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Setting expectations too low, critics "Ironically, No Child reforms may have
Critical inquiry say. the exact opposite effect they were
Discussion and future implications intended to have," says Bruce Fuller, an
The 2002 federal No Child Left Behind education and public policy professor at
.........................................................................................11 law was designed to raise education the University of California at Berkeley.
standards by punishing schools that fail
to make all kids proficient in math and
Additional resources reading.
.........................................................................................12
© Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reser ved.
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S LIFE SECTION, JUNE 7, 2007
State scores misleading high school. Ever y child must be And teachers and students are far more
proficient in those subjects by 2014. focused on the state tests because those
The GNS analysis found that relying on tests determine whether their schools
state test scores to judge students' Schools that don't make "adequate make adequate progress and, in some
performance is misleading. yearly progress" risk being flagged as cases, whether seniors receive a diploma.
underperforming. Students may transfer,
For example, 89% of Mississippi fourth- or the district could be forced to use its In Maryland, 58% of fourth-graders
graders passed the state's reading test in federal money to pay for tutoring. passed the state reading test in 2003;
2005, but only 18% passed the National 32% passed NAEP. Two years later, 82%
Assessment of Educational Progress Philadelphia schools chief Paul Vallas passed the state test; NAEP results
(NAEP) test. That gap of 71 percentage says the answer is national standards. stayed the same.
points was the widest in the nation. Every grade in every state would teach
Fuller's research suggests the gap the same material and administer the "If it doesn't count for kids, they're not
between state test scores and NAEP same test. going to take it seriously," says Dixie
scores has widened in many states since Stack, director of curriculum at the
the federal law took effect. Vallas, who will take over New Orleans' Maryland Department of Education.
schools in July, says students who fled
States that don't push students to meet the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast in Some states do take it seriously.
higher standards risk sending them into 2005 were stunned to find more rigorous
the work world unprepared — even as education standards elsewhere. In 2005, Tennessee reported the largest
global competition increases. More than difference in the nation between eighth-
half of 250 employers surveyed in 2006 "The shocker … is how poorly the kids grade students' scores on the state's
said high school graduates are deficient have done in another state," he says. "It math and reading tests and scores on
at writing in English, foreign languages was probably a wake-up call." NAEP.
and math skills.
Focus on neglected groups The state looked at its standards and
"The future U.S. workforce is here — found them largely in line with NAEP,
and it is woefully ill-prepared," the President Bush and lawmakers say the says Rachel Woods of the state
report concluded. punitive elements of No Child Left Depar tment of Education. But the
Behind have prompted states to re- Tennessee tests used a multiple-choice
State education officials deny critics' examine standards and focus on long- format, while NAEP demands more essay
claims that they're gaming the system by neglected groups of students, notably responses.
making tests easier. They say it's unfair to minorities and students with disabilities.
compare state tests with NAEP, which is Now, Tennessee is rewriting its tests
taken by only a small percentage of Critics say the law forces schools to and increasing requirements for high
students and often includes material drill kids and emphasize testing at the school graduation. That will almost
schools haven't covered yet. expense of other learning. cer tainly lower the number of kids
scoring in the proficient range and
They say changes in testing policies Tiffany Collins, 12, a seventh-grader at increase the number of schools flagged
came after careful review and federal Robert Frost Middle School in Fairfax, Va., as poor performers, Woods says.
officials signed off on them. knows May is test time. "I just think it's
really a lot of pressure," she says. But, she says, "What's important is
"We didn't game anything," says Tom having more kids graduate with the skills
Horne, superintendent of public States and some independent experts they need to succeed."
instruction in Arizona, which lowered say comparing scores on federal and
the passing score on several tests in state tests isn't valid.
