No teacher can ever forget about No Child Left Behind. Test scores drive everything we do. However, NCLB and its effects are rarely understood by those outside the system. Why should you care? If the current administration doesn't change NCLB, your child's school will fail in 5 years or less.
A quick background on NCLB: the law was signed in early 2002 and increases school accountabilities as measured by state-mandated tests. In addition to requiring that schools provide the names of students to military recruiters, all students take a state test usually in March or April, and test scores are released to both schools and parents in August. Teachers and administrators use the test scores to plan everything from intervention courses (courses meant for students considered "at-risk" of failing) and honors classes to whether students can become teachers' aides. Parents can use test scores to evaluate whether a school is adequately educating their child and to determine which schools in the district are considered the best, possibly to transfer their child there.
On the surface, this seems like a wonderful goal. However, NCLB has some major flaws. First, children are not widgets that will perform similarly or even predictably on state tests. Studies show that state tests are poor predictors of how successful a student will be in high school and college. In many cases, teacher-given grades are a better predictor of student success.
Second, NCLB ignores the huge effects that factors outside school test scores. Parental income and amountof involvement in their child's education, extracurricular activity participation, theculture of the school, etc all have an effect on test scores. Even factors such as whether or not the child is open to learning, amount of training in how to take state tests geared for their grade level, the amount of time each day children are tested, and even if they ate breakfast that morning or not skews test scores so that they are no longer an accurate representation of what students know. The test is merely a one-week snapshot of a student; a year-long evaluation is more accurate.
Nonetheless, even though schools contribute only a part of the solution to student learning, it is schools that are punished when a student test scores slump. Failing schools can have funding slashed by either state or federal agencies. Title 1 schools (measured by the amount of students on free or reduced lunch - an indicator of low income) are especially vulnerable to funding cuts and other penalties. For example, Title 1 schools in California that fail to meet testing goals for 2 years are taken over by SAIT (State Assisted Intervention Team), which can drastically change curriculum, mandate pacing guidelines regardless of student performance, and even change the entire staff of a school. Talk about destroying a school's culture! Pala Middle School in San Jose CA was taken over by SAIT after 2 years of measurable, though smaller-than-mandated increases in test scores. The next year, though teachers followed SAIT directives to the letter, the school's test scores dropped. The school was reconstituted, meaning, every teacher was replaced with new teachers of varying experience levels. That year, the school tested even lower. Students had been required to spend up to 4.5 hours in math and reading classes -- no electives, no science classes, and social studies and PE only on alternating days. After 2 years of this, discipline issues predictably exploded.
This is one of the ways that NCLB can destroy a school. But wait, there's more. Your child's school must continually raise their test scores, even if that school is performing above the state and national average. By 2014, all public schools in the United States must have 100% of their students pass the state test or be considered a failing school (and subject to funding cuts). This means ALL the students, including students who transferred schools a week before testing, special education students and the severely disabled. In my middle school, we have a disabled student who functions at the level of a four-year-old. I doubt he will ever be capable of passing the WASL. Nonetheless, if he fails in 2014, the entire school fails.
A failing grade is the kiss of death for many schools facing ever-increasing budget cuts. Rather than welcoming students with disabilities and poor students, schools will be forced to treat these students as hot potatoes, passing them on before the test date to another school. And in 5 years, Republicans will be able to crow that public school system is a failure: after all, look at how many failed to meet the minimum requirements!
Obama has planned to keep NCLB but pledges to change the law. He believes that teachers should be rewarded for doing a good job, not punished for low test scores. He states that assessments are a good idea, but should be used to plan instruction in a school, not to judge a school. He also plans to provide some much-needed funding for tests, teacher training, and programs to help at-risk students. He has not yet said whether or not he will remove the 2014 deadline for 100% passing.
I sincerely hope he is able to enact the changes NCLB sorely needs. Because your child's school is scheduled to self-destruct in 5 years or less if he doesn't.
(on a lighter note, please visit my blog, crassroom management)