May 2003 — Special Feature
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NCLB: A New Role for the Federal Government
NCLB ObservationsFormer U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley offered this observation about NCLB: "If we create an accountability system that is more punitive than diagnostic, more about fear than about achieving success, we will have missed the mark entirely. In the broad effort to raise standards, states should not rely on a single high-stakes test. Parents want their children to have a well-rounded education" (Riley 2002).
In a letter to state education officials last October, current U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige sympathized with the discontent that educators feel when change is thrust upon them, offering this rationale for the strong measures that NCLB requires: "As a former superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, I understand the promise and the peril of improving schools. ... The good news is that we know what works: scientifically proven methods, aligned standards, assessments and instruction, school and district leadership focused on student learning, accountability for results, and highly qualified teachers will improve achievement and bring success."
Systemization
To achieve this level of standardization, the federal government has mandated a large-scale system for creating and maintaining state educational standards, testing and accountability. This arrangement extends from the child to subgroups of children to the school, the district and the state, removing much discretion from the local community and creating a system of control that is quite new to the American education system. Through the use of school report cards, this structure is buttressed by consequences for failure (e.g., reorganization, choice, tutoring, private management and charter schools) and rewards for successful schools, with a 5% increase in federal dollars and a listing as "distinguished."
The trend toward the macro-authority of state and federal mandates, and away from the relatively micro-authority of local governance, has moved much decision-making to the state level under strict federal guidelines that demand institutional solutions, such as:
- The need for compatible assessment, record-keeping and reporting systems;
- Evaluation of scientifically based research claims for materials;
- Approval and tracking of private supplementary service providers;
- Transportation for the exercise of parental choice; and
- District, state and federal oversight mechanisms.
- Privatization
The scope of the systemization, in turn, requires more involvement of the private sector. Indeed, NCLB is unique in its mandatory inclusion of the private sector to assist failing schools with such services as tutoring and private management. It is also unique in its reliance on a private governance model wherein charter schools, which are an option for reorganizing failing traditional schools, are run like publicly funded for-profit and nonprofit corporations.
On another level, the demands for a set of nationally reviewed standards and tests have brought the private sector into the picture as never before. For example, national testing companies are more actively providing states with sets of criterion-referenced tests in reading and math tied to state standards for grades 3-8.