2005. "We called a task force, and the Contributing: Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
state board decided to follow their The national exam, they say, was never
recommendation." designed to compare standards from
state to state. It's administered to only a
No Child Left Behind requires states to sample of students, each of whom takes
test students in math and reading from only a portion of the test.
third through eighth grades and once in
Education science in
search of answers
Research's usefulness is called into question
By Greg Toppo "Some good work is getting done, but the balance of
USA TODAY influence in AERA is not with people doing rigorous, carefully
designed, obviously important research," says Rick Hess of the
The Education Department made big news last July when it American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
released a long-awaited study that compared the test scores of
children in more than 7,500 public and private schools. With Hess made waves last year when he and a co-writer plucked
most other things being equal, public school students often do dozens of titles from AERA's conference program for a tongue-
better and sometimes a lot better than private-schoolers, the in-cheek National Review piece. It bemoaned the dearth of
research found. serious work on practical matters, noting papers with "utterly
incomprehensible" titles such as "Postcolonial Reading of
But four days later, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings Classroom Discourse on the Imperial Rescue of Oppressed
stood in the expansive hearing room of the House Education Hawaiian Women," "The Formation of the Subjectivity of Mail-
Committee to unveil a $100 million proposal to use taxpayer- Order Brides in Taiwan and Their Educational Strategies Toward
funded vouchers to send public school students to private Their Children" and "Vygotskian Semiotic Conception and
schools. Representational Dialogue in Mathematics Education."
Spellings called the study irrelevant, saying it was small and "It seemed useful to kind of cast a spotlight on this and hope
flawed. Other advocates of vouchers, such as Har vard that it might urge the serious folks at AERA to pay a little more
University researcher Paul Peterson, agreed. Advocates of attention, to be sure that they're not being tarred unfairly by
public schools, including teachers unions, say the Bush less serious work," Hess says.
administration chose to ignore a study that didn't support its
agenda. Part of the problem is few researchers have the means to
conduct large-scale, long-term studies, which usually require
In the end, it was a pretty good metaphor for the state of the cooperation of at least one school district. But districts
educational research: More than five years after President often are reluctant to agree to trials that could cast them in a
Bush's No Child Left Behind law told educators to rely on less-than-favorable light.
"scientifically based" methods, the science produced is often
inconclusive, politically charged or less than useful for Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst, who directs the Education
classroom teachers. And when it is useful, it often is misused or Department's Institute of Education Sciences, says researchers
ignored altogether. are producing more large-scale studies that pose vital, practical
questions. Five years ago, his agency financed 65 research
A focus on practicality grants; this year's budget finances 350.
As the 88th annual meeting of the American Educational But Hess has a point: "There's an awful lot that goes on that is
Research Association (AERA) takes place this week in Chicago, off-target if your target is solving problems," Whitehurst says.
critics say the USA's huge community of education researchers
— 14,000 are attending — often studies topics that do little to Others defend AERA's work and that of researchers in general
help schools solve practical problems such as how to train but say the patchwork system of public schools makes it hard
teachers, how to raise skills, how to lower dropout rates and even for relevant research to reach the classroom.
whether smaller classes really make a difference.
"We have a separation in that some of us who do the Education Sciences gets about $234 million for research on
research aren't running the schools," says William Tate, a math regular and special education, which is less than 1% of the $400
researcher at Washington University in St. Louis who will take billion spent each year on K-12 education, according to the non-
over as AERA's new president this month. partisan Aspen Institute. Aspen compares the funding with the
$27 billion received by the National Institutes of Health and
No system for dissemination recommends doubling Whitehurst's budget.
Tate points out excellent research, for instance, on dropout Tate says he foresees more researchers focusing on the
prevention, released in February by Columbia University, which effectiveness of programs, and cost-benefit analyses.
identified five cost-effective ways to boost high school
graduation rates. The study should be in the hands "of every "We're putting a lot of money into this good called education,
superintendent in America," Tate says. But they probably won't and people want to know what kind of benefits they're getting
see it because, unlike in medicine, there's no systematic way from the investment they're making."
for important research to be disseminated.
