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NEA vs. NCLB: Will America’s Students Win?

NEA vs. NCLB: Will America’s Students Win?

by Gary Gordon

Second in a two-part commentary on the NEA's criticism of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) 

The Bush administration and the National Education Association (NEA), among other education groups, are at odds over NCLB's requirements for annual testing and sanctions for underperforming schools. But if America's schools are to better serve their students, the two sides need to find some common ground. 

Shareholder Value

Gallup data from 2003 indicate that 35% of Americans currently have school-aged children. Because two-thirds of Americans have no direct link to their local schools, school districts need an objective set of measures that demonstrates their performance. Collectively, these measures can be thought of as indicating "shareholder value" -- a demonstrated return on investment that provides tangible reasons for the community to support its public schools.

As school superintendents know, their districts' funding, as well as their ability to remain in elected office, depends on the taxpayers' votes. Without a clear set of measures that communicate shareholder value in schools, voters who have no direct experience with the schools will make evaluations based largely on news reports, which tend to be disproportionately negative.

According to the 2003 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll, 48% of parents grade their child's school with an "A" or "B," yet only 26% of all Americans give an "A" or "B" to the nation's public schools as a whole. There is a huge disparity in these two views. Measures of "shareholder value" can provide objective information and justification for continued political and financial support of public education. 

What Should Schools Measure?

That brings up one of the thorniest questions that has plagued education theorists in America for well over a century: how best to gauge the effectiveness of public schools. Public school leaders, state departments of education, and education groups such as NEA had the chance to devise meaningful measures for schools in the 1980s and 1990s, but they failed to do so. As a result, first state legislatures, and now the federal government, have mandated more frequent standardized testing.

But are NCLB's testing and accountability processes the best available? Probably not. Critics of NCLB, such as the NEA, see dependence upon a single test, given at one point in time to assess "proficiency," as measuring the wrong thing in the wrong way. There is validity to their arguments -- an approach focusing on individual growth instead of proficiency would be an important step forward. Moreover, there is merit to the argument that the government should use multiple measures of school effectiveness, rather than just one measure of proficiency.

What do parents and citizens expect of their schools? As noted last week, Gallup has asked this question of Americans in a national study and in six individual school districts, too. Consistently, citizens made clear the importance of "mastery of the basics, for example, reading, writing, and arithmetic." NCLB taps into this desire to guarantee that every child learns the basics. But is this the kind of learning we should be focused on? A student can perform at a "proficient" level on state tests at the end of the year, but learn to hate math at the same time. That's not the kind of real growth that leads to value.

In the same studies, respondents rated "students challenged to develop to their full potential" among the top five qualities. Not only was it important, but this item frequently correlated highly to overall satisfaction by citizens with the schools or the grade given to the schools in our district studies. Developing students to their full potential is a bigger challenge for schools than teaching the basics. It requires a far more individualized approach to education than found in our schools today. But beyond learning the basics, it is where we should be looking for measures of shareholder value.

Bottom Line

At present, I have no answer for what the specific measures of shareholder value should be. It's not as simple as determining the price of a stock. I am convinced, however, that discussion about those measures has never been more important. Addressing the NEA convention a few weeks ago, NEA President Reg Weaver said that the Bush administration and Congress should listen to educators' concerns about NCLB. He is right. But both sides should step out of the trenches and listen to one another. Despite their differences, both groups share an interest in helping public schools succeed.


Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/12388/NEA-vs-NCLB-Will-Americas-Students-Win.aspx
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