Yesterday, my colleague Tracy Sherman and I attended a major stakeholders’ meeting at the Department of Education. The topic was the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). More than 200 people packed the auditorium to get an early glimpse at the Obama administration’s thoughts on what the goals of reauthorization should be.
You may know ESEA by its more familiar recent title — the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which was signed into law in 2002 by President George W. Bush. At that time, AAUW joined in the bipartisan enthusiasm for the new law, which aimed to provide a remedy for ailing schools and low student performance. Over the past seven years, NCLB has undeniably had some successes, including increased teacher and school accountability, higher standards of achievement for student progress, supplemental service funds for low-income students, and public school choice for students who attend underperforming schools. Unfortunately, its potential has not been realized. A major reason for that has been funding; NCLB has been underfunded to the tune of more than $70 billion since its inception, which places an enormously heavy burden on states and local school districts to comply with all its mandates. AAUW’s position paper on NCLB provides more information, as well as our suggestions for improving the bill.
At the stakeholders’ meeting, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan outlined the administration’s goals on reauthorization. In Duncan’s words, “the biggest problem with NCLB is that it doesn’t encourage high learning standards.” In his view, too many kids are still being shuffled through the system, even when they’re not ready for the next level. This, in turn, increases the dropout rate and negatively affects future earning potential in the job market. He cited a few alarming statistics: More than 1 in 4 Americans drop out of high school, and only 40 percent of young people earn either a two- or four-year college degree.
Duncan’s main point is that education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, and ESEA is a major determinant of whether we succeed in this endeavor. AAUW agrees wholeheartedly. Since last November, we have been in touch with the transition team — and, since January, with the administration — on ways the law can be improved. For instance, AAUW believes that science should be as tested as vigorously as we currently test in reading and math, especially considering the shortage of women and girls in the STEM fields. We ought to require high schools to collect data on athletics participation — in the same way we require this information of our colleges and universities — to ensure that women receive equal athletic opportunities under Title IX. And the new law should allow greater flexibility in meeting educational goals, to reduce our heavy reliance on high-stakes testing.
Throughout the fall, the Department of Education will be holding a series of stakeholder meetings on more specific topics that will drive ESEA reauthorization. AAUW will be at each one of them, ready to offer our thoughts and ideas on how to succeed at crafting a truly transformative education law that benefits all students.
Is anyone reading our research? We continue to ignore two of the most pervasive and sinister causes of poor educational achievement in American schools…race/ethnicity and poverty.
As “Where the Girls Are” summarizes, “This crisis is not a new phenomenon. The American educational system has always been deeply divided by race/ethnicity and family income level.” An interesting component of these two aspects of educational success is explored by Malcolm Gladwell in The Outliers…often children from minority populations and/or lower income families do not have anyone to guide them through “the system.”
Providing after school tutoring, mentoring, team sports, field trips…things some branches are doing…are small but important steps toward solving one aspect of the problem.
NCLB will never succeed no matter how much money is thrown at it. Students learn by different methods — they will NEVER all know the same thing on a given date.
We want all students to succeed; standardized testing is not the answer.
Schools are over burdened with mega societal problems — and causing them to be frustrated with bringing everyone up to the same level (at the SAME time, mind you!) is beyond the call of duty.
Taking away the football from a football team that is losing doesn’t make it a better football team, nor does saying that a dentist who doesn’t have a 90% approval ratings is a poor dentist. There must also be another way to validate educators who are working hard to equip our future generation!
Motivating students to learn for the sake of learning, sustaining parental involvement, and making school safe — YES!
Thank you for posting this. It helped me learn a little bit about this very complex issue.