NCLB: Unfunded AND fraudulent

Is the No Child Left Behind Act an unfunded federal mandate, as many of its critics have maintained? Well, maybe not, at least technically. Here's Gerald Bracey's take on it:

" It's not that NCLB won't cost the states a bundle more than it provides: It will. It's a matter of definition. States receive funds via NCLB if they agree to its terms. Thus, by definition, it's not a 'mandate.' "

With states strapped for cash, what choice do they have other than to accede to the arduous demands of NCLB? All states run Title I programs, and for certain schools, federal money makes up a significant chunk of their operating budgets. In that sense, the federal law is a mandate.

Either way, the attacks on NCLB keep coming. The latest is a hefty report from FairTest. If you're so inclined, you can download the complete report in pdf format from the website. Or you can just read the executive summary, which sums up the failings of NCLB quite nicely by highlighting the two false assumptions undergirding the act:

1.) Boosting standardized test scores should be the primary goal of schools. This assumption leads to one-size-fits-all teaching aimed primarily at test preparation, and it works against efforts to give all children a high-quality education.

2.) Schools can best be improved by threatening educators with harsh sanctions, since poor teaching is the primary cause of unsatisfactory student performance. Threats may get teachers to focus narrowly on boosting test scores. They fail, however, to address the underlying problems of family poverty and inadequate school funding that are major reasons why many students start off far behind and never catch up.

I like the part about failing to address family poverty and inadequate school funding.

The report goes on to prescribe what should be done instead of the limited standardized testing currently required by the law--- namely, a battery of performance assessments that more adequately measure real student learning.

Kind of like what I experienced yesterday at the 4-H Wildlife Stewards Summit.

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