New Library Topic: No Child Left Behind

Our new library topic explores the history, growth, progress, and positive and negative consequences of No Child Left Behind. As an amendment to the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, No Child Left Behind was passed in 2002 and sought to “close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind." The law requires states to put in place proficiency standards for K-12 education in reading and math, and ensure that those standards are met through comprehensive annual testing. It also gives students in failing schools the option of leaving for better ones and forces schools that continuously fail to improve to reorganize.

NCLB was passed with bipartisan support under the premise that in order to improve the state of public K-12 education, the federal government needs to get more involved. As American Enterprise Institute scholars Frederick M. Hess and Michael J. Petrilli put it, “NCLB was intended to provide political cover to superintendents and school board members to encourage them to take controversial and difficult steps to root out mediocre teachers and administrators, shift resources to poorer schools, challenge collective bargaining provisions regulating teacher transfer and preventing efforts to link pay to teacher quality, and overhaul central office processes."

NCLB’s results betray how misguided that premise is. Its focus on efforts to improve education through central planning and bureaucratic compliance rather than market-based reforms has caused a significant increase in the regulatory and administrative burden on state and local governments, while academic achievement results are mixed at best.

Certainly, standards and accountability are crucial tools in improving education. But in the case of NCLB, the increased focus on testing has eroded education quality, especially for high-achieving students. Because states are required to set and meet proficiency standards, many have set their expectations low enough for almost all children to meet. Indeed, as President George W. Bush proudly proclaimed his continued support for NCLB in 2009, “And for those who claim we're teaching the test, uh-uh. We're teaching a child to read so he or she can pass the test.”

NCLB demonstrates yet again the need for Americans to fundamentally rethink education and turn to more freedom and innovation, even a bottom up approach, rather than piling on an increasingly heavy burden of top-down government mandates and planning.

Check out No Child Left Behind and other great topics in our library. Special thanks to our intern Annie Holmquist for creating this topic! For more information about becoming an intern with IT, go here.