Signs of NCLB's Success May Be Fickle
When the NAEP scores released this week showed that achievement inched up in big cities, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said in a statement that they showed that "NCLB is working." She said the same thing—word for word—when state-by-state results came out in September.
Then and now, critics have questioned her use of the data. The point-counterpoint has been going on for two years.
Spellings’ strategy is probably a good one, even if it is a bit repetitive. But will it hold in the long run? Let’s say two years from now NAEP scores go down or even level off. Wouldn’t an education secretary working for a president who campaigned against the law* cite that as evidence the NCLB isn’t working?
Where would NCLB be then? Even if Congress manages to reauthorize the law in the next year, a new president could point to a slide in NAEP scores as a reason to re-open the debate and press for significant changes.
* For those of you just joining us, most of the current presidential field has had unkind things to say about NCLB. Even the candidates who like the idea of accountability say NCLB “isn’t working” or promise to reform it.
UPDATE: I have added a link to FairTest's statement on the urban district's NAEP scores. It's in the second paragraph on the word "now."
Comments
Kennedy (Senate) and Miller (House) already have amendments in place for what they'd like in the new edition of ESEA. NCLB's reauthorization will happen, but not until Bush has left office. He's alienated too many parties over the past seven years (Iraq, WMD's, Katrina, federal appointments, torture, 9/11, etc., etc.) for anyone to even entertain the idea of allowing him to exit with a domestic success from NCLB as a feather in his cap.
Posted by: Paul Hoss | November 16, 2007 5:28 PM
Anything works if you use it.
The law needs tweaking that is true
of all the laws we have had addressing
the terms of the ESEA Title's, NCLB has had some
very good language.
but it appears that basically most
states don't want to be held accountable
and that is sad because we as public
citizens are acountable for how we spend
our earnings, yet education dollars are
virtually un monitored. So yeah
continue the dia log but know that we
are short changing ourselves if we do NOT
look seriously at how we hold states
and school districts accountable for
how we continue to fund failure.
Just my opnion.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 19, 2007 6:59 PM