NCLB -- Maybe Not So Bad After All?

by rrusczyk, Jun 22, 2009, 3:32 PM

As always, consider the source, but, well, whether or not NCLB is actually bad for high-performing students is essentially an empirical matter. I've often said that NCLB would give schools incentives to ignore the top students, but here's a report arguing that the top students (and the others) are doing better under NCLB than they were before. There are, of course, other factors. And one could argue that cutting gifted spending from 0 to 0 won't have any affect on the top kids (and the performance increase at the high end could be a result of the increasing competition for college admission).

Aside from all these buts and ifs . . . numbers are what they are. Doesn't change my opinion of how schools hold top kids back, but I suspect I can't include NCLB on my laundry list of ways they do so anymore...

Needless to say, you won't be hearing about this report on ABC...

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This is definitely interesting. As to the competition for college thing - I'm not sure that is really a factor. I'm working on extremely limited information here, but at least in Connecticut, state standardized tests finish in 10th grade, before anxiety about college really starts to set in. Additionally, most of the energy devoted to college competition at least among my peers goes into PSAT/SAT/ACT preparation. I'm not an expert as I don't generally freak out to the level many of my peers do - college competition certainly affects me very little.

by worthawholebean, Jun 22, 2009, 4:07 PM

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I agree with worthawholebean.

I live in Indiana, and statewide testing also ends in 10th grade for us.

Furthermore, it may just be that my school is a good school (we have had a few USAMO qualifiers each year for the last 10 years or something), but we don't tend to care about those tests at all. They are treated as jokes, or just something that you have to get through every year and bring a book to read after you're done early. Even in the schools that do struggle with their test scores, I don't think college is a factor at all.

by MathAndKnowledge, Jun 22, 2009, 11:52 PM

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To be clear, I'm not suggesting that college is a reason for trying hard on these tests -- I'm suggesting that due to the competitiveness for college admissions, parents and students are more willing to seek some extra challenges to make the students more competitive in college application. This works out well for us at AoPS, to be sure. I think that for many parents, thinking about college starts quite early.

by rrusczyk, Jun 23, 2009, 12:18 AM

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I read only a bit of the report, but I believe that the authors offer a disclaimer about what they are measuring. In particular, when they look at advanced students, they are looking at how many kids move from the passing category to the better than passing category. They do not look at growth for students who were in the better than passing category before NCLB.

In my state, there is a big difference between being in the better than passing category and being what I'd normally consider a top student.

by Fritzie, Jun 24, 2009, 11:09 PM