Do the Right Thing: NCLB and High Standards

Last week the US Department of Education confirmed what teachers have known for years: the Bush era No Child Left Behind reforms made it harder for educators to do the right thing.

How so? According to a new study, nearly a third of states lowered their academic standards between 2005 and 2007. That's right: not raised, lowered. Why would they do this?

The answer is simple Freakonomics. Under NCLB, the federal government told the states: "You can set your own standards, and you can write your own standardized tests, but you have to make sure your kids can pass them. And by the way, we're not giving you any more money to do this, and if you don't do it we're going to take away the money we already give you."

What would any rational person (or state) do in that situation? How about ... lower their standards, so they can keep their funding? Last week's news was disappointing, but it shouldn't come as a shock.

Now I should pause and mention the good news in this report: most states didn't take this route, and eight states actually raised standards. That's impressive. In the face of a federal incentive to make schools worse, these leaders did the right thing. Kudos to them.

But their noble behavior doesn't make NCLB's message any less egregious. Policy should give people incentives to do the right thing, not the wrong thing. What if, for example, the federal government rewarded states for setting high standards and provided resources to help children meet those standards? Obama's Race to the Top proposes to do the first, but I'm not convinced it does the second. It should.

NCLB is fading from policy discussions, but it continues to shape daily life in schools. Capitol Hill can forget about the law; teachers can't. Let's make sure that policymakers learn from their mistakes. Federal policy should support, not hinder, teachers and schools in their work of educating all kids to high standards. In education, students are the only bottom line.

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Comments

[DickSchutz]

The term "standards" is getting all tangled. The "standards" established by states are "content" standards. Raising or lowering content is meaningless. What states are doing is raising or lowering arbitrarily-set cut scores on the tests they are using to comply with NCLB. Although the cut scores are reported as "proficiency," they are just ungrounded numbers that have nothing to do with reliably teaching kids to read and do math. The tests provide no information about students' actual instructional status, individually or collectively. They provide no information about the instruction that students individually or collectively have received or should optimally receive in the future.

The requirements of NCLB are such that every school and district in the US will be designated as "failing" by 2014. Tragically, and ironically, this inevitability is being widely interpreted as indicating that schools cannot be expected to teach all kids to read and do math until something is done about socioeconomic inequities.

While the Congress is leaving the public schools hang out to dry, the Obama administration is allocating billions of dollars in a "Race to the Top" that promotes charter schools and more testing , bashes teachers, and mandates that school districts metaphorically "turn around " the "weakest" schools. The National Academy of Sciences has reported to Secretary Duncan that each of the "four pillars" have no foundation, but the "pillars" are still the basis of the "race."

As happytrails says, Check it out.

[happytrails]

People bought the idea that NCLB was intended to help education and children. It was not. It was written in such a way to help public education fail. Why? It was written by those who want failed schools in order to justify privatization of public education through vouchers and the take-over of schools by private companies. This is a major dream of the "christian" right, of the Catholic church in America, and of those who are still fighting school desegregation. These people form a powerful lobby of influence. And the people under whom NCLB was constructed fall under this sphere of influence, both Bush and his Ed. Secretary. Check it out.
If you can get your hands on the guidelines which are used by school systems to develop curriculum and testing, please read it carefully. It is almost impossible for even excellent school systems to comply.