The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is five years old and scheduled for reauthorization this year. Some observers doubt that it will be reauthorized before the 2008 election campaigns.

The law, which came into being with broadly bipartisan support, is widely-accepted as having worthy goals but a flawed process. Critics come from across the political spectrum – from the teachers’ unions who decry interference in the classroom to conservatives who do not like the increasing federal involvement in education. How to “fix” NCLB will be the subject of debate in Congress during the reauthorization process.

President Bush has issued what he is calling a “blueprint for strengthening” the Act. The essential goals - of having all students read and do math at or above grade level by 2014, and closing the achievement gap – remain.

Proposals in the blueprint include:

• More challenging coursework in high schools, particularly in math and science.

• Giving states more flexibility by allowing them greater use of growth models to measure student progress over time.

• More school choice for parents: charter schools or use of publicly-funded vouchers to attend private school.

• More power to local leaders to intervene in low-performing schools.

It is unlikely that President Bush’s voucher idea will proceed. His first voucher proposal failed when the law was originally enacted at a time when Congress was controlled by Republicans.

In fact, a number of Republicans who originally supported the law have mounted a mini rebellion proposing changes to the law which would allow states to opt out of NCLB’s testing requirements while continuing to receive federal funding. Key education Democrats, like Senator Edward Kennedy, say that the accountability measures must stay.

Read the US Department of Education’s press release, a fact sheet, and the full Building On Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act.

Shortly after the fifth anniversary of NCLB, the Commission on No Child Left Behind issued its recommendations on the law.

The commission was established a year ago by the Aspen Institute, a non-profit policy research group, to assess the law’s effectiveness. The report states that the law has prompted some improvement but has not gone far enough.

The commission makes 75 recommendations many of which require states to implement further mandates on school districts and schools. Examples include requiring comprehensive school district improvement plans, a 12^th-grade assessment test, and additional data reporting on school quality. The commission also raises the historically thorny issue of developing national academic standards, and linking the assessment of a teacher’s quality to the achievement of their students.

The report cites statistics from other studies showing that 63 percent of students at two-year colleges require remedial education, and that employers continue to complain about the poor quality skills of high school graduates in the workplace.

The recommendations of the commission will feed into the reauthorization debate.

For more information read Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation’s Children.

The reauthorized version of NCLB is likely to have some marked differences from its original such as increased flexibility for states to meet its requirements.

(Sources: New York Times January 25, 2007; Education Week January 31and February 21 2007; Chronicle of Higher Education February 14, 2007; The Education Gadfly February 25, 2007; The Washington Post March 16, 2007)

A collaborative report from the RAND Corporation and Research for Action examines the state take-over of the Philadelphia school district and the various models of school reform, including the privatization of public school management.

Five years ago the state placed 45 schools in the hands of seven private managers which included Edison (the nation’s largest for-profit operator of public schools). The state assigned 21 schools to be restructured, and 16 schools received only increased funding.  

The RAND report concludes that only the schools restructured by the school district (which included more testing and teacher support) showed statistically significant achievement gains. This throws into question the future of the private managers whose annual cost is more than $18 million (£9.3m*) and whose contracts are up for renewal.

Critics of the report’s conclusions point to little competition between the private providers and the absence of parental choice on the different educational models. They say that the continued involvement of the school district in the provider schools did not allow for real autonomy and that the private managers were originally given the worst-performing schools.

Read the press release issued by RAND and the full report: State Takeover, School Restructuring, Private Management, and Student Achievement in Philadelphia.

* Current exchange rate: $1.93 = 1GBP

(Sources: Education Week February 7 and 12, 2007; The Education Gadfly February 8, 2007)

Schools in New Jersey have been using a program designed to encourage students to take on more challenging coursework and master essential skills for the workplace.

Established four years ago, LearnDoEarn (short for Learn More Now, Do More Now, Earn More Later) is being piloted in 65 schools. The program is a joint venture of local business leaders and educators.

LearnDoEarn has five components:

• State Scholars NJ – a communications campaign which provides evidence to students and parents of the need to choose the right courses and work hard.

• School Counts – emphasizes the critical need for “soft skills” such as attendance, punctuality and a good work ethic.

• The Technology Challenge – builds essential skills in relevant business software.

• Work the Money – builds up financial literacy.

• The Math Challenge – currently being piloted, this component will provide online exercises in math problems.

Many of the schools taking part in the program have high poverty, high minority student populations.

