NCLB program should follow the example of Dallas schools
The lack of education of the most disadvantaged students in our country is the most obvious and permanent social and moral problem in the United States. For nearly 20 years, our nation has worked to improve our schools and student achievement levels. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was to be the answer to this dilemma by holding all schools accountable for student performance on high-stakes tests.
The thinking error is the belief that NCLB test scores are fair and accurate. The system does not take into account the disadvantages and/or advantages of wealth and demographics, which creates an inequity in the rating of schools. Low-income schools must provide programs, such as preschool, tutoring, remedial classes, and bilingual services, to their students, as well as the cost of increased administration required by state and federal grants that make up the largest percentage of their budget. Wealthier schools that rely primarily on local funding (usually property taxes) for their budget have few government restrictions, few low-income students who require special programs, and flexibility in how their budget is used. This means that wealthier schools can provide more educational opportunities and enhancements (ie, access to technology, fine arts and music, extracurricular activities, teacher training and professional development, and administrative support for teachers) that poorer schools cannot afford.
Dallas schools have developed their own ranking system that takes these disadvantages/advantages into account, putting all schools on an equal footing. Available funding, government requirements, the educational level of students entering kindergarten, and the demographics of the community are all factored into the Dallas test score metric.
Under NCLB, all schools in the nation must test children in reading and math annually between the third and eighth grades. Using the NCLB-mandated measures of school performance, the state calculates the percentage of various student populations that annually meet or exceed the state’s academic standards. Otherwise, they must measure the progress of “groups” of students toward a universal fixed point.
Dallas schools use a “value-added” school grading system that provides more accurate information, measuring individual student progress from a relative starting point. They then compare the scores to the same student’s scores from the previous year. Dallas schools score higher if students on average score higher than predicted by the previous year’s test scores and if the schools’ overall performance is better than other Dallas schools within the same demographic. If Dallas schools perform below expectations, they receive a low rating.
Herbert Marcus Elementary School, part of the Dallas school system, is an ideal candidate for the NCLB program. It is located in downtown Dallas, the building and grounds are dilapidated, the classes are overcrowded, and it is located on the edge of a grimy industrial zone. With 1,140 students, nearly all are from low-income families, and two-thirds speak English as a second language. Even the parents average a seventh grade education.
Under Principal Conce Rodríguez, the school has done everything right in recent years: students wear uniforms, teachers send weekly progress reports for every student in every subject, an expanded preschool program, incentives for student attendance, teachers and a great tutoring project, just to name a few. A community liaison, hired by Rodriguez, increased the PTA’s membership to 700 (the largest in Dallas schools) and typically 50 parent volunteers daily at the school. Student attendance is 97 percent, one of the highest in the Dallas school system.
According to the Dallas Schools Rating System, Marcus was ranked 19th out of 206 Dallas schools, a significant achievement with such challenging demographics. Under NCLB’s mandatory grading system, Marcus was ranked 76th as only “acceptable,” one step away from being graded a failing grade. Needless to say, Marcus educators, students, and parents aren’t too pleased with NCLB’s grading system. Some teachers have left Marcus out of sheer frustration with the NCLB system and gone to richer schools in Dallas, where they believe their achievements will be recognized. A terrible loss for Marcus or any impoverished school, where quality teachers are in short supply.
Other schools in Dallas are being similarly penalized by the NCLB rating system. Dallas schools that ranked 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 16th according to the Dallas ranking system ranked 94th, 77th, 83rd, and 107th, respectively, according to NCLB. Additionally, the school that was ranked 3rd in the NCLB rating system in Dallas schools was ranked 25th in the Dallas rating system. This shows the inequity of the NCLB rating system.
Since shortly after its passage, NCLB has come under heavy attack from congressional Democrats, Republican Texas lawmakers and teachers’ unions. Although educators and parents in Dallas schools support high-stakes testing, they see the injustice of the grading system used. They want NCLB to follow the example of the Dallas schools playbook to accurately measure improvement in student achievement and take demographics into account.