Center
on Education Policy Reports Faults in "No Child Left Behind"
On January 3, 2003, the Center
on Education Policy, an education advocacy and policy organization based in
Washington, D.C., released a report on implementation of the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 (For a summary and analysis of NCLB, see the ACCESS
NCLB pages). From
the Capital to the Classroom (PDF Document) says that if the Act is to
succeed, the Bush administration will have to provide states more flexibility,
more funding, and more guidance in order to ease the implementation process.
A key problem with the Act in its current form, says Jack Jennings, the Center's
executive director, is that its enforcement plan is too rigorous, especially considering
that final
regulations were not released until late November, and state accountability
plans were due January 31. Some states and districts drew up plans before the
new regulations became available. Inflexibility in labeling schools "in
need of improvement" is also a problem, the
report says. Maryland has already lowered its state standards to increase
pass rates, and other states are considering taking similar steps. Jennings adds
that the administration should make 2003 a test year and then redraw the criteria
for determining "failing schools" if, as some fear, more than half of
the country's schools are labeled as failing by the end of the year. Insufficient
money for implementation is another serious issue. President Bush's proposed 2.8%
increase in the education budget for 2003 will make the Act a de facto
unfunded mandate, the report says. More money could be used to find and hire qualified
tutoring centers for at-risk students, to assess the qualifications of paraprofessionals,
and to develop tests that would more accurately measure year-to-year progress.
If the changes detailed in From the Capital to the Classroom are
not implemented, the report asserts, states currently on "a collision course"
with the Act's requirements will fail to meet them. Many American schools will
thus face inevitable failure as defined by the law, in spite of having successful
programs not taken into account by the Act. Prepared January 3, 2003
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