Yonit Shames
Published: April 26, 2006
Since its controversial enactment in 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act has had several years to start bringing schools to “adequate yearly progress,” which is supposed to be accomplished by the year 2014.
But recently, the media has been abuzz with news that a loophole in the act allows schools to discount the test scores of minorities. Of course, if this is true, the “progress” that the act champions- in the name of the very minorities it is supposed to be helping- is just a farce.
The premises that led to the enactment of NCLB are reasonable enough. For one thing, it is widely agreed upon that the quality of education in the U.S. could use some improvement. The U.S. consistently ranks toward the bottom on international achievement tests administered in developed countries.
The act also adds an element of accountability to the education system.
But it’s not the premises of NCLB that are objectionable- they never were.
NCLB effectively lumps together everyone- those with learning disabilities, members of minority groups, low-income families and even those who do not speak English- and demands the same performance from them on the same standardized tests.
The problem is that NCLB only measures and demands a very specific type of performance. While it is admirable to demand unconditional success, discrepant standardized test scores are arguably not the root of our school system’s failings, particularly for minorities.
Proponents of the act state that it is discriminatory to distinguish between these students and their peers, but that is grossly simplistic at best.
Minority groups already tend to have much lower success rates on standardized tests than their white peers. On the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, for instance, only 41 percent of black students scored at or above grade level in 2003, whereas 73 percent of white students did. Studies have long shown that there may be both cultural and gender biases in standardized tests- and not necessarily due to biased content.
No one is exactly sure why this is, but it is quite possible that the needs of members of different groups are simply not being addressed when all of them are treated as one uniform mass.
That is exactly why schools left nearly two million children, by Associated Press estimates, out of their reported results in 2003-2004. Because schools are dependent on their results for funding, they are forced to ignore the failures and concentrate on the successes. By not distinguishing between the differing needs of those from differing backgrounds, the system condemns many of them to failure.
The loophole has a reasonable foundation. It is supposed to protect the privacy of small groups of minorities. For example, if a given school has only a small group of Asian students and they perform badly on the test, the school is allowed to discount their scores to protect their privacy.
However, if a school can simply discount the scores of a group of minority students who are struggling, it may be encouraged to limit the resources available to them so the school can concentrate on the scores of those who must be counted.
How ironic that this act is supposed to leave no child behind.