Education and No Child Left Behind
One of the most cynical education programs ever put into place, in my opinion, is the No Child Left Behind program. It’s impact, while claiming lofty goals, in actuality forced schools to exclude students who would fail, so as not to have them on their statistical base.
Quote from article: If low-achieving students leave school early, a school’s performance can rise.
In this story from the New York Times you can read how US schools fudge statistics to have a respectable high school graduation rate for federal funding purposes, while the truth is far less positive.
JACKSON, Miss. — When it comes to high school graduation rates, Mississippi keeps two sets of books.
One team of statisticians working at the state education headquarters here recently calculated the official graduation rate at a respectable 87 percent, which Mississippi reported to Washington. But in another office piled with computer printouts, a second team of number crunchers came up with a different rate: a more sobering 63 percent.
The state schools superintendent, Hank Bounds, says the lower rate is more accurate and uses it in a campaign to combat a dropout crisis.
“We were losing about 13,000 dropouts a year, but publishing reports that said we had graduation rate percentages in the mid-80s,” Mr. Bounds said. “Mathematically, that just doesn’t work out.”
Like Mississippi, many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home. As a result, researchers say, federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic so severe that only about 70 percent of the one million American students who start ninth grade each year graduate four years later.
California, for example, sends to Washington an official graduation rate of 83 percent but reports an estimated 67 percent on a state Web site. Delaware reported 84 percent to the federal government but publicized four lower rates at home.
The multiple rates have many causes. Some states have long obscured their real numbers to avoid embarrassment. Others have only recently developed data-tracking systems that allow them to follow dropouts accurately.
The No Child law is also at fault. The law set ambitious goals, enforced through sanctions, to make every student proficient in math and reading. But it established no national school completion goals.
“I liken N.C.L.B. to a mile race,” said Bob Wise, a former West Virginia governor who is president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a group that seeks to improve schools. “Under N.C.L.B., students are tested rigorously every tenth of a mile. But nobody keeps track as to whether they cross the finish line.”
Furthermore, although the law requires schools to make only minimal annual improvements in their rates, reporting lower rates to Washington could nevertheless cause more high schools to be labeled failing — a disincentive for accurate reporting. With Congressional efforts to rewrite the law stalled, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has begun using her executive powers to correct the weaknesses in it. Ms. Spellings’s efforts started Tuesday with a measure aimed at focusing resources on the nation’s worst schools. Graduation rates are also on her agenda.
You can read the rest of the story HERE.
Our young people are the leaders and decision makers of tomorrow. My generation thought we were going to change the world, and here the world continues on it’s merry way to pollution, desolation and degradation. I hope the young people of today can do what we have failed to do – create a better world.
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This program is a pet peeve of mine. It has contributed to the dumbing down of the education system by stifling talented and gifted programs, special ed programs, art and music, drivers ed and a lot of other programs in favor of chasing the standardized test scores. It’s intent was noble but its execution sucks.
Oh Momcat, that’s probably why we are friends, we are so often on the same wave length. Save the blah blah blarney and show me the successes.
Oprah had one episode about schools in the US. One of my poli sci classes was about the politics behind education in the US, and it was insane seeing how one school would have a huge pool, an amazing gym, a huge library, and the school in the next town over didn’t have enough books for all the students.
i’ve taught in cincinnati and now in pensacola, and i gotta say: NCLB makes me so mad i can’t see straight. in theory it’s a fantastic ideal. in reality it’s a nightmare, particularly for the lower average and special education students. i have few positive things to say about it.
actually, i don’t think i have anything positive to say about it.
Inside the system, Chirp, it is even more insane. Some wealthier districts have private donors – and guess what – most of them are interested in the sports program, not enhanced education *shakes her head in disgust*
Rustypants – I worked for a foundation in Florida supporting public education. I watched what happened, the manipulation of statistics to try to prove oneself effective, and the heartache of the teachers losing students who were bringing down the curve. The at risk students in whose lives education stands to make the greatest difference. . . .oh! don’t get me started! I am on your side!
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In the George W. Bush era: the No Child Left Behind, the P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act, and the War on Terror (term loosely defined, very dynamic and changing as need be).
Yah, Kinan, not to mention the sub-prime-lending scandal leading to financial institutions imploding, the grossly increased deficit, the disaster that remains in New Orleans from Katrina, and a stalled economy. Lord, have mercy.