I will paraphrase Mark Twain and admit that the death of No Child Left Behind might “be greatly exaggerated,” but the most odious provisions of the law are in the process of being dropped. President Obama has announced that he hopes to simultaneously raise standards of college- and career-readiness for students, and eliminate the standard of Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP, that has been the bane of schools and teachers for the past eight years.
So NCLB may still be alive, but AYP is dead. No one who has been held accountable for student scores during the past eight years is mourning at the grave site. Governors, mayors, principals and teachers have watched with horror as many of their schools have been labeled “failing” when they did not meet the increasingly ambitious AYP. Currently 28 percent of Virginia’s schools and 23 percent of Maryland’s schools are in that position.
Closing achievement gaps is an admirable goal, but the goal of proficiency in math and English for all students was never going to happen. One hundred percent of anything is difficult to achieve, and in this case, it served to keep educators discouraged and classroom stress levels high.
What kids are reading
This weekly column will look at lists of books kids are reading in various categories, including grade level, book genre and data from booksellers. Information on the books below came from Amazon.com’s list children’s best-sellers.
Children’s books on success
1. Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success by John R. Wooden, Steve Jamison, Peanut Louie Harper and Susan F. Cornelison (ages 4 to 8)
2. Arnie and His School Tools: Simple Sensory Solutions That Build Success by Jennifer Veenendall (ages 9 to 12)
3. We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Led to Success by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, Rameck Hunt and Sharon Draper (ages 9 to 12)
4. The Young Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success by Andy Andrews (young adult)
5. Seuss-isms for Success by Dr. Seuss (ages 4 to 8)
6. Excuses!: Survive and Succeed with David Mortimore Baxter by Karen Tayleur and Brann Garvey (ages 9 to 12)
7. Kids Can Succeed!: 51 Tips for Real Life from One Kid to Another by Daryl Bernstein and Barry Littman (ages 4 to 8)
8. Unlocking the Doors to College and Career Success: How Students and their Champions Can Succeed in the Classroom — and Beyond by Arthur G. Sharp and Kristine E. Barnett (ages 9 to 12)
The effort to rewrite the law will be bipartisan, according to Obama, and will retain the goal of closing achievement gaps between segments of the student population, but will also measure accountability for student and school achievement on more than the results of one set of tests. It’s simply common sense to use a more complicated formula to judge a school’s quality. Details still have to be worked out, but there are few in education or in politics who are sorry to see the absolutism of NCLB die. Obama is proposing that students be measured according to “college- and career-ready standards in reading and math.” My guess is that this will include critical thinking skills, the ability to work on projects cooperatively, and other skills essential to college and workplace success.
The negative legacy of NCLB, however, will still be felt by teachers and students who have spent the last eight years focused on one unrealistic goal. In many English classes, poetry has been dropped because the Virginia tests don’t include any poems. Creative and “fun” projects have often been dropped if they don’t directly relate to tested material. Will teachers begin to encourage creativity and initiative — important for every student’s later success — or will they stick with the curriculum they are used to? I hope principals will encourage staff to make their classrooms more student-centered and less test-centered.
Putting AYP to rest will mark the passing of one more educational folly. Many of us knew that NCLB would have to be modified as more and more schools were labeled “failing.” Teachers realize that when a surprisingly large number of students fail a test, it is usually not because the students don’t know the material, it’s because the test is bad.
NCLB is a bad law, and as long as we maintain our goal of encouraging every student to succeed, we can hang on to the good intention behind its very destructive effects.
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. E-mail her at [email protected].
