NCLB Absurdities

The recently reauthorized version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the so-called "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) law, significantly increased the federal government's role in education through new testing, reporting, and other requirements for schools.

NEA believes all schools should have high expectations for all students and  that educators should be accountable for their progress in helping all children learn. But as educators try to implement NCLB, they are finding serious flaws in the law that prevent a fair and accurate assessment of student progress and educator quality.

This sampling of absurd but disturbing stories from around the nation points out some of NCLB's flaws — and provides a roadmap for correcting them. This page is updated frequently, so check back for more absurd stories.

'Adequate Yearly Progress' Absurdities

NCLB requires schools and school districts to demonstrate "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) in raising student test scores in reading and math.

This fall, a large number of schools and school districts did not make AYP, including many good schools caught in absurd situations by AYP rules.

A school can fail to make AYP if fewer than 95 percent of the students are present to take two standardized tests.

• Ooltewah High School, Hamilton County, Tennessee
  Ooltewah High students have one of the highest performing rates in the state, but their school is now labeled "in need of improvement" because only 94.1 percent of students took the standardized math test. Out of 1,700 total students, if three more had been present and taken the test that day, the school would not have been on the list. (Nashville News Channel 9, 9/5/03)

• Bascomb Elementary School, Cherokee, Georgia
  A computer error that counted tardy students as absent on test day earned Bascomb Elementary School a spot on the "in need of improvement" list. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/13/03; Education Week, 9/3/03)

• Ridgewood High School, Ridgewood, New Jersey
  Officials at Ridgewood High School in Bergen County, New Jersey, have had a difficult time explaining to parents why their school, which boasts average SAT scores of 1174—well above the national average of 1026 points—has been placed on the early-warning list for not meeting AYP standards. The entire school failed AYP because three students did not take a required test. According to the school superintendent, one of the students had actually left the school by the time the test was given, and the other two are in private schools financed by the district that do not offer the tests. (New York Times, 10/2/03)

Many states have accountability systems that recognize and reward high performing and fast-improving schools. Yet a school can fail to make AYP even if it meets or exceeds its own state's standards for education.

• Gulfport Elementary School, Pinellas County, Florida
  Gov. Jeb Bush’s Florida A+ Education Plan says that Gulfport Elementary School did so well academically last year it deserves a state bonus check of roughly $40,000. President George W. Bush’s AYP standards say Gulfport Elementary School performed so poorly that its parents must be allowed to pull their children out and send them to a “better performing” school in the district. (St. Petersburg Times, 7/31/03)

A school can fail to make AYP if even one subgroup (based on race/ethnicity, special needs, English proficiency, low-income status) does not meet AYP standards.

• Micro-Pine Level Elementary School, Pine Level, North Carolina
  Under North Carolina's AYP plan, 34 of Micro-Pine Level's 45 students with disabilities needed to score as proficient in math. Eight were immediately counted as failures because they are borderline retarded children who took an alternative state assessment. While all eight showed progress, the federal law counted them as failures because they could not pass the regular state test for their grades. When an additional three students with disabilities didn't pass, the entire school was listed as failing. (New York Times, 10/08/03)

• Gray Elementary School, Las Vegas, Nevada
  Gray Elementary was deemed deficient because limited-English speaking students as a group failed to show adequate progress on English tests; of the 304 students tested last year at Gray, 36 were limited-English speakers who had only been in the U.S. for a short time before the exams. (Las Vegas Review-Journal, 10/10/03)

• Maryland Public Schools
  Thirty Maryland schools were listed as not making AYP standards this year because they followed a conflicting federal law that requires them to provide special needs students with assistance during exams. Under NCLB, the scores of students who have had portions of the exam read to them are invalidated and assigned the lowest score possible. This clashes with decades-old legislation that requires some children with limited English skills or learning disabilities be assisted with their exams. (Washington Post, 10/10/03)

• Sheldon High School, Eugene, Oregon
  Sheldon High was rated "in need of improvement," despite receiving an exceptional rating on state assessments. Why? The school has an alternative program that teaches life skills to developmentally disabled students and thus attracts many students who don't perform well on traditional exams. (Eugene Register-Guard, 8/30/03)