The Mounting Collateral Damage of No Child Left Behind

Those who are trying to stoke the presidential candidates' interest in education as an election issue aren't having much luck. Referring to No Child Left Behind, Hillary has said "scrap it" at least three times. Obama's website mentions "shortcomings in the design of the law." McCain favors vouchers and accountability and Lisa Keegan who, as an Arizona state legislator wrote laws both for vouchers and charters, has signed on as an advisor. Other than that, they haven't said much.

Not that the public would be paying attention. We dumb, recalcitrant Americans insist that the single most important issue in the upcoming election is the economy (40%), Iraq (23%) and health care (8%), "other" 18%, according to today's (May 13) Washington Post. Only three percent pick education, same as pick oil prices.

In a way, that's too bad, because like the body count in Iraq, it continues to mount from NCLB as well. I think, though, that the dead and wounded are seen only by others inside schools, not by the general public. Bush keeps the body bags out of sight; school folk put on brave faces.

An article in the September, 2007 issue of the American Education Research Journal showed the mounting casualties. Researchers watched for four years as one district's schools changed under the pressures of NCLB. The researchers put the changes in teacher roles in five categories:

1. Curriculum pacing. Before NCLB, teachers had considerable control over the speed at which they presented the curriculum. After a new curriculum was adopted though, they had to move at a one-pace-fits-all because district tests had to be given at a certain time.

2. Curriculum alignment. Teachers aligned what they taught with what they thought would likely pop up on the state's test. Administrators talked about alignment at staff meetings and had teachers match textbook content with state learning expectations and bought test prep materials from commercial publishers.

3. Teachers spent more and more time looking at data, something they weren't particularly trained for (and which I doubt provided much useful information). They objected to the time spent analyzing statistics because it took away time for interacting with the kids which they thought was at least as good as source of information as the formal data.

4. ESOL instruction. Before NCLB, regular teachers left most of the instruction of English to non-native speakers to designated ESOL teachers. But NCLB made them the teachers of record for all kids in their class so they felt obligated to work more with English language learners.

5. Tutoring. Always an informal part of the program, tutoring now became institutionalized and burdensome. Said one teacher "I tutor in the mornings, I tutor after school. I tutor at lunchtime. Whatever it takes."

Whatever it took, it took a lot out of teachers and administrators alike. High-poverty schools had the toughest time making AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). At one high-poverty school, the principal lamented that she had not been able to hire a tenured teacher in 5 years and when her staff attained tenure, they left for lower poverty schools, leaving her with a chronically inexperienced faculty.

"The stress was so palpable that one of us felt compelled to step out of her researcher role to reassure a first-year teacher who, leaving a planning meeting in tears, said she did not know if she could keep doing this for another year." Given that these stresses were not observed by the researchers initially, it means that they came from workplace conditions, from trying to cope with the utterly unrealistic demands of NCLB.

Sharon Nichols and David Berliner wrote a book about the impact of high-stakes testing in general. They called it Collateral Damage. The above exemplifies some of it.

Comments

[bracey]

To Scrooge and Marley. Do keep in mind that the high school graduation rate of those getting a "classical" education was about 3%. It did not surpass 50% until after World War II.

Bracey

[tbone99]

we're turning out a generation of kids that will know a lot of dissociated facts , but not how to think .. Suits the political agenda well

[UKThom]

NCLB is only the tip of the iceberg of issues facing kids these days. The government can shove standards down the throats of anyone who comes within any proximity of influencing the teaching of young people all they want. What they neglect to look at, or even take into any serious consideration are these factors (in no order):

Parenting.
Parenting.
Parenting.