In 2002, Whitehurst unveiled the What Works Clearinghouse,
"We don't have that kind of infrastructure," he says. "It's just which uses a six-point scale to judge programs available to
not there." schools such as math and reading curricula and dropout
prevention and character education programs.
A few leaders go out of their way to take in the latest findings.
Evelyn Holman, superintendent of Bay Shore Union Free In the process, it accepts or rejects prior research on each
Schools in New York, says she gathers her principals every program. After 4 1/2 years and $23 million, it has rated about
other month for a day of training on the latest research. 50 products, finding 75% of studies unacceptable — and
prompting education pundits to call it the "Nothing Works
"You need that incubation time to really reflect on, 'Where Clearinghouse."
are we going, what are we doing, how could we do it better?'"
she says. But even this level of skepticism may not satisfy critics.
Budget cuts do make it hard for many of her colleagues to After the clearinghouse last month found the popular
take time for such sessions. "It's seen by the public sometimes Reading Recovery program showed "positive effects" on
as just a chance to go play, rather than a chance to stay up with student achievement and "potentially positive effects" on
the latest trends in your field," she says. comprehension and fluency, critics weighed in. They zoomed
in on the fine print and found the endorsement was based on
Research budgets limited four acceptable studies out of 78.
Funding also limits research. As with medical research, Whitehurst says progress is slow but steady: "It used to be
universities, foundations and corporations all underwrite that the glass was nearly empty, and now it's a quarter full."
education research. But federal support for education pales
next to medicine. "Some good work is getting done, but the balance of
influence in AERA is not with people doing rigorous, carefully
designed, obviously important research."
Critics point to a recent survey of mostly urban school u At KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), operating 57
districts by the Center on Education Policy; 62% reported charter schools in 17 states, literacy skills are part of every
increasing time for literacy or math at the expense of history, subject, which helps explain KIPP's high reading scores.
music, art, social studies or recess.
The "narrowing of the curriculum" line is one you'll hear
There is, however, more to the story. often in the presidential race. It isn't entirely without
foundation. In general, however, if students are getting more
If your child attends a successful school in a well-to-do math and reading instruction, it's because they need it.
neighborhood, chances are the curriculum hasn't narrowed.
Letters
Unfortunately, in his opposing view, Reg Weaver, president of Weaver claims NCLB has narrowed the curriculum. Despite
the National Education Association, enlarges the education abundant anecdotes suggesting the contrary, the Digest of
illusion (“Key subjects get short shrift,” Opposing view, Education Statistics: 2006 shows the following: High school
Improving education debate, Aug. 6). graduates in 2005 took more courses in history/social studies,
science, foreign languages, arts and computers than did
Weaver claims dropout rates have increased in the wake of graduates in 2000.
the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but this isn't what the
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) says. As for the elementary grades, a recent NCES study of first
through fourth grades shows that the percentage of the school
In its Digest of Education Statistics: 2006, NCES says the week used for teaching the four core academic subjects of
percentage of high school dropouts among people 16 through English, mathematics, social studies and science has not
24 years old dropped from 10.9% in 2000 to 9.4% in 2005. changed significantly between 1998-99 and 2003-04. Children
had about a third of their school week to spend on other
The four-year graduation rate of freshmen increased from subjects and activities.
71.7% in 2000 to 74.7% in 2005.
Indeed, because the length of the student school week has
Weaver claims math and reading scores on the National increased a full hour since 1987-1988, and the total time spent
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have not improved delivering instruction is up 1.7 hours a week, it could actually
since NCLB. be that more time is being spent broadening students'
education.
