No State Left Behind.
While on the road today, a new item caught my attention. Connecticut is the first state to sue the federal government because of the No Child Left Behind Act. Now way back last winter, we debated the distinct disadvantages the new legislation would force on every student attending a publically funded school in the country. The blind focus on some ill-defined and ill-chosen term “literacy” robs the student of crucial skills — those, for instance, associated to physical health and emotional development which are vital for mastery over the soi disant literacy — indeed, the arbitrary and incomensurate resultant metrics the legislation imposes on each state provide a diagnosis that is expensive and after the fact. If a doctor waited for a man to die of cancer as proof of disease before perscribing treatment, he’d lose his license. Yet this is exactly the same approach NCLB legislation takes on education. Even then, the goverment doesn’t provide medicine to under-performing school districts. Instead, NCLB severely penalizes them.
These claims, I admit, aren’t substantiated, and I don’t plan to doing that here. Instead, I want to talk about just a few of the fiscally irresponsible acts associated with NCLB. As documented in the statement of the lawsuit, the USDOE has refused requests from the Connecticut to waive, for example, universal and immediate testing of students in English as a second language programs. In the past, the state gave ESL students exemption for three academic years (or thirty calendar months) in order to, and this is silly, learn English. To wit, even the math exams require English proficiency, as some of the questions are dreadful word problems — which, I take issue with, but, again, not here — and open ended problems — which, aren’t really a special type of a problem. When I tutor Sullivan, for example, I am careful to ask for an explanation and interpretation of his answer. Unfortunately, this sort of inquiry is usually completely overlooked until college mathematics, and even then, isn’t met until somewhere beyond the freshmen curriculum. As far as I can tell, most people never actually engage in what I would call a true math experience. But back to finances.
The DOE suggested that Connecticut simply administer the tests in the students’ native language. The tens of millions required to construct, conduct, and correct the tests in the over 150 languages spoken in the homes of Connecticut ESL students is an impractical and irresponsible number.
Historically Connecticut examined students in grades 3 through 8 every other year. NCLB requires yearly administrations and yearly comparisons, rather than a “cohort” analysis which considers a class of students over its progression through the system. This strategy costs less and is susceptible to short-term disruptions in the system.
Again, Connecticut asked for a waiver to continue with their system, which, as they note, has over twenty years of data. And the data are positive.
Again, NCLB standards were upheld. Rigidly.
The money this thing is costing the at the state-level is stupid. (I’ll find some references, but it’s not hard to believe that) Research has shown that the single most effective resource a school has is its teaching staff. Right now public schools pool from college graduates who rank, on average, in the lowest ten percent of their class. Sad is it is, when the job market opened up to women, all the smart swapped chalk and eraser for power suits and briefcases, and a larger pay check. So, please! invest in teachers.
If nothing else, applaud the politicians and educators in Connecticut for thinking and acting responsible about education even when the federal goverment makes it so hard.
NB: I have yet to listen to NPR’s coverage of the story. I’m sure I’ll have some more to rant about once I do. And if you can think of a way I can support the Connecticut Yankees, please let me know.