To those who blame teachers:

When is the last time you spent any quality time in a classroom? When is the last time you have put yourself in a teacher's shoes, stood in front of a classroom of children who are either too tired from playing XBox, Wii, etc. the night before, too hungry because of the pre-packaged, processed, full-o-junk food that is served up as they fly out the door in the morning, or perhaps too concerned with the text they got from their friend or the cyber-bully who's threatening them. Here's a hint...it's not JUST the teacher's who are responsible for raising and educating a child. Personally, I ask you to take a good inward look at how you deem children around you. Do you take the time to correct their actions, or do you leave it up to someone else do deal with? Do you turn a blind eye, then turn around and gripe about "kids these days" without a second thought?

Take some personal, parental, and societal responsibility for the education and upbringing of the children of your community.

[tbone99]

When two parents, or more likely a single parent is working more than one job to get over and one to two hours of homework is sent home every night where is their time to have family togetherness?.The whole culture is wacked out on speed trying to make it economically.

[UKThom]

Totally agreed. If we want some sense of sanity regarding the future of our kids, we need a total societal shift...

It won't happen overnight, but slowly, one family at a time. We really need to shift our priorities.

[ScroogeandMarleyLLC]

Did you ever read about the curriculums of the 19th Century? Kids learned BY ROTE. And those who went on to Junior High and High School had to learn some Latin and Greek. It was called a "classical" education. And it worked!
These kids who went on to college were a hell of a lot more prepared for learning than the lunkheads going into college today. The students in those days learned to read and write LATIN and GREEK (again, the classical education).
I'm not suggesting that we start ramming Greek and Latin down American kids' throats again. But the truth of the matter is that setting high standards and teaching the old-fashioned way by forcing rote memoriazation DOES force people to use their mind. And, I think the idea of NCLB was to make teachers teach, once again!

[jvarga]

Memorizing is great for a list of facts such as: states in the union, presidents of the united states, important events in WWII. Knowing a list of facts does not mean you have any problem solving ability or the capacity to synthesize hypotheses based on observations.

[Liberal2]

(Igoring tbonehead's non sequitur about robber barons) I got a chuckle out of your post. Discover magazine's June issue has a whine asking why kids today (the "New Math" kids) do poorer in math than before. The answer is simple: Math is a language. To learn a language one must practice it; in other words: ROTE! Few people have eidetic memory. Most people need to repeat "one plus one equals two" over and over so the mere appearence of 1+1=? produces 2 as automatically as the letters "C" "A" "T" produce the word cat and the mental connection to the animal. That's what's missing in education today. They have failed to understand that teaching a child "how to think" is a waste of time if the child's brain isn't ready with the mental reflexes needed to think efficiently.

[tbone99]

if it worked so well why did we have the rise of the railroad barons and industrial magnates ? Maybe because people knew how to recite the Odessy in Greek but not how to figure out who was pulling the strings behind the curtain.

[CommonSenseRules]

Let me get this straight. You think that 6 years of NCLB has been the sole reason that schools are in horrible shape? Only NCLB is to blame, right? Hmm, do you think that maybe you hate NCLB so much is simply because you hate Bush and Republicans?

And, since you are so smart on this subject, why don't you explain how 40 years, yes, 40 long, failing years of liberal policies that cater to the Teacher's Union rather than the children, have improved our schools? 40 years liberals have been in charge of our educational system and for 40 years, it has progressively gotten worse. Can you please explain that?

Liberals have killed the educational system, the welfare system, affirmative action, and the list goes on and on.

Why don't you at least try to be honest with your readers.

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

and your proof consists of what?

[patmancando]

Hillary has said NCLB is a failure because it is not funded and teaches to tests...just like it did in Texas under the then Gov Bush. The drop out increased as well. It is good to take a look at Hillary's record in Arkansas. Bill appointed her to lead a commission to reform the Arkansas educational system which was in the bottom 5% of the country. Now it is in the top 5 % of the country because of her work, and all those children that have gone through the Arkansas schools since her work in the 80s have gotten a better education and a better chance in life because of her efforts. She has always been for kids education, families and health care. That is one of the reasons I am passionatelly for her candidacy.

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

Hillary for Sec of Education!