No Child Left Behind has done ‘enormous harm’ to U.S. schools

Mack, J. (2011, October 11). No Child Left Behind has done ‘enormous harm’ to U.S. schools, says Richard Rothstein, policy analyst coming to speak in Kalamazoo. 

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Richard Rothstein is a researcher for the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and author of numerous books on education policy. Rothstein’s destain for No Child Left Behind starts with the idea of holding schools completely responsible for closing an achievement gap that is the result of factors outside of school. He believes that the achievement gap is inevitable given the vast socioeconomic differences between American families. Children in poverty are more likely to grow up in single-parent households, be socially isolated in poor neighborhoods, have parents lacking in a higher education, have limited access to health care and prenatal care, have less access to enrichment after school and summer programs…all of these factors negatively impact educational outcomes. Even if socioeconomic differences are chosen to be ignored, the fact that children are diverse in cognitive development can not be ignored, children have a wide range of abilities. NCLB turns education into a chase to attain test scores that stresses children, narrows the curriculum, and turns schools into “test-prep factories”. Rothstein is among a group of policymakers that endorse social and economic reforms to help close the achievement gap by focusing on a broader approach to education. This approach includes expansion of high-quality early childhood programs, expansion of after-school and summer programs for school-age children, and strategies to improve the health of low-income children