Fixing the Flaws in NCLB

By Charles Weis, Ph. D.
Special to the Mercury News, 10/13/09

There are a lot of big issues revolving around Washington, D.C. these days—from Afghanistan to health insurance to the lingering effects of the recession. So, when I traveled with two other California educators to the nation’s capital recently, with the intent of making a case to improve the national education policy, I wasn’t all that optimistic that our message would be heard.

I was wrong.

Our party-- Darrien Johnson, a principal from Northern California; Jane Russo, a superintendent from Southern California; and myself, in the role of president of Association of California School Administrators—went to Washington to lobby for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and for repair of some serious problems with its current version, No Child Left Behind.

We spent one morning meeting with the President’s staff in the West Wing of the White House. After that, we met with members of Congress to urge reauthorization of the Education Act, and fix a major flaw in NCLB that otherwise will lump the vast majority of California schools—unfairly and inaccurately—into a list of so-called problem schools.

The message we initially got from Congress was, “Not now.” There are too many other things going on, they said. The Education Act is something we’ll have to deal with a little later.

We were not particularly surprised, though still discouraged. But then something unexpected happened: We were invited to a stakeholders meeting at the Department of Education, at which Secretary Arne Duncan announced work would begin immediately to reauthorize ESEA to fix NCLB. We provided testimony at the meeting.

I’m not suggesting our little contingent brought all this about—clearly, Duncan and the Obama administration have a very definite and ambitious agenda, and they are not shy about taking on a lot of big things at once. However, I will say it was surprising, and not a little gratifying, that we started out by lobbying for an idea that no one on Capitol Hill seemed to support; and we ended up testifying and hearing Duncan essentially affirm our position.

The philosophical underpinning of NCLB is sound. In California, and throughout America, our schools must identify underperforming subgroups—whether by race or socioeconomic status—and then figure out how to lift achievement on a broad scale. In other words: clearly define the elements of the achievement gap; then figure out how to get rid of it.

But those goals have become obscured by some serious flaws. As Duncan pointed out, many states (and California is not one of them) set their standards too low. They could point to a high rate of success as big numbers of their students met the standards. But the students themselves were ill-served by these cynically low expectations.

California has had the opposite problem. By setting standards high—with the federal mandate that all subgroups meet these high standards—it won’t be long before the vast majority of schools simply cannot meet the steep rate of improvement required to keep them out of “Program Improvement” status. Even as many schools consistently improve their performance, they face punishment for failing to reach unrealistic goals.

Another flaw of NCLB is that it focuses on math and reading, to the exclusion of anything else. Given this, it’s hardly a surprise that our schools have neglected areas such as science, social studies and the arts. This was one area I addressed in my remarks at the hearing. Our students need to gain critical-thinking skills in a range of subjects. That is key to their success in the global economy of the future.

Duncan acknowledged the flaws in NCLB. He and his staff plan to visit all 50 states to gather input on ways to fix it. As a long-time educator who has seen many reform efforts handed down from above-- often without giving adequate consideration to feedback about their long-term effect-- I find that effort encouraging.

Even more encouraging: this time around, I feel that someone is actually listening.

Charles Weis is the Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools.

Date last updated: October 13, 2009