Validity of NCLB

I found the article, Poverty and Potential: Out of School Factors and School Success by David C. Berliner very interesting but not surprising. Students spend 1,150 hours a year in school and 4,700 hours a year with their families, of course they are going to have baggage from their home lives. As a national we need to consider these out of school factors as we stride to improve our schools. I truly agree with the statement Berliner said about No Child Left Behind, it is an “outcome-oriented, input-ignoring philosophy”. We cannot require schools to fix problems outside their zone of influence. Berliner stated seven outside factors that influence students’ school success.

This article form USA today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-06-06-schools-qa_N.htm, talks about gains NCLB has (or hasn’t) made in the five years since it took effect. No Child Left Behind was supposed to be this great act to close the achievement gap and raise school standards. This article discusses strategies states are trying, to give the impression they are making more progress. Various states are creating tests with all multiple-choice questions instead of extended response and lower the passing score so more students’ pass. They are fluffing data so that their school make gradual improvements and will not be labeled as a failure. Schools that do not make the grade end up having the students leave to go to other schools. So in turn good schools are becoming over crowded and schools not achieving passing grades are closing. That does not seem to be a brilliant solution to closing the achievement gap.

The outside factors such as limited or no health care, food insecurities and pollutants are factors that are national issues. But schooling is not considered a national issue so in politics the two are not connected. We are only of the only developed countries in the world where schooling is not nationally regulated. The federal government is afraid that it will step on the toes of the states if they impose regulations about schooling. That is the reason states are allowed to determine how they are going to test students for NCLB. And we can all see how well that seems to be working out!