No Child Left Behind and the vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Oh, regarding the right wing conspiracy, it’s just a throwaway line, but you have to admit, it’s a catchy title. And at its core, NCLB demonstrates the typical attributes of right wing policy – its name is more slogan than description, and it shows a great distrust of public institutions.
Wherever the ideas were developed, NCLB is a curious law. It forces states to measure lots of facets but doesn’t use the data to find causes or to develop best practices (solutions). If the data suggest that a school has a problem, the school receives no guidance regarding how to change the outcome, nor are additional resources (funding) provided.
This is completely different from how enterprises normally operate.
In the financial services arena, we typically do our business via mail or phone call, so we measure the volumes of both, the speed of our response, and whether there are any timing cycles (and there are, typically, Monday call volume is higher that average, and financial sector businesses receive both more calls and letters during the weeks following the mailing of tax forms). On the sales side, businesses also measure dollars and profitability (and for underwritten products, a few additional factors). In addition to responding to the volume of work, managers look to the data to see where errors are made (or complaints arise). Based upon the trends that add more resources (or cut back) – and train or retrain (or fire).
Education is not quite like the financial sector, still, we don’t need complex testing data to identify success or failure. Successful schools systems are ones that move most of their kids from kindergarten through High School, and almost everyone graduates. 10 years after graduation, these kids will be found generally thriving. The school systems are primarily in middle class areas and demographically, are mostly white or white and Asian. We will say more on that later.
For the failed schools, almost all we need to know is that many don’t graduate, and after school, the next 10 years promises little but failure. Most of the failing schools are predominantly poor, and demographically, largely African Americans and Hispanics.
If NCLB were in earnest, it would replace nationwide testing with a focus on the failed schools. It would also create a process that looked to identify causes or at least patterns – as well as solutions (tailored to causes). Instead, it offers nothing for failing schools, only for the students, and for them, it offers tutoring or a way out via a place in another school, whether public or private. Although not many parents have asked for this solution, it’s a far cry from assessing why the school is failing.
I have lived in the suburban monoculture, and seen the successful schools as consistent with the prosperous families that provided the students. Now I live in a poorer town that is heavily Hispanic. Some of our residents are here illegally, and the kids are less likely to remain in a school for a long time. Many need to learn English. It is no surprise that our town’s schools show achievement levels below the rest of the schools in our county. So far, none have “failed” in terms of NCLB – but if they did, it would have a lot more to do with the nature of educating a transient and poor population, than with a failure on the part of our teachers.
The issues with African Americans are more troubling. From all I have read, there are significant cultural factors that lead to poor achievement. Read Whatever It Takes, which describes on person’s efforts to improve educational outcomes in Harlem. Even middle class African American kids don’t do as well as their economic white peers. That’s too bad. Simply testing kids and closing schools it not an answer. Not is hoping that the private economy will find a better way.
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