Op-Ed: No Child Left Behind

from the September 25, 2007 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0925/p08s01-comv.html
Let the 'No Child' law do its work

Congress must resist tampering with a 2001 education law that's
forcing schools to teach the basics.

Congress begins debate this week on renewal of a 2001 education law
that has led many more children to read and do math at their grade
level. That gold-star success of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
argues for keeping the law's mandate for state testing largely intact.
The question before Congress: What kind of testing?

A draft bill in the House contains proposed changes that reflect the
complaints of many teachers and parents that the law's narrow testing
only on math and reading has pushed schools to shortchange the
curriculum in other areas, such as history and the arts.

Other critics of the law cite the mechanical nature of testing often
used – machine-scored, multiple-choice questions during long exams –
as unsuitable for many students. NCLB is also seen as too limiting to
inspire the kind of high-quality thinking needed for 21st-century jobs
or for lifelong learning.

And in a perverse example of the law of unintended consequences, many
schools – eager to retain high-scoring students and show yearly
progress as required – are all too willing to see a rise in dropout
rates among low-performing students.

As a result, the House bill's proposed changes would broaden the types
of assessments to include science projects, writing samples, and
collections of student work. While some states have tried these added
criteria, it's still unclear whether they provide a clear picture of
progress.

The big problem with this more complex system of assessment is that
parents and taxpayers would find it far more difficult to see a
school's success or failure as a teaching institution.

And some schools might try to hide their failures in reading and math
by pointing to successes in other areas. Many small, mainly rural
schools also could not afford the costly requirements.

The simple wisdom of the NCLB law is its recognition that reading and
math are fundamental to learning other subjects, and that schools need
to be independently judged. Before this law, US public schools were
graduating many students who could barely read a sentence or multiply
numbers. Since then, test scores in these subjects have risen. More
than 70 percent of schools showed progress. And, most important, large
gaps between white and minority students have narrowed.

What's more, the law provides an escape route for students stuck in
bad schools that won't reform – free tutoring and the right to
transfer to a better school, even a private one. As these provisions
are only now kicking in, teacher unions and many schools are arguing
to water down the law or create loopholes. Congress should resist
this.

Being held accountable for a child's education isn't easy.

Many nonschool factors – such as parental income and education level –
must be overcome. Teachers need higher pay, even merit pay. The nation
needs a standard to measure dropout rates so that problem can be
addressed. And the law's goal of achieving 100 percent success by 2014
needs a more realistic target.

So far, NCLB's successes outweigh its flaws. Congress should stick to
the law's purpose of ensuring basic education for as many children as
possible, with as much transparency as possible.