Schools report a boost in the uptake of challenging courses and that many students reengage with their school work with a better understanding of the relevance of what they are doing and its implication for their future.

For more information visit LearnDoEarn and the Business Coalition for Educational Excellence.

(Source: Education Week December 20, 2006

A report from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce has called for a complete overhaul of the education system, from pre-school to adult learning, to ensure that the USA maintains its competitive edge. It warns of a reduced standard of living for Americans if they do not take action.

According to the report, the USA needs to lead the way in creativity and innovation as low-skill jobs are increasingly outsourced overseas to countries with cheaper labor costs.

The bipartisan panel, convened by the National Center on Education and the Economy, worked for a year on the report. It offers ten recommendations as a means to start a national conversation rather than as a framework. The commission says, however, that the recommendations complement and support each other and states should be willing to embrace them all.

The recommendations include:

• Students in 10th grade (aged 16) to take a new state exam which, if they pass, would enable them to go straight to community college. Higher scoring students would stay on for a further two years at high school to undertake college preparation coursework.

• Universal pre-school for all 4-year-olds and all low-income 3-year-olds.

• Higher quality teaching force through better pay and compensation linked to student performance; incentives for teaching shortage subjects or in tough schools.

• Redesign role of school districts from one of running public schools to that of contracting outside operators to do so – resulting in more choice for students.

• Rebuild standards, assessments and curriculum; promote creativity and innovation and have national literacy and math tests in lower grades.

• Make school funding more equitable with more going to those students with greater needs.

• Support lifelong learning with free education up to high school standard for all workers; introduce individual education accounts.

• Create regional economic development authorities which would combine economic development, adult education and job training.

For more details read the executive summary of Tough Choices or Tough Times.

(Sources: The Education Gadfly December 14, 2006; Education Week December 20, 2006)

Citizen Schools is an after-school program which aims to build students’ academic and leadership skills and connect them to the community. The focus is on middle school students aged 9 to 14, mostly from disadvantaged areas.

The program was established in Boston in 1994 as a way to tap into the free afternoon hours (middle school students in that district are dismissed at 1.30 pm) and provide a quality experience which was more than just keeping children off the streets. At the time the city was experiencing a downward spiral of daytime youth crime.

Citizen Schools connects students with local professionals from various fields who volunteer their time. Known as ‘citizen teachers’ these professionals aim to inspire the idea of college and also build strong community relationships with the students.

The program has grown nationally and now serves 2,000 students in 24 schools.

Find out more about Citizen Schools. The site includes a link to an independent evaluation of the program carried out in 2005.

(Source: Education Week January 17, 2007; Education Innovator May 12, 2003)

In 2002 fourteen new small schools were created in New York City as part of its New Century High School Initiative (NCHSI) to transform low-performing public high schools (where only 50 percent of the students were graduating).

A report from WestEd, a non-profit research, development and service organization, looks at these schools which graduated their first cohort of students in 2006. The study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is a strong supporter of small schools initiatives.

The study shows that the new smaller schools reported a graduation rate of 79 percent. (Incoming students to the schools had below average reading and math scores.) It also states that 81 percent of the students applied to college. Of those, 85 percent were accepted, with 53 percent accepted by at least one four-year college. Fifty-three percent were first in their family to experience post-secondary education.

Almost 200 new small schools have now replaced large, failing schools as part of New York City’s reform program. The new schools have the following goals:

• Promote academic rigor.
• Ensure academic content is relevant to students.
• Operate in a setting that allows strong relationships between teachers and students.
• Prepare and motivate students for postsecondary options, including college.

For further details, read Rethinking High School: Inaugural Graduations at New York City’s New High Schools.

(Source: Education Week February 7, 2007)

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has issued a set of essays which looks at the current state of charter schools.

Charter schools are publicly-funded independent schools which enjoy greater autonomy in exchange for increased accountability. The first charter legislation was passed in 1991 in Minnesota. There are now around 3,700 charter schools serving well over one million students in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Topics of the essays include:

• How charter school parents make their choices.

• How school districts handle the competition from charter school growth (using the example of Dayton, Ohio, where 1 in 4 students attends a charter school).

• The often contentious relationship between charter schools and teachers’ unions.

• Improving state and local assessments of charter school performance.

• Measuring charter school success and failure (moving away from the preoccupation with test scores and looking at other longer term benefits).

For more information, download and read Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2006 from CRPE’s National Charter School Research Project.

