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WELCOME Welcome
to the Policy Brief. The purpose of this brief is to provide
a
resource for teacher education professionals, administrators and
students from which teacher preparation, recruitment, retention and
renewal programs and policies can be developed.
The
following briefs are intended to help educators better understand how
NCLB is affecting schools, reshaping the education profession, and
altering state and federal education policies. Many articles include
disagreements with NCLB mandates or recommendations to modify certain
NCLB standards. The choice of summaries is not an attempt to promote
any particular position on issues or polarization of recommendations
made by government and educational officials or contributors of the
publications. Costs of
Education Slope Sharply Upward Schools with large numbers of minority students generally have a more difficult time reaching NCLB's targets for adequate yearly progress than homogenous schools because they have more subgroups to measure—what some people have begun calling the "diversity penalty." Proposed Budget Implications for Extending NCLB Recent attention has focused on the 2006 fiscal year and the President’s intentions to extend NCLB into other areas of education. About $1.5 billion is slated to extend testing and accountability in high schools. What Our High School Students Need A great deal of attention has been focused recently on the demand to improve high schools. Although the President's attention is rightly focused, high-stakes testing is insufficient to solve the problems high schools face. High-Stakes Testing and of Low-Achieving Students Some students are motivated by high-stakes tests, but others appear to need the additional components of teacher support and a collective sense of learning. A study at the University of Chicago reports findings on motivation. Poverty Schools: Effects of Testing Mandates Teachers in high-poverty schools spend more time preparing students for state test programs such as those required by NCLB than teachers in low-poverty schools, according to a study by three experts. Teachers in schools with high poverty rates also tend to feel more pressure to raise test scores. Meeting Literacy Goals Set by No Child Left Behind A new RAND Corporation study released in December expressed deep doubts that students could reach NCLB's goal of proficiency in reading by 2014. The researchers noted that many children were not moving beyond basic decoding skills to fluency and comprehension. NCSL Recommends 43 NCLB Revisions The bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures released a list of 43 specific recommendations on ways to make the No Child Left Behind Act more flexible. Suggested revisions include allowing states more leeway to use programs that worked well before NCLB was implemented, giving states enough money to meet the law's targets and developing multipronged assessment methods to replace the current one-size-fits-all model. Challenges of NCLB Standards for Students with Special Needs Parents and educators are frustrated that the performance of students with special needs on state assessments can result in their school's earning a failing label. Some administrators are starting to suggest that special-education centers at schools may have to be shut down to avoid exposing the district to potential sanctions. |
