3 big ways No Child Left Behind failed
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has been languishing for years, and Congress may now end up rewriting the law to fix its many flaws.
In 2002, the law was enacted as a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, with the intent of setting high standards for students and holding schools accountable to meet measurable success.
However, it's now been discredited to the point that almost all states now receive waivers that allow them to miss key elements of the law without any punishments.
So where did it go wrong?
1. High-stakes testing
Before the vocal outcry over Common Core testing, people spoke out against the high-stakes tests of NCLB. In fact, NCLB testing is really the father of Common Core testing. NCLB required all students in third through eighth grade to take annual tests in math and reading.
In doing so, the law ushered in a new era of testing linked to punishments that didn't exist before the law was enacted in 2002. These punishments come in the form of less funding or closures for schools that don't make progress towards proficiency on annual exams.
Opponents of NCLB argue the increased testing has created an environment where teachers teach to the exam.
"Just as importantly, there is no evidence that any test score increases represent the broader learning increases that were the true goals of the policy — goals such as critical thinking; the creation of lifelong learners; and more students graduating high school ready for college, career, and civic participation," the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado Boulder wrote in a memo in February.
And more concerning, the policy center noted that the annual tests rolled out through NCLB haven't done very much in closing the education gap — the main goal of NCLB.
2. Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
NCLB's annual tests were supposed to track the annual progress of students in reading and math proficiency. The testing results are displayed on publically disclosed school report cards — another result of NCLB — for parents, administrators, and lawmakers to see.
"If their school is not making adequate yearly progress and has been identified as needing improvement, corrective action or restructuring, No Child Left Behind requires that districts
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