"NCLB has failed and cannot be fixed."
With these provocative words, Richard Rothstein began his presentation today. Rothstein spent much of his time explaining that NCLB will not be reauthorized as we know it and that for education to step forward it will take a "broader, bolder approach." This broader, bolder approach is described at the website http://www.boldapproach.org/
Rothstein, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute, also said that "school people cannot be the sole agents for raising student achievement."
The "broader, bolder approach" for improving American education has three key ingredients,
1. High quality early childhood programs
2. Improving health quality of youngsters by providing health care at the school site
3. High quality after school and summer programing
Rothstein says that NCLB was predicated on the notion that high standards, high quality curriculum and strong assessments would be enough to close the achievement gap. It isn't.
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2 comments:
NCLB was not designed to be successful in the first place. The realization that NCLB did not address many of the other factors affecting student achievement was obvious to many veteran educators from the very beginning. High expectations and effective curriculum are still very important but its time that we focus more of our efforts on the time students spend outside of our schools. Its time for additional reform of our educational system.
To create standards for 100% of students being at grade level by the year 2014 was truly unrealistic. We have students with Fetal Alcohol Syndrom, born addicted to Meth...etc. Are these students able to learn? Absolutely. Do they have the ability to learn at the rate required for meeting NCLB standards? No!
Perhaps the new committee for "broader, bolder" change could spend time in some classrooms around the nation. If they could witness how students come to school in K-12 they may have a better understanding of what changes need to happen to support student learning and school reform.
Does the committee have contact with students or statistics?
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