NPR : Poor Report Card for 'No Child Left Behind'

From NPR All Things Considered:

Nearly four years after the No Child Left Behind Act took effect, the nation's urban school districts have shown little benefit from the law, which mandated annual reading and mathematics tests for all students in grades 3 through 8.

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often referred to as the "Nation's Report Card," over the last two years most fourth- and eighth-graders in 11 city school districts made very modest progress in reading and math. And most continue to perform well below the national average.

But the most worrisome trend is that the achievement gap between white and minority students has stayed the same and may even be widening. That's bad news for the Bush administration, which has insisted the gap has been closing under the No Child Left Behind Act.

The No Child Left Behind Act was nothing more than more tests for students. When I take my kids to school and talk about what they're doing, they tell me they're preparing for this big test or that big test. It's no longer learning. It's preparing for State Tests. All this does is raise the bar on the tests they have to pass.

The Bush administration also cut funding to schools so they have to do it with less than they had before. It is very hard as it was for teachers (I know two) to make a living with what they had. There are so many layoffs now, no one knows when they will get a pink slip.

Here is the Link to the urban students' 2005 'Report Card' in reading.

Here is the Link to the urban students' 2005 'Report Card' in mathematics.

NPR : Poor Report Card for 'No Child Left Behind'

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