Science And No Child Left Behind

Barbara Pytel, Paulline Larson Photography

Posted by
Barbara Pytel
May 18, 2007

2002 Law

No Child Left Behind is a federal law enacted in 2002 to improve education for all children. Schools are to have 100% of their student "proficient" in reading and math by 2014. Who wouldn't be in favor of this?

I, for one, was a bit leery of this concept as an educator. 100% proficiency is a pretty staggering goal. Think about this for a minute. The following students are expected to be "proficient" in reading and math at their grade level.

Those that attend 1-3 days of school per week
Those that speak very little English
Those that are unable to speak at all
Those that are in wheel chairs and need assistance to merely sit up
Those that have very low capabilities and will strain to learn two digit addition
Those suffering severe emotional problems
The homeless

And, who will be held solely responsible for student achievement? Teachers.

Percentile Concept

In my state, Iowa, students are considered proficient if they receive a score of 41 percentile on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Sounds reasonable, right? However, all the apples have been put in one basket--standardized test scores. Percentile is an interesting concept. If 100 students take the test, the top 60 students will be considered proficient and we need to raise the bottom 40. But, think about this. Won't we always have a group of 40 that will be non-proficient? We can only have a top 60 if we have a bottom 40, right?

Schools Have Compensated

In order to raise math and reading scores, many schools have heavily focused on these two subjects and reduced time teaching social studies and science. Some schools have even eliminated recesses to devote more time to teaching reading and math to comply with NCLB mandates.

Restructuring

What will happen if schools to not meet the prescribed goals? Schools will be restructured. What does that mean? The federal government has the right to fire teachers and administrators and shift students to other schools. If a school is on the list of schools not measuring up for four years, restructuring goes into action. As the vise is tightened on schools, we will see just how many schools will need restructuring. And, most importantly, it will be interesting to watch if "restructuring" will improve results.

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