The No Child Left Behind Legislation is Not Working

In 2001, President Bush signed into action the No Child Left Behind legislation (NCLB), which somehow was tenuously linked to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At first the country was excited about an act of legislation that was meant to ensure that all children in our country would receive the same level of education, and schools and teachers would finally be held accountable for the progress of their students. Poorer families were anticipating better schools where their children would receive the same quality of education that the richer neighborhoods had already been enjoying. Even the middle class families were excited, because if their neighborhood schools were not performing well, they could possibly receive vouchers to send their children to private schools whose academics were stronger. It seemed like everyone would be the winner after NCLB passed...

Five years after No Child Left Behind, are our schools performing better academically? The answer to that question is: it depends on who you ask and which indicator you use for reference. I have been a teacher during this entire transition, and I can tell you that in my opinion, all that has happened is that school systems have reinstituted the old "tracking" systems to separate their students. Schools have tremendous pressure to perform on the standardized tests that have become extremely important after NCLB, and that means they have got to be assured that their students know the tests, feel confident about the tests, and, most importantly, pass the tests. Once the school has identified the students who need focused instruction on these standardized tests, these students are placed in classes that limit creative academic study in favor of intense practice on the NCLB tests. This limited study scope means that there are entire groups of students throughout the country whose academic focus is very limited, and therefore are ill-prepared for any higher education; therefore they simply do not aspire to attain any further education once they pass the tests and graduate from high school. What is more disappointing is that administrators and teachers cannot spend the time necessary to motivate these students to dream of higher education, because they are simply too busy trying to keep their jobs by making sure as many students pass these tests as possible. The entire system has resulted in an upper echelon of "higher achieving" students whose educational opportunities are many, and a lower echelon of students who can dream only of a high school diploma.

While I do not know exactly what the answer to public school accountability is, I cannot believe that what we have instituted is the best possible answer. I have witnessed too many students who look longingly at the advanced classes, which are engaged in interesting dialogue about creative ideas, as I usher them into a classroom where we speak only of standardized testing. I have to believe that the intentions of the framers of No Child Left Behind were good and noble; but I also have to believe that our country can do better for the young learners who are struggling in our midst.