NCLB

No Child Left Behind

In January 2002, President Bush signed the "The No Child Left Behind Act." It reauthorized the existing Elementary and  Secondary  Education  Act  (ESEA). NCLB made the most sweeping changes in federal law regarding public schools in nearly 40 years.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), commonly known as NCLB  is a United States federal law that was passed in the House of Representatives on May 23, 2001 and signed on January 8, 2002, that reauthorized a number of federal programs aiming to improve the performance of U.S. primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children will attend. Additionally, it promoted an increased focus on reading and re-authorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).

NCLB is the latest federal legislation (another was Goals 2000) which enacts the theories of standards-based education reform, formerly known as outcome-based education, which is based on the belief that high expectations and setting of goals will result in success for all students. The act requires states to develop criterion-based assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades. NCLB does not assert a national achievement standard; standards are set by each individual state.

The act also requires that the schools distribute the name, home phone number and address of every student enrolled to military recruiters, unless the parent specifically opts out.

The effectiveness and desirability of NCLB's measures are hotly debated. A primary criticism asserts that NCLB reduces effective instruction and student learning because it may cause states to lower achievement goals and motivate teachers "to teach to the test." A primary supportive claim asserts that systematic testing provides data that sheds light on which schools are not teaching basic skills effectively, so that interventions can be made to reduce the achievement gap for disadvantaged and disabled students.

Up for possible reauthorization in 2007, a new Congress is considering major revisions, as one group of 50 Republican senators and representatives introduced legislation in March 2007 to provide states much greater freedom from NCLB's controls and punishments.

Teacher quality

The No Child Left Behind act requires that (by the end of the 2006-07 school year) all teachers be "highly qualified" as defined in the law. A highly qualified teacher is one who has (1) fulfilled the state's certification and licensing requirements, (2) obtained at least a bachelor's degree, and (3) demonstrated subject matter expertise. The procedure for demonstrating subject matter knowledge depends on a teacher's tenure and level of instruction.

For teachers who are new to the profession (less than one year of experience):

  • Elementary teachers must pass a state test demonstrating their subject knowledge and teaching skills in reading/language arts, writing, mathematics and other areas of basic elementary school curricula.
  • Middle and high school teachers must demonstrate a high level of competency in each academic subject area they teach, such demonstration can occur either through passage of a rigorous state academic subject test or successful completion of an undergraduate major, a graduate degree, coursework equivalent to an undergraduate major or an advanced certification or credentialing.

Experienced teachers can satisfy the subject matter requirement in the same manner as new teachers or demonstrate subject knowledge through a state-determined high objective uniform state standard of evaluation (HOUSSE). These requirements have caused some difficulty in implementation especially for special education teachers and teachers in small rural schools who are often called upon to teach multiple grades and subjects.

Student testing

The progress of all students will be measured annually for math and reading in grades 3-8 and at least once during high school. By the end of the 2007-08 school year, testing also will be conducted in science once during grades 3–5, 6–9, and 10–11.

Assessments are required in public schools by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Assessments may take any form so long as the same assessment system is used for all students in a state. Although it is not required under NCLB, states generally have chosen inexpensive multiple-choice standardized tests.[citation needed]

Some states choose to adopt tests which statistically norm, or rank student performance relative to each other, but this is discouraged by NCLB. Under NCLB, assessments should normally be criterion-referenced tests, which focus on whether a student knows the required content or can do the required skill as outlined in the state's standards. Norm-referenced tests, by contrast, merely compare the performance of students to determine where students rank compared to other students.

English language learners are generally exempted from testing during their first year in an American school. After that, they must participate in the assessment process -- either in English or in their native language, at the sole discretion of the individual state -- for the next three to five years. After five years, students are expected to be sufficiently proficient in English to take the test in English.

 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System

 

 

Scientifically based research

The phrase scientifically based research is found 111 times in the text of the No Child Left Behind Act. Schools are required to use "scientifically based research" strategies in the classroom and for professional development of staff. Research meeting this label, which includes only a small portion of the total research conducted in the field of education and related fields, must involve large quantitative studies using control groups as opposed to partially or entirely qualitative or ethnographic studies, research methodologies which may suggest different teaching and professional development strategies but that do not result in evidence demonstrating efficacy.

The No Child Left Behind Act defines the term "scientifically based research" as research that:

  • Applies rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading development, reading instruction, and reading difficulties;
  • Uses systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;
  • Involves rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn;
  • Relies on measurements or observational methods that provide valid data across evaluators and observers and across multiple measurements and observations; and
  • Has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review.

However, programs marketed as research based may not be entirely scientifically researched.

Schools can obtain information about "research-based" instructional strategies and programs from several government-funded sources, including:

Public school choice

Schools identified as needing improvement are required to provide students with the opportunity to take advantage of public school choice no later than the beginning of the school year following their identification for school improvement. NCLB authorized — and Congress has subsequently appropriated — a substantial increase in funding for Title I aid, in part to provide funding for school districts to implement the law’s parental choice requirements. About 1 percent of eligible students made use of the school choice option as of 2004–05. 

 

The Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind is a proposal by more than 135 national civil rights, education, disability advocacy, civic, labor and religious groups that have signed on to a statement calling for major changes to the federal education law. The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest) initiated and chaired the meetings that produced the statement, originally released in October 2004. The statement's central message is that "the law's emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement." The number of organizations signing the statement has nearly quadrupled since it was launched in late 2004 and continues to grow. The goal is to influence Congress, and the broader public, as the law's scheduled reauthorization approaches.

Education critic Alfie Kohn argues that the NCLB law is "unredeemable" and should be scrapped. He is quoted saying "[I]ts main effect has been to sentence poor children to an endless regimen of test-preparation drills".

In February 2007, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, Co-Chairs of the Aspen Commission on No Child Left Behind, announced the release of the Commission's final recommendations for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.The Commission is an independent, bipartisan effort to improve NCLB and ensure it is a more useful force in closing the achievement gap that separates disadvantaged children and their peers. After a year of hearings, analysis and research, the Commission uncovered the successes of NCLB, as well as provisions which need to be changed or significantly modified.

The Commission's recommendations are summarized as follows:

  • Effective Teachers for All Students, Effective Principals for All Communities
  • Accelerating Progress and Closing Achievement Gaps Through Improved Accountability
  • Moving Beyond the Status Quo to Effective School Improvement and Student Options
  • Fair and Accurate Assessments of Student Progress
  • High Standards for Every Student in Every State
  • Ensuring High Schools Prepare Students for College and the Workplace
  • Driving Progress Through Reliable, Accurate Data

The Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA), a working group of signers of the Joint Organizational Statement on NCLB has offered an alternative proposal. It proposes to shift NCLB from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to supporting state and communities and holding them accountable as they make systemic changes that improve student learning.