Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Urban Law Journal

Law Students

: Urban Law Journal

No Child Left Behind Reauthorization Debate

By 3L at Seton Hall University School of Law and Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

The Washington Post is hosting an informative debate re: No Child Left Behind reauthorization. Commentators include Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, Reg Weaver (president of the NEA), Kati Haycock (president of the Education Trust), Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and several educators.

As the article notes, since NCLB became law, "nearly 500,000 more students have learned basic math skills[;] [m]ore than 500,000 others are getting free tutoring that was never available before [and] parents of 50 million students have more information, more control and more choices when it comes to their children's education." It goes without saying that more needs to be done. Let's not lose sight of the fact that the law's goal is to get all students to perform at or above grade level by 2014. Bringing students up to grade level in a decade is a pretty depressing "big goal," but considering the sorry state of public education, it may prove to be too ambitious.

Secretary Spellings advocated for improved tracking and smaller class sizes. Mr. Weaver did not call for any major directional change?simply a redoubling of efforts in nation?s most struggling schools. Ms. Haycock argued that NCLB should focus on ?learning the language,? and should be recalibrated to concentrate on the students who have no trouble passing state examinations. Jack Dale, a district superintendent, advocates for uniform proficiency levels (eliminating the ability of states to create the illusion of progress), and a focus on the progress students make (as in NYC). Mr. Dale also calls for a substantial increase in school funding, but only if schools pay bonuses to the most effective educators and to those serving in high need schools [it is telling that these two groups are disaggregated]. Mayor Bloomberg reinforced the idea that teachers and principals are the most important factor in a child?s academic success. To close the achievement gap, he calls for distributing the best teachers across schools, continuing education for educators, and performance pay.

I?ve doubted the costs and benefits of smaller class sizes for some time now, and throwing more money at struggling schools (or any school for that matter) rarely accomplishes more than just giving a politician something concrete to report to the media. Performance pay is a logical and efficient way to improve the supply of excellent teachers in a variety of educational settings (and might help avoid the need for Mayor Bloomberg?s teacher distribution plan), and might help jump start some otherwise complacent teachers.

I was a NYC public school teacher before attending law school, and I taught at a school that was in its first year of restructuring under NCLB. In my first year of teaching, both school-wide performance on standardized exams and the general level of safety were abysmal. In my second year, we benefited from a new principal, who was a product of the mayor?s Principal Training Program. The principal turned the school around (of course, all is relative), and while it can?t be said whether it was the training or not, the singular importance of an effective school leader was clear. Day-to-day instruction, however, is obviously left to the teacher. Walking down the hallway on any given day, it was instantly evident that some classrooms were engaged in thoughtful, challenging, and supportive learning, while in others, students could hardly be sure of their physical safety, let alone benefit from an effective learning environment. The x-factor is the teacher. Teacher performance (and necessarily student performance) improve dramatically in relation to the support, incentives, and the leadership that define the learning environment, and on this point, NCLB could be best improved.

Full post as published by Urban Law Journal on September 19, 2007 (boomark / email).