Signed into law in 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) promised to revolutionize American public education. Originally supported by a bipartisan coalition, it purports to improve public schools by enforcing a system of standards and accountability through high-stakes testing. Many people supported it originally, despite doubts, because of its promise especially to improve the way schools serve poor children. By making federal funding contingent on accepting a system of tests and sanctions, it is radically affecting the life of schools around the country. But, argue the authors of this citizen's guide to the most important political issue in education, far from improving public schools and increasing the ability of the system to serve poor and minority children, the law is doing exactly the opposite. Here some of our most prominent, respected voices in education-including school innovator Deborah Meier, education activist Alfie Kohn, and founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools Theodore R. Sizer-come together to show us how, point by point, NCLB undermines the things it claims to improve: * How NCLB punishes rather than helps poor and minority kids and their schools * How NCLB helps further an agenda of privatization and an attack on public schools * How the focus on testing and test preparation dumbs down classrooms * And they put forward a richly articulated vision of alternatives. Educators and parents around the country are feeling the harshly counterproductive effects of NCLB. This book is an essential guide to understanding what's wrong and where we should go from here.
2008. Steady Gains and Stalled Progress: Inequality and the Black-White Test Score Gap. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. ———. 2012. ... Making Summer Count: How Summer Programs Can Boost Student Learning. Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND.
The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act is the most important legislation in American education since the 1960s.
Education is intimately connected to many of the most important and contentious questions confronting American society, from race to jobs to taxes, and the competitive pressures of the global economy...
An overview and five case studies of school finance reform; a resource for scholars, public officials, and others interested in education finance reform.
After millions of people around the world vanish in one moment, in what many claim to be the Rapture, Rayford Steele begins a search for the truth amidst global chaos In one cataclysmic moment, millions around the globe disappear.
Blake Hauge—Blake seemed “lost in thought” as early as age two, and at one point, we thought he might have hearing problems. Keith Sands—If Keith was focused on his own ideas, he could not be distracted; nothing could move him.
"Children Left Behind: The Dark Legacy of Indian Mission Boarding Schools is a must read. Tim Giago, who spent his childhood at one of these schools, examines the unholy alliance...
Here, in a bold and engaging new book, Dr. James Comer reclaims this now-famous exhortation as a tool for positive and substantive change.
Sorkin, Andrew Ross. Too big to fail: The inside story of how Wall Street and Washington fought to save the financial system from crisis—and themselves. New York: Viking, 2009. Spalding, Matthew. Getting reform right: The White House's ...
Five college students are about to find out.With a theme from Dickens, a narrative technique from Faulkner, and a diverse cast of characters from the gritty, All-American city of Stockton, California, A Child Left Behind invites readers to ...