No Child Left Behind - How Is It Helping?
 More than halfway to NCLB's "deadline" of 2014 for
having all students demonstrate proficiency,
state-by-state improvement results are decidedly
mixed. In its 441 pages, NCLB imposed a vast set of
requirements upon public schools, including those
for teacher quality, student testing, and in each
state, the development of content standards spelling
out what is to be taught and tested at each grade
level.
Highly qualified teachers
NCLB's provision for highly qualified teachers (HQT)
includes the requirement that teachers possess the
proper university preparation and credentialing for
the subject area being taught. It comes as no
surprise that studies such as those conducted by
Education Trust demonstrate that this does have a
strong impact on student learning.
 Unfortunately, the requirement that teachers
"demonstrate knowledge in the subjects taught" is
more difficult to address. An unfortunate erroneous
belief, reinforced by the HQT requirement, is that
years of experience somehow equate to high levels of
expertise that result in better student performance.
Anyone who has ever worked in an actual school
understands the fallacy of this belief, and it has
been demonstrated recently in a set of studies that
student performance isn't necessarily better when
the teacher is more experienced. Unfortunately, no
provision is made under NCLB to enable districts to
loosen the death grip of contract language that
protects ineffective teachers. While teachers most
certainly deserve protection from potential
unfairness of supervising administrators, the
excesses of these protections in many districts make
it nearly impossible to remove poor teachers, or
even to require specific kinds of improvements in
their practice.
As a parent of a special needs student, I can
certainly attest that a teacher's years of
experience is in no way a predictor of student
success. The teacher who taught him to read -
finally, at age 10 - was a first-year teacher. And
while some of his very best teachers were highly
experienced, so were some of the worst.
Disaggregated data
No Child Left Behind, at its foundation, is
predicated upon the notion and goal of every student
achieving. Thus, the requirements placed upon states
for annual student testing include the specification
that groups of students that typically do not
achieve - including groups identified by race,
language, poverty, and disabilities - have their
scores pulled out separately (disaggregated), and
examined each year to ensure that they are not only
improving steadily, but are improving at an
accelerated rate to catch up to their mainstream
peers. This is known as "closing the achievement
gaps."
Consistent curriculum for all
 Because all students are now tested with the same
grade-level and subject-area tests across any given
state, it has required schools to provide these
historically low-achieving students with the same
curriculum as their more advantaged peers, rather
than some watered-down substitute. In the beginning,
educators as a whole were dismayed by this, because
so many of these students were already so far behind
- right from preschool age and kindergarten.
However, many schools have begun to develop more
effective ways to provide interventions - early
support students need when they are young, as well
as ways to provide extra time, and extra support,
for older students who are behind in their skills so
that they can participate and learn in the
curriculum for their grade level.
What really works?
While some non-educators blame schools for not
really knowing what works, and simply trying and
discarding one ineffective thing after another, we
actually do know what works. Educational research
has truly come into its own in the past two decades,
and organizations such as Mid-Continent Research in
Education and Learning examines and mathematically
analyzes thousands of studies of classroom
instruction, school policies and procedures, and
school and district leadership, and publishes their
findings in clearly-written books for educators. The
U.S. Department of Education has established the
What Works website, and only programs that pass
muster using rigorous scientific metrics for student
achievement are listed with recommendations.
NCLB's positive impact
 I think the major positive influence of NCLB has
been the requirement that schools ensure that all
students succeed. It is no longer acceptable to
abdicate responsibility for individual students, or
entire groups of students, because of their
disabilities, home language, impoverished home
background, or race/ethnicity. I certainly doubt
that you will find an educator anywhere who loves
NCLB and its 441 pages of mandates. However, fewer
and fewer will argue that the laser focus on student
achievement has not forced positive changes in their
schools and districts. It may seem surprising that
achievement wasn't always the focus in schools and
districts, but it has been suggested that
traditionally, schools in many parts of the country
have actually been operated more strongly for the
purpose of providing the children of the area with a
similar "school experience" to that of their parents
than for purposes relating to learning and
achievement.
Inasmuch as educators, and some parents, may still
dislike and decry specific aspects of NCLB - many of
which, hopefully, will be remedied when it is
re-authorized - I believe it remains a landmark act
in support of civil liberties for American students.
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