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NewsFlash: November 15, 2006

NCLB contradictions

No Child Left Behind requires that all students be proficient by 2014. While some policy makers think that this goal can be achieved with time, a new Economic Policy Institute report —  ‘Proficiency for All’ – An Oxymoron — concludes that no goal can simultaneously be challenging to and achievable by students at all academic levels.

The report authors — Richard Rothstein, Rebecca Jacobsen, and Tamara Wilder — show that even the highest-scoring countries in the world cannot meet this standard, nor could they meet a standard that required only basic skills of all students. The paper shows how policy makers could instead create expectations of realistic improvement for all student abilities.

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