB as a poor and ineffective attempt to cure achievement gaps that we know testing cannot cure. Any accomplishments in that area are best gained by making meaningful changes in environments in which racial discrimination, poverty, and lack of opportunity exist.
—Bill Archer, school counselor, Florida
The Fear Factor
In our large, diverse high school in Illinois, grade 11 students are under great pressure to meet expectations on the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE). In 2004, our school failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in math and reading and was designated for school choice under NCLB sanctions. In 2005, we achieved AYP, but we still face the hurdle of making AYP in 2006 to be removed from the “needs improvement” list.
We launched several initiatives to prepare students for testing. Math and reading teachers developed interventions to augment test scores. We introduced a weekly Reading Across the Curriculum program. We made math tutors and lunch hour learning seminars available for at-risk students. Finally, we worked at aligning all core areas of the curriculum with the Illinois State Learning Standards and developed local assessments to monitor student progress.
Yet among all the interventions and good intentions, the pressure of a focused test-prep curriculum hovered over many faculty members. Information overload replaced quality time to engage in meaningful discourse with students and build the kind of rapport that invited students to “come back tomorrow.” Our sister high school across town did make AYP the previous year, and a feeling of inferiority took root at our school.
The pressure to succeed was tenfold greater for the juniors. They faced the pressure to score well on the ACT for college, and the high school was counting on them to dig it out of AYP debt. From January through April, the juniors spent hours working through ACT test-prep material and logging test-prep hours in the computer labs. The school even provided incentives for students to meet expectations, such as offering them tickets to next year's prom and exemptions from semester exams.
Yet for most students, the dangling carrot didn't boost their confidence. It only heightened anxiety and intensified panic. The teachers witnessed this—and found it truly unjust.
—Fran Etter, chair of fine arts and foreign languages, Illinois
What's Missing in This Picture?
It's simple how NCLB affects my students: They will be without the visual arts or music starting with the 2006–2007 school year. Our district had to make budget cuts of $400,000. The only fine arts teacher left standing is the band instructor.
The fine arts are about thinking imaginatively instead of linearly. Sometimes 1 + 1 will equal 3 in art, and sometimes it will even equal a blue horse or rain that floats instead of falls. I believe that the CEOs and owners of Fortune 500 companies appreciate employees who don't just sit there and mechanically do their jobs. How could we ever have come this far without imagination?
—Charlotte Combs, art instructor, Illinois
Burned-Out and Weary
As an educator for 30 years, I have seen many attempts to “upgrade” the quality of education, sometimes because the public demanded it, sometimes because the politicians demanded it, and sometimes because school administrators demanded it. The Bush administration is on the right track in attempting to ensure that “no child is left behind.” But this is not a problem of education. It's a cultural problem that the schools are helpless in “fixing.” The focus on articulating curriculum and monitoring student progress is commendable, but the endless assessing is burning out educators and wearying students.
—Liz Arseneau, educator, Michigan
Hearing Us—Finally
For the first time in four years, our district has made some effort to align our curriculum vertically and horizontally to our new state standards. Our district has also endorsed the concept of testing students to determine where they are academically and to enable us to redesign and redesignate courses to better fit student needs. For instance, this year we tested and reclassified approximately 350 Algebra II students. We created sections of basic algebra, in which we concentrated on basic skills so that these students would more likely succeed in Algebra II. Pre- and post-testing indicated that all students greatly improved their basic skills, and the basic algebra students increased their basic algebra skills by anywhere from 20–80 percent.
Before NCLB, we would have been under tremendous pressure to pass our students regardless of their skill level and mathematical understanding. Now our pleas for curriculum alignment and course restructuring are more readily accepted; teacher and student interventions at all levels are now more likely to occur; and there is a much stronger effort to teach reading, writing, and math across the curriculum.
—Brian Every, math teacher, New Mexico
Only Five Students
We've been labeled a school “in need of improvement” because of the lack of proficiency of five students in our lowest socioeconomic group. It is frustrating and disappointing for the staff to realize that although 84 percent of our students were proficient, the scores of five students could create such a negative image for our school.
—Susan Considine, high school teacher, Iowa
None of the Above
Not all of our teachers believe that multiple-choice questions dealing primarily with vocabulary terms are an appropriate way of assessing students. Some science teachers are giving the same post-test several times before they turn in the results to make sure that their students meet the proficiency level of 80 percent. The idea of making our young people good problem solvers and thinkers has been thrown out the window.
—Christine Winstead, high school teacher, Iowa
What Becomes Important
At the previous school in which I taught, we were asked to “prepare” students for testing. We had access to previously used questions from the standardized test. One month before testing, we were “asked” to review the material with the students. As the test approached, all other curriculum was shoved aside, interrupting our normal school day. We focused on the test questions and not on our science curriculum. NCLB indirectly influences what becomes important in my classroom.
—Daisha, science teacher, Iowa
A Matter of Degree
Although there are policymakers who believe in the inherent value of the arts, we must reach beyond this relatively small group with the argument that we can best teach academic skills and concepts through including the arts in the classroom. NCLB mandates have reduced us to asking whether or not we can continue to include arts in K–12 curriculum, rather than asking to what extent and how we will include them.
—Heather Terrill Stotts, educational consultant, Wisconsin
How Could It Be?
We've been labeled a school “in need of improvement” despite the fact that we have the highest ACT average of any public school in the state, an impressive graduation rate, a high number of National Merit scholars, and a variety of programs for at-risk, learning disabled, and accelerated students.
—Matt Harding, high school teacher, Iowa
Individualism Versus Community
The American Dream is based on the notion that every individual can take advantage of the many opportunities that the country provides. But the shadow side of this promise is that as a nation, we place the burden of responsibility for success on the individual.
Instead of placing the responsibility solely on the shoulders of individual students to succeed in school, NCLB places the responsibility on the shoulders of the school community. NCLB asks educators not just to provide opportunity for every student to learn but also to provide whatever it takes to ensure that every student succeeds. If educators do not believe that all students can learn and that it is our communal responsibility to make that happen, then public schools will continue to fail many students. The American love of individualism over community will have failed them.
—Ellen Kahan, assistant superintendent, Washington
