The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was signed into law by President Bush on Jan. 8, 2002. The goal behind the program is to make school districts and teachers accountable for the education of children. By looking deeper into the program, there are many concerns.
The law gives flexibility to all 50 states for the type of standards that they set. Pennsylvania has one of the most stringent tests to evaluate student achievement.
The Daily Herald talked with Tyrone High School English Chairman Steve Everhart and Math Chairman Fran Bloom about the program and how it will affect the Tyrone schools.
Tyrone fared well in the latest rounds of PSSA tests, but even with the results it achieved, it would be in trouble in the year 2014.
“Let’s talk about Philadelphia’s esteemed Julia Masterman School,” said Everhart. “That school only admits academic and socio-economic prima donnas already scoring in the top 10 percent of the city in PSSA performance. It’s hard to classify Masterman as a public school under these elitist private school admission standards, but the school has been at the top of the state in PSSA performance since the inception of the state exams. Even the Julia Masterman School failed to meet the state’s rigid 99.5 percent proficiency mark last year — one percent of its students were non-proficient on the 2001-02 tests. If Masterman cannot achieve 99.5 percent proficiency with all of its chusy advantages over the mainstream public school system, then how do lawmakers propose that the toughest of our inner-city schools make the mark — this year, in 12 years or even in 100 years.”
This is a state-wide situation that is facing all public schools.
“Upper St. Clair, Lower Merion, Mount Lebanon, Central Bucks, Hatboro-Horsham, Radmor, State College and Bethel Park have been recognized as Blue Ribbon Schools for excellence,” said Everhart. “Were this 2014, all of these districts would be failures given the 99.5 percent guidelines of No Child Left Behind.”
If the Blue Ribbon Schools aren’t making the grade, what could the prospects be for Tyrone?
“We will overachieve — as we have always done,” said Bloom. “Our kids will outperform other schools like ours with 25 percent special education populations and huge low-income enrollments. We can’t make any promises of crossing the 99.5 percent bar consistently. Tyrone has proven that it can transform Title I laden kindergarten populations into learners who score near the top of the state in their PSSA’s in their junior years of high school. However, over-achieving schools like ours have already squeezed a lot of blood from the stone. They have acted with vigor and commitment to be ahead of the curve by in-servicing staff, fine-tuning curriculum, tracking progress and student accountability, and addressing serious attendance and motivational issues.”
The question is, can we do better?
“Sure we can,” said Bloom. “We are pretty sure we know where to begin, but somewhere up there is a ceiling. I don’t know exactly where it is, but it’s definitely below 99.5 percent.”
With the stringent guidelines and penalties facing school districts, it seems that policy makers expect more blood from the stone.
“That’s the idea, and it’s a good idea at that,” said Everhart. “We must do all we can for kids. But, you must understand that No Child Left Behind is politics first and educational policy second. Lawmakers will not admit that this legislation is intended to do more than encourage schools to help students. By setting proficiency standards so unreasonably high, it is also another political weapon aimed at public education.”
The policy lets each state set their own standards and many other states are in the process of revisiting their state exams.
“Already some states are revising their state exams, making them easier to pass, lowering the bar of excellence to maintain their financial solvency in the future,” said Everhart. “But the federal government is on to this. Pennsylvania, which has one of the nation’s most rigorous tests, is not likely to follow suit. I would hate to see our state tests bastardized in this way because they are challenging, well-designed instruments. Texas, on the other hand, has no need to revise its test, which along with Montana’s is regarded y many as the easiest one to pass in the entire nation — thus explaining Texas’ high state proficiency rates. By setting the bar in his home state so low to start when he was governor there, George Bush makes No Child Left Behind seem conveniently within reach. It is unfortunate that studies from the Rand Corporation reveal that Texas places near the bottom on the NAEP and other measures of national achievement. On a national scale, Texas is a failure academically, despite its high state exam proficiency rates.”
One of the punishments for schools not making the proficiency standards is giving parents the option of vouchers for private schools.
“Like the federal government, state governments want to cut taxes while shirking their constitutional responsibility to fund public education,” said Everhart. “Pennsylvania’s share of public education funding has dipped from 50 percent to near 30 percent over the past two decades. Privatizing our schools would reduce that funding even further. Thus, public school bashing is fast becoming a national pastime as property taxes are soaring to make up the difference.”
Tomorrow, in part three in our series on No Child Left Behind, Everhart and Bloom look at what privatizing education would do and what factors are necessary for the program to work.
