NCLB Wrong in Assuming Schools are Failing, Paper Says

Despite the premise of the so-called No Child Left Behind law, American schools overall are not failing, according to a new study.

"On average, America's schools have been improving steadily for at least 30 years," writes David C. Berliner, a Regents' Professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University and a well-known researcher on education issues.

His paper – "If the Underlying Premise for No Child Left Behind is False, How Can that Act Solve Our Problems?" – examines the fallacies in the belief system that underlies NCLB, officially known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The law sets up what many believe are unreasonable goals, measured by standardized tests, and then creates severe sanctions for schools that fail to meet those goals.

Berliner examines results of past standardized tests, demonstrating that most of our schools are doing very well academically.

"Trustworthy data inform us that the American system of public education works extremely well for those living in middle class communities, attending middle class schools," he writes. "On the other hand, our nation has failed for decades to provide that quality of education to our poor who are often children of color.

"Our failing schools are not filled with lazy students, uncaring parents, and incompetent teachers as suggested by NCLB. Instead, our failing schools are filled with children from families who are in economic and social crises; located in neighborhoods of great poverty, crime, and drug use; staffed by the least prepared and the newest teachers, and greatly under-funded compared to suburban schools," Berliner writes. "There is nothing in NCLB to deal with these issues, and our schools are not likely to improve until our government, in collaboration with our communities, is held accountable for providing sound educational policies and fiscal support to ameliorate current problems."

In his conclusion to the paper, Berliner writes that, "American schools are not failing, overall, but they are failing some of our students."

"The students we fail are primarily the urban and rural poor, and in particular, the poor who are minorities. As a nation we have known this for decades. Thus the accountability practices in NCLB will yield nothing new about the problems of education, or their location."

Read the entire paper (this is a pdf file)
OnWEAC Resource Page on the ESEA

Posted November 5, 2004