The Profound Pitfalls of NCLB

Reauthorization hearings for the President’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) school reform initiative have begun.  The Congress is bound to hear outspoken advocates for NCLB claiming that it will prepare our children, especially those who are poor and disadvantaged, for success in the 21st Century.  It is a profound paradox that such noble goals are imbedded in such an anachronistic policy. 

NCLB is a 19th Century solution to a 21st Century challenge, and many of its features reinforce the rigid, impersonal, and outdated “assembly line” structure and processes of what many call our “factory model” of schooling.  Moreover, NCLB absolutely ignores and/or rejects what we’ve learned as a civilization over the past century about human learning; human motivation; multiple intelligences; brain development; life-role performance; learner-centered instruction; critical and creative thinking; learning tools, technologies, and environments; change strategies; authentic performance; and the limitations of standardized, paper-pencil testing – all keys to improving learning, performance, and effectiveness in our complex world.

In addition, because of its stringent accountability demands and top-down approach to improvement, NCLB has impacted schools in numerous counter-productive ways, including:  1) limiting the focus of what “really matters” in education to a narrow interpretation of the 3 R’s – something the President cleverly misrepresented in his State of the Union speech as “the knowledge and character needed in life”;  2) driving creative teachers and innovative leaders from the profession;  3) narrowing the curriculum offerings and learning experiences available in schools serving predominantly low income students;  4) reducing local decision making, community engagement, and bottom-up innovations;  and 5) rejecting input from legions of insightful researchers and experts who don’t agree with its “drill and kill” instructional methods and paper-pencil definitions of learning.  

The Congress should continue its pursuit of educational equity and high achievement for all children, but “fixing” the current law will not produce those ends.  Ideas, models, strategies, and insightful people abound that, if tapped and pooled, could create approaches to American education that would “Trans-form” it, move it out of the Industrial Age, and make it genuinely world class.  The House and Senate should vigorously consider these rich resources in its hearings on NCLB, and create an approach to 21st Century education that our nation can enthusiastically support.  

Robert Maynard Hutchins, former president of the University of Chicago and one of the country’s great educational visionaries, said it best:  “The best schools for the best should be the best schools for all.”  The current NCLB falls miles short of that dream.

William G. Spady, ChangeLeaders 
P.O. Box 4388, Dillon, CO 80435
Phone:  970/262-1935
billspady@earthlink.net

Arnold F. Fege, Public Advocacy for Kids 
7471 Fountain Head Drive, Annandale, VA 22003
Phone:  703/941-9210
Public-ed-afege@msn.com