NCLB, AYP and other Egregious Acronyms

NCLB is the "No Child Left Behind" Act, a legacy of the Bush Administration. You would be hard-pressed to find any educator who thinks it is good policy, but a whole lot of politicians -- Rethuglicans and Dimocrats -- thought it sounded good [for them] back in 2001 when they voted it in. There was some hope that the Obama Administration might take another look at it, and at least get rid of the more offensive aspects of it, but if anything, the policy seems to be "Let's get even more punitive." Never mind that they've done nothing about child poverty, which is a major indicator of school success. Nope, punish the staff at the "failing" schools.

And what are they failing to do? Why, meet AYP -- Adequate Yearly Progress. Every year, almost exclusively using data collected from standardized tests, each and every public school is given a grade. If your school fails to meet AYP, sanctions are imposed. The sanctions become harsher every year; ultimately an entire staff can be fired. School superintendents can be removed and replaced with someone selected by the mayor of a city (as happened in Milwaukee), and the replacement superintendents don't have to be educators. For example, school districts can be (and have been) placed under the leadership of military personnel, as well as CEOs of major corporations. Not educators.

The kicker is, AYP is not a fixed thing. The percentage of students expected to make AYP goes up every year, until it reaches 100%. NCLB does not distinguish between students with special needs, students who are English language learners, or anyone else. Everyone takes the same test. Everyone is held to the same standard. If you were raised by wolves for the first nine years of your life and walked into school in fourth grade, guess what: your score counts the same as every other fourth grader's. So essentially schools are being expected to do something that is questionably worthy, and a statistical impossibility.

Schools that aren't making AYP are identified as SIFI (no, not Sci-Fi although you might think so with such a loony-tunes policy.) SIFI -- Schools Identified For Improvement. What I realized today -- what I should have realized long ago -- is that AYP only applies to schools receiving Title I federal funds, in other words, high poverty schools. If NCLB continues as it is right now, there will come a time when every Title I school in the country will be SIFI, and subject to the sanctions. Just another road to school privatization (or corporatization, the more accurate term.)

My school is a SIFI school, projected not to make AYP next year. At our staff meeting today we had a visit from two district muckety mucks to talk to us about what that means. Word from other schools was that they were going to be harsh and beat us over the head with the sanctions. In reality, I was most pleasantly surprised. They were both exceedingly positive about our school, the path we are on, and the efforts we are making. Clearly, as lifelong educators (even though they have crossed over to the Dark Side of administration) they have deep misgivings about NCLB.

To the credit of our State Department of Public Instruction, they have been directing more, not less, money to the schools that are "in need of improvement." Our school district has been using the extra funds for staff development, and I can say that, veteran teacher I may be, but it has made me a much more effective teacher. I can see a big difference in the progress my students have made. We have been thinking strategically, and are making steps to help all of our students, and I do think that's a good thing.

I absolutely hate the carrot and stick approach, however. "Race to the Top" and the punitive sanctions of NCLB are two sides of the same coin.

One colleague was asking today, given the bleak outlook and the sanctions, what incentives are there to remain a teacher at a high poverty school like ours? It's a good question, and certainly one that each teacher has to answer for him/herself. For me it's simple: I have taught at wealthy schools and I have taught at high poverty schools. I was mostly miserable at the wealthy schools, where at least a percentage of the parents treat you like you're the hired help. The last six years that I've been at my current school (my neighborhood school and my kids' alma mater) have been wonderful, the best years of my teaching career. I plan to stay, and I predict that we will spit in the eye of NCLB as we continue refining what we've been doing.