Triumph
of the Bureaucracy
Since
2001, all public schools are subject to the rules of No Child Left
Behind. School children must take standardized tests in English and
Math every year and meet certain standards set by education
bureaucrats.
The
underlying idea is laudable: every child regardless of its background
and present condition is entitled to as good an education as it can
use.
The
implementation of this idea, however, is authoritarian, bureaucratic,
and simpleminded. The goals are set by bureaucrats. They don't go to
individual schools to discuss with teachers, parents and principals
what would be reasonable targets. They come around and tell the
schools the numbers they have to reach.
The
implementation is punitive. No one sits down to discuss what the
problems might be and to collaborate in developing programs to
resolve the problems. Schools that do not reach the targets will be
punished and may even be closed. According to more recent proposals,
failure to reach numerical targets may be reflected in lower pay for
teachers.
There
is widespread agreement that the tests have had a negative effect on
teaching. Teachers, under pressure to meet the targets, “teach to
the test.” Children are drilled to perform well on the test. It is
not clear that they learn anything of interest or importance.
More
importantly, there are many situations where the targets set by the
educational bureaucracy are completely unrealistic. What happens
then, in case after case, is that teachers and principals cheat on
tests. This has been happening since the law was put in place. The
recent cheating scandal in Atlanta Georgia is the most spectacular
one. Some 178 teachers and principals and teachers, at 44 different
schools, are accused of cheating to raise standardized test scores.
That's a lot of cheating.
An
interesting fact in the Atlanta cheating, which was also observed in
a number of other similar cases, is that the schools had an
overwhelmingly poor student body. In schools where cheating is found,
a very large percentage of students get free breakfast and lunch.
They are clearly children who are having a hard life. Learning for
them is especially difficult.
Poor
children face handicaps not faced by other children. That manifests
itself, among other ways, in greater difficulties in school. Learning
difficulties are a symptom of the troubles of poverty.
You
would think, therefore, that No Child Left Behind would have put
great effort and resources into alleviating poverty, especially of
children. But no, No Child Left Behind is looking for the cheap
and easy solution.
It threatens schools where poor children struggle to learn in spite
of all their difficulties in the world at large. And now it's going
to threaten the teachers pay.
The
Atlanta school teaching debacle is one more clear indication that No
Child Left Behind is poorly thought out. It represents authoritarian
and bureaucratic ways of dealing with social problems. It makes the
teachers and schools into the bad guys. But we know the culprit is an
economy that does not provide jobs for everybody, let alone
well-paying and satisfying jobs.
It
is not the children's fault that their parents have no jobs and no
money. Nor is it the fault of the schools or the teachers.
Ask
your other elected representatives who want to cut taxes and to cut
social programs what they will do to ameliorate poverty. How will
they help poor children learn?
