No Child Left Behind has received a lot of national attention over the years. Last month, Texas received a waiver from the policy after almost a year of negotiations. Most schools in the state will be exempt from federally mandated interventions as a result of failing to meet the original NCLB standards; only the lowest-performing 15 percent of schools in Texas will still be affected. This is something we’ve seen across the country- since President Obama began granting waivers to states in 2011, over 40 states have received some form of a waiver. Back in 2001, it seemed a lot more feasible that 100 percent of students would be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Now of course we know that we haven’t made nearly enough progress, so states are seeking reprieves from these requirements.
One NCLB stipulation that has created issues in Texas is a program that provides tutoring to children from low-income families. Low-performing school districts were required to set aside 20 percent of their federal funding for “supplemental education services,” or tutoring. Unfortunately, school districts had to deal with a myriad of problems with the private tutoring companies. Administrators reported claims of falsified invoices, questionable instructional methods, and overly aggressive student recruitment – for example, using iPads, phones, and computers as incentives for kids and their parents to enroll in their service.
Complaints about the tutoring organizations were slow to be resolved, chiefly due to complicated implementation. The state was supposed to monitor compliance with the law, but individual districts contracted tutoring services individually, generating confusion about conflict resolution. A sizable percentage of the tutoring companies didn’t have strong financial or academic track records. Individual principals also lacked control over which companies parents could select for tutoring services on their campuses. The only requirement was that they were on the state-approved list, which wasn’t closely monitored.
Last year, after nearly four years of complaints, the Texas Education Agency began to eliminate the worst of the tutoring companies from the state-approved list. That also led to district-level investigations. Eventually, the process was overhauled and the agency asked for more accountability from the tutoring services, but it’s only been in the last full application cycle that those changes have been in place.
While certain programs have created challenges in Texas, No Child Left Behind has done more to shape education than any law up to this point. There has been a shift toward accountability in education, making sure that schools are delivering results and that every child can learn from a high-quality teacher. For example, there is a program in place that allows students to transfer to a higher-performing school if theirs does not meet a preset standard. Schools are also required to inform parents if their child’s teacher is not considered “highly qualified” under NCLB. And test scores overall have risen since the law was implemented. However, there is still uncertainty about how to measure things like teacher quality, something future education policies are sure to reflect.
Listen to our commentary on the latest with No Child Left Behind below.
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