The scariest lesson of No Child Left Behind
No Child Left Behind did two major things: It forced states to identify schools that were failing according to scores on standardized tests. Then it told states what to do to fix those schools.
Congress is now overhauling the law. The biggest likely change in any compromise is that the federal government will no longer tell states what they have to do if students in their schools aren't passing tests.
That's partly for ideological reasons. The bill the Senate passed last week to get rid of No Child Left Behind represents the views of Republicans who want to diminish the federal role in education. But it's also an acknowledgment of a big lesson of 13 years of No Child Left Behind: Even if we can tell when schools are failing their students, it's often not clear how to fix them.
How No Child Left Behind tried to fix failing schools
The ultimate goal of No Child Left Behind was that every student would be able to read and do math by mid-2014. The law required schools to test students every year from third through eighth grades in English and math. Schools had to make "adequate yearly progress" toward the 2014 goal.
If schools with a population of at least 35 percent low-income students failed to make progress for two years in a row, consequences started to kick in:
- After two years of not making progress, schools and districts had to make it easier for those schools' students to transfer to better schools.
- If another year went by without improvement, schools had to offer free tutoring as well as the transfer options.
- After four years, districts had to take "corrective action." They could choose from a menu of options, including replacing teachers and staff, reorganizing the school, implementing a new curriculum, appointing an outside expert, or extending the school day or year. (Some of these consequences are more severe than others, and districts could choose which ones to implement; firing staff is more dramatic than hiring a consultant.)
- After five years of failing to make progress, the district had to make a plan to restructure the school, by turning it into a charter school, getting a new principal and replacing most or all of the staff, or having the state take over its management.
- After six years, the school would be restructured.
The consequences didn't only apply if the entire school was falling behind. They also applied if a subgroup of students — students with disabilities, students from low-income The scariest lesson of No Child Left Behind - Vox:
