No Child Left Behind-a Progress Report

▪ 2006

      U.S. Pres. George W. Bush's much-heralded No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education program finished its fourth year of operation with a mixed record of success and problems. The plan was a revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and served as the federal government's most ambitious and costly educational venture ever. The U.S. Department of Education reported that under the Bush administration, federal money for education had increased more than 40%.

      An achievement-testing program formed the core of the NCLB Act. In order to receive federal funds, every state was required to test public-school students' reading and mathematics skills and then report how many students performed at each of four levels of skill—failure, basic, proficient, and advanced. The aim was to have all of the nation's students scoring at or above the proficient level by 2014. Any school having students who failed to make sufficient progress toward the 2014 goal would face consequences—students transferred, staff members replaced, new management hired, or the school closed.

      Proponents of the NCLB Act cited rising test scores in a variety of school systems as proof that an aggressive testing program was the best device for improving schools. The act was designed particularly to elevate the test performance of African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans, who had traditionally earned lower scores than whites and Asians. As evidence of success in that effort, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in mid-2005 announced that the average Hispanic nine-year-old's math score had increased 17 points during the previous five years.

      In contrast to the Department of Education's reports of higher test scores, critics charged that the plan contained serious flaws, including:

● —The funds provided by the federal government were far short of the amount needed to fulfill the NCLB mandate.

● —All students were held to the same achievement standard, regardless of their ability level, home language, socioeconomic status, or neighbourhood environment. The only children not required to meet the standard were ones with very severe physical or mental disabilities.

● —Judgments of a student's entire learning progress were based solely on once-a-year multiple-choice tests in reading and math.

● —The NCLB Act represented an attempt by the federal government to seize the control of schooling that the U.S. Constitution had assigned to the states.

● —Teachers increasingly “taught to the test,” limiting their instruction to information that would likely appear on the reading and math tests.

● —As more class time was spent on reading and math, less time was available for social studies, science, art, music, and physical education.

      In response to critics, the Department of Education in 2005 made slight adjustments in the NCLB, but the act's basic features remained unchanged.

R. Murray Thomas

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