But according to the Nation's Report Card, the rate of
improvement in fourth- and eighth-grade math and fourth- Sandy Kress, former senior education
grade reading has accelerated since 2000. Improvement for advisor to President Bush
African-American and Hispanic students has generally Austin
Question: NCLB has elicited frequent criticism from school A: That's one of the big issues in NCLB reauthorization. For those
administrators around the country. What are you hearing, and schools, right now the menu and the statute of what constitutes
what is the best way to ease these concerns? restructuring — real restructuring — is hugely anemic. It says
charter, re-establish, anything else you feel like. So the
Answer: We're shining a bright spotlight on under-achievement accountability trajectory in NCLB actually gets less robust than
in this country, and it makes a lot of grownups uncomfortable. No more robust. The things that happen in the early years are more
doubt about it. But that's the point. And, you know, the law is really vigorous than the anemic options later, which is why we need to
very simple on its face. Test every kid every year. Disaggregate the change it.
data. Get them on grade level by 2014.
Q: So what should change?
Q: Many educators view the testing regimen required in the law
as onerous and responsible for creating a teach-to-the-test world. A: We need more intensity around these chronic
Are these criticisms fair? underachievers. The president believes that ought to be real school
choice, tutoring, charter schools. … I mean, serious, serious
A: We passed the best law we could five years ago. We had intervention. So more intensive resources, not only for those
about half the states doing annual assessments, and everybody schools, but also for those schools at risk of drifting that way.
else was doing a snapshot -- third-graders, eighth-graders, 11th-
graders. We didn't know very much. There's no way to chart Q: One radical fix hasn't been tried: cross-district transfers.
progress over time when you're measuring third-graders, eighth- Should the reauthorization include this as a way of helping these
graders and 11th-graders. We can now do a growth model (that trapped kids?
compares kids year to year). Everybody's whining about too much
testing, but let's have more testing. A: I think that would be certainly allowable under the president's
concept. But the budget also includes parochial schools and other
Q: With those five years of experience, what do you see as the sorts of educational offerings. We must give states more vigorous
primary problems of the law and the areas that could be tools to confront the chronic underperformers.
improved?
Q: Can a school district be required to take a child who is seeking A: The parents have every right to seek a high-quality
a transfer? educational option for their kid, irrespective of whether highly
motivated, low motivated, rich, poor, whatever. So that's what
A: These are decisions that would be made locally. But we're they've done; that's what the law says they can do. Every kid on a
going to say, OK, real school restructuring has to happen. This is the campus, whether they're a failing kid or just a regular kid in a
menu. And these are some resources. failing school, has that option. Fine and dandy. That's their
prerogative. But as far as the creaming issue, I don't think the
Q: Will the reauthorization consider new ways to measure intensity to improve that school is likely very acute, and that's the
school performance? point of No Child Left Behind. That's why we need $500 million to
intervene and get resources for those schools. I mean, this is a
A: This law can be made a lot worse, and I'm not interested in walk-and-chew-gum deal. We ought to improve those schools. But
that. I hear people say, "Let's have a lot of measures, let's use I don't think the three or four kids who were on grade level and left
teacher grades, let's use somebody's opinion, let's use a parent the school pose a huge impediment for improvement at the
survey, let's whatever," and so on. No. That is not valid, reliable, school.
comparable accountability. Do you let your employees rate
themselves for their performance reviews? Can we make this law Q: What's your response to folks who say that NCLB is confusing
better? Can we improve it to the good of minority and poor kids? the standards movement and ultimately giving educators less
Yes, we can. But it can also be watered down, and we cannot have useful information than they had before?
that.
A: I reject that. We had the ostrich approach five years ago. We
Q: The reauthorization effort is occurring in the middle of the didn't know anything. And I guess we thought we were
2008 presidential election campaign. That can be a political high- complacently happy about how it was going. But now we know
wire act. How are you handling this? that yes, some people are gaming the system. Anyway, no, I don't
think it has set the standards movement back. I think the
A: The politics of education are fascinating because the civil transparency has moved it forward. The very idea that we can
rights community and the unions — both core Democrat even have this conversation is huge progress.
constituencies — find themselves at odds with one another (over
NCLB). The good news is we got a very strong statute on the books Q: But is the federal government simply winking at the low
right now. And if we can improve it, we're for it. They're for it. standards that states are using and saying, "It's OK with us"?