The US Department of Education has issued a report profiling eight charter secondary schools which have been identified as successfully closing the achievement gap between different subgroups.

Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) points to gains being made between different groups of students at elementary level. However, at secondary level gaps in reading and math scores and graduation rates have been widening between white students and their African American and Hispanic peers.

The Department of Education report suggests that charter schools, which serve predominantly low-income or minority students, have a role to play in addressing the crisis in high schools. It puts forward eight exemplary models of charter high schools from around the nation.

For more details, download and read Charter High Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap. View the US Department of Education’s pages for details of the eight charter high schools.

The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) has been granted $65 million (£33.7m*) to create 42 charter schools in Houston, Texas. This will make KIPP the largest charter school organization in the country. The funding comes from a number of private donors, including local sponsors and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

KIPP schools, the first of which was established 13 years ago in Houston, have attracted attention for their approach: longer school days, Saturday classes, required summer school and focus on preparing for college. There are currently 52 KIPP schools in 16 states and the District of Columbia serving 12,000 students. They are predominantly middle schools serving mostly African American and Hispanic, low-income, students. KIPP students have demonstrated significant achievement gains and enrollment rates in college.

For additional information read KIPP’s press release.

* Current exchange rate: $1.93 = 1GBP

(Source: The Education Gadfly December 14, 2006; The Washington Post March 20, 2007)

The oil company Exxon Mobil has granted $125 million (£64.8 m*) to fund a National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). The goal is to increase the number of students taking Advanced Placement (college level) courses in math and science, and train more educators to teach them.

The NMSI is expanding two programs which have proven successful in Texas:

• Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Programs™ provide financial incentives to students who score 3 or higher on math, science or English AP exams. Students can earn at least $100 (£52*) per exam. Rigorous training is also provided to those teaching the AP courses.

• UTeach, a joint project with the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Natural Science and College of Education, works to recruit and retain students of math, science and computer science for the teaching profession.

Both programs have significantly increased the numbers of students taking AP courses and the number of teachers in those shortage subjects – with a higher retention rate than the national average.

The Exxon Mobil initiative plans to scale up the programs nationally.

Find out more about the National Math and Science Initiative.

*Current exchange rate: $1.93 = 1GBP

(Sources: The Dallas Morning News March 10, 2007; The Education Gadfly March 15, 2007)

There are approximately 800,000 youth in foster care in the USA currently and 300,000 are aged 18-24 years (the traditional college age years).

According to a report from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators only 10 percent of foster care youth enroll in some form of postsecondary education, although 70 percent say they would like to. For those enrolled in higher education, only 26 percent complete their degree compared with 56 percent of all other undergraduates.

The report

• describes the nature of the foster care system and how the overall experience harms the ability of young people in the system to access higher education;

• uses two data sources from the National Center for Education Statistics to compare the demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and degree attainment rates among undergraduates from foster care and those who are not;

• concludes with comprehensive recommendations for policymakers and practitioners to make higher education more accessible and improve the completion rate for foster care youth.

The report states that foster care youth remain one of the most disadvantaged groups of those under-represented in higher education.

To find out more, download and read College Access, Financial Aid, and College Success for Undergraduates from Foster Care.

(Source: American Youth Policy Forum e-bulletin August 2006)

Two recent reports examine policies affecting access and affordability at community colleges in California.

A study from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy says that policies intended to increase access to California’s colleges may be preventing students from obtaining the qualifications they need.

State support that is dependent on enrollment rather than completion rates and traditionally low tuition rates have encouraged access to community colleges but at the expense of degree completion.

The report also suggests that state restrictions on how community colleges spend their money and on the percentage of full-time faculty they must employ have harmed the colleges’ ability to respond to the needs of their students and the local community.

The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, in its report, says that low to moderate income families cannot afford to attend community college in California.

Although tuition costs remain low compared to the national average, non-tuition expenses in the state have increased to the extent that tuition fees account for only five percent of a community college student’s overall costs.

The report calls for an increase in state grants to cover non-tuition expenses, even if it means an increase in tuition costs. The poorest students will receive a tuition waiver.

It also calls for increased outreach to raise awareness of financial aid as Californian students have a low percentage of students receiving federal grants when compared nationally.

For more information download and read:

Rules of the Game: How State Policy Creates Barriers to Degree Completion and Impedes Student Success in the California Community Colleges

California Community Colleges Making Them Stronger and More Affordable.

(Source: Chronicle of Higher Education February 1^st and March 7, 2007)