At the grassroots, NCLB and its testing have come in for a lot of criticism and complaints. Yet, politicians are pushing for renewal, apparently buoyed by Education Secretary's Spellings breathtaking appraisal that NCLB is 99.9% pure.
Well, horse manure is 100% pure. And pox on congressional grade inflation. I'm going to reveal how the best thing about NCLB is completely undone by the worst, making this a policy Democrats need to rethink "faster and smarter" before its renewal in 2007.
Why do Democrats support this law?
Representative George Miller:
I think that No Child Left Behind has in fact been a catalyst for change and for examples of schools that change, that develop a plan – I was just in Idaho meeting with teachers, and a number of those teachers said this is the first time we ever had a plan in our school, and more importantly, it’s the first time they ever asked me to participate in it because schools and school districts now understand, unless they talk to the teachers, unless they get them to have a buy in, it’s going to be very difficult to have this kind of change.
If you read through this transcript from a recent Business Roundtable event, you will see that Democrats and Republicans honestly believe that it is the right policy. That, for the first time, schools cannot simply say "good enough is good enough". That all children, black, green, blue, every single one counts toward the success of that school.
Now, that's something I can identify with. In the mid '90s when I taught at an inner-ring suburban high school near Minneapolis, I inquired about how the increasing numbers of black students were doing academically. The counselor told me, without a shred of concern, that there was not one, not even one, amongst the top 50% of the graduating class. I was floored. That was 1995, and it motivated me to start an elective class, African-American Literature, which is still offered at that school today.
And so, on the level of policy, to put maximum penalties toward schools that do not tend to the least of their student body is understandable, even noble. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the best thing about NCLB.
Unfortunately, after that it goes down hill, fast. You see, in order to measure success, the law calls for annual testing in grades 3-8 in math and reading, plus state assessments in high school. What this means folks is tests, standardized ones, lots of them. Over and over again. Drilling for tests. Practicing for tests. Taking the tests. Test security, test anxiety, test mania, test interpretation.
The educational system is now hostage to numbers a student, or a group of minority students, earn on exams that the students have very little stake in.
And here is where the best intentions go off course and completely destroy kids it is trying to help. In the classroom, at the level of pedagogy, curriculum and class work, the importance of test scores has become the driver of educational effort. Electives and recess are being cut, lunch time curtailed, the school day extended--all to provide more time to drill and practice for multiple choice tests.
What's wrong with allowing the test to drive teaching? In a word:
Everything
.
You see, education is (should be) about human development. A human being has certain needs: stimulation, meaning, connection, nutrition, exercise, etc.---not least when they are young and forming opinions about the worth of learning and being at school. Basically, education is about growing potential in students, particularly being able to reach each of their brains: getting them to function, grow, maybe kick them into high gear, but, in any case, getting them to engage with learning, life, and the world--academically, socially, inter-personally--to the point that it translates into being successful citizens, workers and parents as adults.
In short: we need to find the best way to get kids--at the level of the brain--to fully engage.
Eric Jensen, in his book, Enriching the Brain, identifies the seven golden maximizers of brain potential that neurologists have spent years tracking and identifying:
- Physical activity (voluntary gross motor operations)
- Novel, challenging and meaningful learning.
- Coherent complexity in classroom experiences.
- Managed stress levels (not boring or distressful).
- Social support (at home, school and community levels).
- Good nutrition (balanced and healthy with supplements).
- Sufficient time (not rushed, plenty of sleep).
These are the exact mix of ingredients that give every child the best opportunity to be successful as a student, and eventually, as an adult. And reality is, as Jensen painstakingly relates, it is the contrast from normal that makes each of these maximizers work. In other words, it is the degree to which educators and parents can make each of the items above show up as new and different and stimulate the child's brain. So that, class events, lab experiences, field trips, guest speakers, all school events, family outings, an evening at home, all of them need to be built around contrasting learning moments that use the golden maximizers as a guide.
Now, the bad news for poor kids: they have very little access to the golden maximizers. They are, by far, more likely to live in stressful environments without proper nutrition where they don't get enough rest, travel infrequently, watch television, experience limited social stimuluation and support, without access to either meaningful learning or coherent complexity. Plus, they relocate a lot. That's not just the achievement gap folks, that's the reality of the wealth and education gap amongst their parents (for those that have parents).
And unfortunately, even when they do survive and thrive through all the boredom of test-prepping and somehow score well on NCLB exams, there is absolutely no guarantee that they will learn to critically think, collaborate with others, apply their knowledge in novel ways, learn to be creative, or build any of the actual skills they will need to be successful in the world of work. Nor is there a sure route into college or being able to pay for it. In other words: damned when they do, damned when they don't.
The good news is, and this is incredibly good news, that the brain can catch-up, change, grow, develop.
Children of poverty often develop impoverished brains with a variety of difficulties. That's the bad news we don't really need to hear again and again. Is there hope for something good? Yes is the emphatic answer. Many problems can be overcome through environmental enrichment... the brains of kids of poverty are not lost forever.
Jensen details how researchers have determined that intelligence and brain activity are not static, but rather, can grow and develop given the proper environment. And in particular, children who are in the most trying circumstances, whose brains are under-stimulated and under-developed, can grow "faster and smarter" than other students, at least in terms of improvement given their diminished starting point. They have, by far, more up-side potential.
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, because test scores are the "be all and end all" of NCLB, these are the exact kids who will be forced into rote learning, drill and kill, memorization and other non-stimulating pedagogy, that we have known for at least 50 years Do. Not. Work.
And students who already live in an enriched environment, who attend solid middle-class schools with well-qualified and motivated teachers, their school experience takes them further up the enrichment ladder: field trips, technology, guest speakers, extra-curriculars, community tie-ins. For them, the standardized tests are mere interruptions to an otherwise worthy school experience, and the vast majority have no particular worry about passing. You see, as Jensen points out in his book: the one proven thing about maximizing the brain's potential--it really helps test scores. That's the exact reason why the Achievement Gap exists in the first place!!!!
Will somebody help get this message to Democrats?
What matters to young students is providing them an enriched, stimulating, low-stress but socially active environment, where learning is enhanced by significant contrast and fortified by proper rest, exercise and nutrition, and curriculum is meaningful and coherent--not to mention provided by a caring and qualified teacher.
If we can achieve that for every child in America, test scores would never again be an issue.
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