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STANFORD Magazine: July/August 2006

These reports produced a syndrome we might call “The Neurotic Need to Believethe Worst.” Americans uncritically accept gloomy statistics about their publicschools. For example, claims that in 2004 China produced 600,000 engineers,India 350,000 and t

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I have never believed that this law is the idealistic, well-intentioned but
poorly executed program that many claim it to be. NCLB aims to shrink the public
sector, transfer large sums of public money to the private sector, weaken or
destroy two Democratic power bases—the teachers unions—and provide vouchers to
let students attend private schools at public expense. The original proposal,
and each subsequent presidential budget, provided for vouchers, but Congress has
thus far removed these provisions.
Add Sticky Note
- Okay, here there is argument of motives, but at least some figures were provided first.
  posted by alicemercer on 2007-02-18
NCLB’s greatest absurdity derives from the demand that schools alone wipe out
the achievement gap. As economist Richard Rothstein observes in Class and
Schools: “We can make big strides in narrowing the student
achievement gap, but only by directing greater attention to economic and social
reforms that narrow the differences in background characteristics with which
children come to school. . . . If the nation can’t close the gaps in income,
health and housing, there is little prospect of equalizing achievement.”
One might reasonably object, “Yes, but other countries have poor children, too.”
True, but not nearly as many as the United States,
If the students in U.S. schools with 25 to 49.9 percent poverty constituted a
nation, it would rank fourth among the 35 countries in the study. Only in
schools where the poverty level exceeded 75 percent did the score fall below the
international average.
Poverty and Literacy in U.S. Schools
Of the 35 nations in this study of fourth graders, eight scored higher than the
United States, but only three of those scored statistically significantly
higher. The average U.S. score of 543 floated well above the international
average of 500 although somewhat behind the leading nation, Sweden, at 562. When
the U.S. Department of Education broke down PIRLS scores according to the
different poverty levels of U.S. schools, it found this:
Trends in Math and Science
These reports produced a syndrome we might call “The Neurotic Need to Believe
the Worst.” Americans uncritically accept gloomy statistics about their public
schools. For example, claims that in 2004 China produced 600,000 engineers,
India 350,000 and the United States a mere 70,000 flowed without resistance from
a 2005 Fortune article into a National Academies report, the New York
Times and popular culture. The real figures emerged from a Duke University
study in late 2005: China, 341,000; India 112,000; United States 131,000—more
per capita than either of the others. Yet spring 2006 found the bogus numbers in
the New Yorker and in speeches by Sen. John Warner, Education secretary
Margaret Spellings and Commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Bad statistics are
hard to kill.
In his 1990 book, Popular Education and Its Discontents,
historian Lawrence Cremin observed that the growth of American education after
World War II had been “nothing short of phenomenal.” The proportion of high
school graduates among those 25 or older had grown from 34 percent to 74
percent, while college graduates had increased from 6 percent to 19 percent.
“And yet,” mused Cremin, this expansion “brought with it a pervasive sense of
failure. The question would have to be ‘Why?’”
The problem of incentives, then, cannot be dealt with until the problem of
political power is somehow resolved. Until this happens, real reform will be a
constant uphill battle, and the public schools will continue to disappoint.
The unions are also opposed to accountability.
The teachers unions are opposed to school choice
The education system can only be reformed through politics, and political power is stacked in favor of employee
groups that staunchly defend traditional arrangements.

California Teachers Association | CTA

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NEA: No Child Left Behind - ESEA - NEA Position - News and Developments

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AFT NCLB Blog

From Alice: A blog by way of AFT on NCLB, but it's more of a personal blog on policy. Nice entries, but notice the modest comment traffic

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more fromletsgetitright.org

http://www.cep-dc.org/nclb/Year4/06-NCLB-Case-Oakland.pdf

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Freakonomics Blog » More “Freakonomics” on ABC-TV

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Borderland » An Inconvenient Truth about NCLB

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Klein et al.:What Do Test Scores in Texas Tell Us?

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more fromepaa.asu.edu

To sum up, states that use high-stakes exams may encounter a plethora of
problems that would undermine the interpretation of the scores obtained. Some of
these problems include the following: (1) students being coached to develop
skills that are unique to the specific types of questions that are asked on the
statewide exam (i.e., as distinct from what is generally meant by reading, math,
or the other subjects tested); (2) narrowing the curriculum to improve scores on
the state exam at the expense of other important skills and subjects that are
not tested; (3) an increase in the prevalence of activities that substantially
reduce the validity of the scores; and (4) results being biased by various
features of the testing program (e.g., if a significant percentage of students
top out or bottom out on the test, it may produce results that suggest that the
gap among racial and ethnic groups is closing when no such change is occurring).
To sum up, states that use high-stakes exams may encounter a plethora of
problems that would undermine the interpretation of the scores obtained. Some of
these problems include the following: (1) students being coached to develop
skills that are unique to the specific types of questions that are asked on the
statewide exam (i.e., as distinct from what is generally meant by reading, math,
or the other subjects tested); (2) narrowing the curriculum to improve scores on
the state exam at the expense of other important skills and subjects that are
not tested; (3) an increase in the prevalence of activities that substantially
reduce the validity of the scores; and (4) results being biased by various
features of the testing program (e.g., if a significant percentage of students
top out or bottom out on the test, it may produce results that suggest that the
gap among racial and ethnic groups is closing when no such change is occurring).

The Blog | Gerald Bracey: Things Fall Apart: No Child Left Behind Self-Destructs | The Huffington Post

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