No What Left Behind?? Oh! No Child Left Behind!

Hold up. Before you march off red in the face with steam coming out both ears about the issue, let's take another look at the infamous No Child Left Behind Act.

I've heard all the huff and puff - all the critics - from parents to teachers to administrators to the students, to people who don't have any interaction with the school system at all! But after hashing things out in my Tests and Measurement class, I have a slightly different perspective on NCLB, but don't judge me yet! Keep reading!

So here are the main goals of NCLB (as per my Tests and Measurement textbook - citation will follow):

1. "High levels of efficiency" in math, english and science (aiming towards 100% efficiency). This includes students with special needs and students who aren't necessarily proficient in English.
2. All students will be taught by "highly qualified" teachers by 2005-2006. 
3. All students not currently proficient in English will become so.
4. All students will graduate from high school.
5. All students will be provided with a safe environment for learning.

Ok. So we look at these and there are possible a few things that come to mind. Most likely you fall into one of two camps - you can see the value, or you don't buy into it at all. To get a little context of where I fall (more towards... the middle of the two camps), I want to explain a principle about government as I see it.

Government is (loosely) an organization to protect citizens from foreign enemies and enemies within the state. The nature of this roll of protection provides that governments are by definition guardians of the minimum. Their tendency is to draw the line of the lowest achievement/action that can be take before serious consequences will follow from the state. Catch my drift? Problem: this legislation (NCLB) is a law built to encourage greater achievement headed towards perfection. Conceptually, I understand why perfection must be the end goal - how would it look if the goal was something like "all student will be 90% proficient in math and science." Maybe we would only get 90% of the way to the moon. I'm over simplifying a little, but you get the point. In order to achieve the most, it would make sense to make "the most" our goal: perfection. Now the way the government works would dictate a punishment system for not achieving perfect goals. It is difficult to regulate perfection on a legislative level/governmental level because the system was not set up to do so. We therefore set ourselves up for failure. The problem is not then with the goals so much as it is a problem with the punishment/ramification system of NCLB. Since this post is long enough already, you are free to look it up on your own, but it's not pretty.

One more thought on not leaving children behind: No Child Left Behind was the revised version of a renewal of a 1960s Elementary and Secondary Education Act. While initiation of NCLB has in many ways proved problematic, it was the first attempt in over 30 years to improve the educational system. As a result, there has been more attention drawn to the state of our educational system in the last few years than it has had in a long time. There were schools that were improved. Did one size fit all? No. But sometimes before you know what works, you gotta know what doesn't work. That's why I feel like although NCLB has a lot of holes to fill, it has given us something to work on and towards, and it has done a lot to serve as a gateway towards educational improvement in our country.

The End.