John Thompson: No Excuses Reformers Find Plenty of Them for NCLB
Guest post by John Thompson.
On the 10th anniversary of "the lost decade," produced by No Child Left Behind, we will read plenty of explanations of why the law did little good, and often did great harm to poor children of color. Ironically, the rationale for NCLB was that educators had long used poverty as an "excuse" for "low expectations." I am struck, however, by the low expectations that policy wonks had for themselves, how many excuses they are now making for the failure of NCLB, and how they minimized its unintended negative effects, as they blame others.
As long as the true believers in bubble-in accountability keep up their defense of the law, reporters have to follow the convention of saying that "the jury is still out," and that NCLB "did shine a light on underperforming minority groups," before they recount the law's failure to increase scores on national standardized tests. On the other
