| The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is making the | | | | better schools in the suburbs. |
| problem of cheating, low academic standards, and | | | | In Wisconsin, state legislators backed off plans to |
| public schools lying to parents, even worse. Under this | | | | require high school graduation tests because of strong |
| Act, the Department of Education now requires | | | | opposition by parents from affluent suburbs. One |
| students to pass standardized tests. Failing schools will | | | | parent group calling itself "Advocates for Education" |
| lose federal funding and other perks if their students | | | | argued that high-stakes testing would not be fair to |
| consistently turn in a bad performance on these tests. | | | | children and would hurt educational quality in the |
| Holding schools and teachers accountable, and | | | | schools. |
| expecting students to demonstrate what they've | | | | Critics of the graduation tests were worried that the |
| learned, sounds like a good idea. But this Act means | | | | tests would put too much pressure on the children. |
| that badly-taught students, victims of dumbed-down | | | | Suburban parents lobbied parent-teacher organizations, |
| texts and bad teaching methods like new math and | | | | and state legislators eventually scrapped the |
| whole-language instruction, now have to pass difficult | | | | graduation test before a single high-school student had |
| standardized tests they are not ready for. | | | | taken it. |
| As a result, millions of students may fail these tests, | | | | Similarly, New York and Massachusetts officials |
| not because they are dumb, but because the schools | | | | yielded to pressure by parents to set low passing |
| never taught them to read properly or solve a math | | | | grades for their new graduation tests. In Virginia and |
| problem without a calculator. Millions of high school | | | | Arizona, state boards of education have backed |
| students with low reading and math skills now risk not | | | | away from graduation tests that were too tough for |
| graduating from high school until they pass these tests. | | | | even the so-called better schools. Only 7 percent of |
| It is important that parents know the unvarnished truth | | | | schools in Virginia met new achievement standards, |
| about their children's real academic abilities, but many | | | | and 9 out of 10 sophomores in Arizona schools failed |
| parents are now frantic because they see their | | | | a new math test. |
| children's failing grades on these new tests. As a result, | | | | In New York City, school authorities estimated that |
| they complain to school boards that they do not want | | | | over 30 percent of the city's 11th-graders would not be |
| their children taking these tests or not graduating from | | | | eligible to graduate if the English language standard |
| high school because of low test scores. To protect | | | | that will take effect next year was being applied |
| their children, many parents are now demanding | | | | today. Diane Ravitch of the Brookings Institute in |
| dumbed-down tests to make sure that their kids | | | | Washington is a longtime analyst of New York's |
| graduate from high school and go to college. | | | | public-school system She estimated that in some |
| The No Child Left Behind Act is now forcing many | | | | neighborhoods, less than 5 percent of high-school |
| parents to condone schools that dumb-down their | | | | seniors would qualify to graduate under the new |
| tests and standards, instead of blaming these schools | | | | standards. |
| for their children's failure to learn. This is a typical | | | | Parents, particularly those with younger children, should |
| unintended consequence of more government laws | | | | take heed. You don't want to end up with high-school |
| that try to fix problems that a government-controlled | | | | kids who may not graduate because they can't pass |
| school system created in the first place. | | | | the new tests. In Chapters 8, 9, and the Resource |
| State lawmakers in New York, Wisconsin, | | | | section of "Public Schools, Public Menace," I explore |
| Massachusetts, and other states have yielded to | | | | how you can circumvent these serious problems by |
| parent pressure. They have scrapped or | | | | finding real education alternatives outside the public |
| watered-down high-stakes graduation tests that | | | | schools. |
| proved too tough even for students in the so-called | | | | |