Q: Why not push the date back if nobody really believes all the A: People in those states are smart and well-motivated, and
kids will be at grade level by 2014? they're going to act on them in due course. I believe that. But you
can't just say, "You know what, we're not going to graduate any
A: I reject that. There's plenty of flex and give in this law. I am not kids in Texas this year from high school, not any of them. No one in
willing to say that all of the kids who are left as a part of the Houston will get a diploma this year because we're not suddenly
accountability system, that they cannot read on grade level. We're going to have national high standards." You have to bring the
not asking people to be rocket scientists. We're asking the schools system along and move it forward over time. And that's something
to have our children read on grade level. I mean, what do you want that state officials calibrate. But they're paying the bills. And you
for your own kids? know, we've got some powerful tools on the transparency side
that I think are having a good effect. But this is a journey.
Q: If students are allowed to transfer from a non-performing
school to a high-performing school, often the only children who
benefit are the ones with highly motivated parents. As a result,
aren't we merely skimming the cream away from poorly
performing schools?
2. Evaluate the findings of Department of Education’s report (and Gannett News Service’s analysis) on state testing. Can
you think of any other factors not mentioned in the case study that might be relevant? Write a 2-3 page report evalu-
ating what the analysis found in regards to state testing and the NAEP test, citing examples from the articles in the
case study as well as current articles from USA TODAY.
3. What else, aside from making tests easier, does this case study describe states as having done to minimize the impact
of NCLB? Do you agree or disagree with these methods? Write a quick 3-minute persuasive essay defending your
position and engage in a class discussion on the validity of these methods.
4. What is the status of educational research today as mandated by NCLB? In small groups of 3-4 students, list the issues
involved in creating valid educational research. Discuss as a group and decide which issue is the most critical and why.
Share your results with the class as a whole.
5. Bruce Fuller, education and public policy professor, states, “Ironically, No Child reforms may have the exact opposite
effect they were intended to have.” Divide your class into groups of three or four students, and list the arguments from
the case study that support this statement and those that refute it. From this case study, which arguments are more
compelling? As a group, discuss whether you agree or disagree with Fuller’s statement.
2. How do other countries test their students? Choose a country and, using current issues of USA TODAY and other
resources, research how the country measures student achievement and compare these methods to the U.S.
Prepare a 2-3 minute oral presentation for your class.
3. Research test results in your own state. Compose five questions based on issues from this case study and interview
a local or state education official. Do their responses shed new light on the case study? Did you uncover addition-
al issues? Write up your interview and findings in a 2-3 page report.
4. Describe the differences between medical and educational research. Do you think the amount of federal dollars
allocated to each is equitable? Compose a 2-minute quick write defending your opinion, then discuss with a peer
who has the opposing view.
5. What are the latest initiatives from the federal government and the states to improve student achievement? Do
you agree or disagree that these initiatives are enough to meet the deadline of making all students proficient in
math and reading by 2014? Use current issues of USA TODAY to conduct your research. Present an oral report to
the class.
v NAEP Report, “Mapping 2005 State Proficiency v AERA (American Educational Research Association)
Standards Onto the NAEP Scales” http://www.aera.net/
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/stud-
ies/2007482.asp nstitute of Education Sciences
v In
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/index.html
v Gannett News Service coverage
http://gns.gannettonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Catego v “Are They Really Ready to Work” Partnership for 21st
ry=NCLB Century Skills
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/FINAL_REPO
v Gannett News Service NAEP Test Interactive Map RT_PDF09-29-06.pdf
http://gns.gannettonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20
070606/GNSVIDEO50/70606002/-1/NCLB v Center on Education Policy “Answering the Question
That Matters Most: Has Student Achievement Increased
v US Department of Education: NCLB Since No Child Left Behind?” http://www.cep-dc.org
http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml /index.cfm?fuseaction=document.showDocumentByID&no
deID=1&DocumentID=200