The debate surrounding the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has always been a hot one. Now, the RAND Corporation has released a new report assessing the effectiveness of the legislation, perhaps offering some solutions to these heated debates. The report, “What Can We Learn From the Implementation of No Child Left Behind?” recommended that the NCLB should be revised before it is reauthorized by the Obama administration.
The report calls for the need to create more consistent and rigorous standards for teacher qualification and academic standards. Under the current version of NCLB, academic standards, student proficiency levels, and requirements for teacher’s qualification are different in the 50 states, creating obstacles for the implementation of consistent, rigorous, standards on the whole. States can and do lower the difficulty of their standardized tests in order to meet NCLB qualifications.
In their analysis of the effectiveness of the NCLB, the think tank found that the legislation succeeded in setting up a nationwide state and teacher accountability infrastructure. It focused on student outcomes and improving the lowest-performing schools and students. The inconsistency of academic standards, student performance, and teacher qualification standards posed challenges to meeting the goal of reaching 100 percent student proficiency in math and reading by 2014. In fact, the report finds that this goal is simply unattainable and recommended that officials revise this goal and set a new benchmark in order to avoid discouragement.
The report found that though there have been some improvements for students from the implementation of NCLB, the legislation has resulted in some unintended negative outcomes. These unintended outcomes include the narrowing of the school curricula to focus primarily on reading and math while lessening the value of the sciences, social studies, and the arts.
Furthermore, the report found that the NCLB has also unintentionally encouraged teachers to focus on some students at the expense of others. Common Core, an advocacy organization, which promotes the presence of a full core curriculum across American schools, found in a new report titled ‘Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t,” that “the nations that consistently outrank us on international comparison tests provide their students with a fulsome education in the liberal arts and sciences.” Thus, the RAND report’s finding that NCLB is narrowing the curriculum at schools may have significant consequences on the educational attainment of the country as a whole.
The RAND report also finds that the implementation of NCLB has discouraged the development of higher thinking and problem solving skills for students on the whole.
The report outlined fiscal changes made to the funding provided to education stakeholders. It found that there was a 51 percent increase (in constant dollars) in Title I appropriations between 1997/1998, but the overall share of Title I funds going to the poorest districts remained essentially the same. Title I is a federal program established in 1965 to try to make sure students in poor school districts receive high quality education. It provides grants to schools in poor districts.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute, which performs analysis of policies in order to objectively and empirically assess their quality and effectiveness.
The report calls for the need to create more consistent and rigorous standards for teacher qualification and academic standards. Under the current version of NCLB, academic standards, student proficiency levels, and requirements for teacher’s qualification are different in the 50 states, creating obstacles for the implementation of consistent, rigorous, standards on the whole. States can and do lower the difficulty of their standardized tests in order to meet NCLB qualifications.
Goal of 100 Percent Proficiency Unattainable
In their analysis of the effectiveness of the NCLB, the think tank found that the legislation succeeded in setting up a nationwide state and teacher accountability infrastructure. It focused on student outcomes and improving the lowest-performing schools and students. The inconsistency of academic standards, student performance, and teacher qualification standards posed challenges to meeting the goal of reaching 100 percent student proficiency in math and reading by 2014. In fact, the report finds that this goal is simply unattainable and recommended that officials revise this goal and set a new benchmark in order to avoid discouragement.
Science, Social Studies, and Arts Downgraded
The report found that though there have been some improvements for students from the implementation of NCLB, the legislation has resulted in some unintended negative outcomes. These unintended outcomes include the narrowing of the school curricula to focus primarily on reading and math while lessening the value of the sciences, social studies, and the arts.
Furthermore, the report found that the NCLB has also unintentionally encouraged teachers to focus on some students at the expense of others. Common Core, an advocacy organization, which promotes the presence of a full core curriculum across American schools, found in a new report titled ‘Why We’re Behind: What Top Nations Teach Their Students But We Don’t,” that “the nations that consistently outrank us on international comparison tests provide their students with a fulsome education in the liberal arts and sciences.” Thus, the RAND report’s finding that NCLB is narrowing the curriculum at schools may have significant consequences on the educational attainment of the country as a whole.
The RAND report also finds that the implementation of NCLB has discouraged the development of higher thinking and problem solving skills for students on the whole.
The report outlined fiscal changes made to the funding provided to education stakeholders. It found that there was a 51 percent increase (in constant dollars) in Title I appropriations between 1997/1998, but the overall share of Title I funds going to the poorest districts remained essentially the same. Title I is a federal program established in 1965 to try to make sure students in poor school districts receive high quality education. It provides grants to schools in poor districts.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute, which performs analysis of policies in order to objectively and empirically assess their quality and effectiveness.
