NCLB: No Child Learning Better?

Throughout 2007 and 2008, I wrote a weekly political column for the Herald News in Joliet, Illinois. I will get things started on this blog by posting a few from the archives.

NCLB: No Child Learning Better?
by David Masciotra

The Herald News: November 27, 2007

By the time I entered junior high school, I forfeited all interest in performing well on standardized tests. I would answer enough questions correctly to protect me from an embarrassing score and conclude by mindlessly shading in ovals at random. This allowed me to make progress on whatever book I was reading at the time -- probably "Robinson Crusoe" or "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

The pages of those books were flipped most often during independent reading time at my Lutheran grade school. Every month my classmates and I were required to write a book report.

No multiple choice quizzes were given on the specific meaning or symbolism. Those exams, along with the oddly Stalinist approach of interpreting literature that provides their foundation, would come in high school honors English classes meant for the "good students." Honors English classes went something like this: "We think you are smart enough to earn the right to be told what to think."

Appreciation for books at Trinity Lutheran did not depend on advanced theoretical arguments that juxtaposed terms like "structuralism" and "postmodernism" while establishing sufficient distance from literary characters to make them invisible.

Reading and writing for Trinity Lutherans was basic: Read something and be able to write intelligently about it. And don't summarize too much. This approach allowed me to foster independent thought and cultivate a critical analysis unique to my own ideas and experiences. To put it plainly -- it let me learn to love reading and writing.

A few years ago, President George Bush and a shamefully acquiescent Congress passed an educational reform called No Child Left Behind.

In addition to being the worst-named piece of education legislation in U.S. history, it is also the biggest failure.

Every teacher, education professor and education major I have spoken to understands NCLB's unfortunate reality. The mere mention of NCLB to anyone in education often provokes rolling of eyes, fits of rage or convulsions, depending on the person's temperament.

The State Report Card is in and some schools have slightly improved while others have slightly declined, which adds up to a big "so what?"

Poor districts continue struggling with even the most elementary tasks. Rich districts assume their children will attend fine colleges. The national dropout rate (now at 30 percent) continues rising, and the Chicago Tribune reported that Illinois colleges are requiring many students to take unaccredited remedial courses to prepare for the freshmen curriculum.

USA Today reported that millions of minority test scores were excluded when tallying many report cards, so as to artificially inflate the results. No Child Left Behind is dependent upon Enron style accounting to appear ... mediocre? What a reform.

Many clueless politicians and pundits blather about the greatness of NCLB. "We need accountability in schools," they say.

Fair enough. Maybe eventually we can have learning in schools. But that simple goal cannot be achieved with a No. 2 pencil and a bureaucratically authored form full of ovals to be completed by a student that has been bombarded by a table of facts provided by administrators praying for high test scores.

Tools of learning consist of a good book and sensible teachers that compel children to think for themselves.

If Washington policymakers cannot comprehend this plain truth, they should enroll in a course at Trinity Lutheran, and write a book report.

David Masciotra