RAND’s report on reauthorizing No Child Left Behind surveys the law’s successes and failures and provides recommendations for improving it.
Unsurprisingly, RAND notes that “the narrow focus of the law on two academic areas and the states’ reliance on similarly narrow student tests have resulted in unintended outcomes, such as the narrowing of schools’ curricula, encouraging teachers to focus on some students at the expense of others, and discouraging the development of higher-thinking and problem-solving skills.” The GAO came to the same conclusion in November.
Additionally, the survey data indicated that “teachers also reported focusing more on students near the proficient cut score (i.e., “bubble kids”) and expressed concerns about negative effects on the learning opportunities given to high-achieving students.” This is congruent with data collected by Fordham for their report on High-Achieving Students in the Era of No Child Left Behind, which showed that 73% of teachers described the “brightest students” as “under-challenged in school” and said that “electives, humanities, and the arts” are being ignored to focus on basic skills. That’s not what high-performing countries do.
Arne Duncan has promised to work toward fixing this. We’re still waiting to hear how he plans to do that.
James Elias