No Child Left Behind / Testing

Good evening! Thanks for looking at our blog. This blog has been set up to discuss issues surrounding the No Child Left Behind Act. This legislation was enacted in 2002 during the Bush Administration. The purpose of the legislation is to improve the quality of education of children in the public school system.

As an introduction to test your knowledge of No Child Left Behind, we would like to present you with questions.

No Child Left Behind: The Test
by Stan Karp

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the federal government has mandated that all 91, 000 public schools in the US be rated on the basis of standardized test scores. The new law's unmistakable message is if its not on a test, it's not worth knowing.

Accordingly, the following information about NCLB and U.S. education policy is presented in the form today's policymkaers seem to love best: objective, multiple-choice questions that leave no room for doubt, debate, or complete sentences.

Your goal is to circle the truth witha number-two pencil. You will have twenty minutes to complete the test. You may not look at any other part of the magazine during that time. Nor may you talk, eat, go tot he bathroom, use a dictionary, or have a creative thought. You sweat. .

*Some questions have been copied from the actual test located at http://tiny.cc/dKpY2 *


1. The percentage of schools that did not meet NCLB's "adequate yearly progress" targets for the 2002-2003 school year included:

• A. 5 % of Alabama schools.
• B. 14% of Wyoming schools.
• C. 40%of Illinois schools.
• D. 76% of Florida schools.
• E. All of the above

2. The reason for these widely varying results include the fact that.

• A. States have very different standards that make comparisons essentially menaingless.
• B. The "AYP" targets are so arbitrary and inappropriate that eventually most schools will be on the list anyway.
• C. NCLB actually encourages some states to adopt lower standards to keep schools off the list.
• D. The threshold size for counting student subgroups--like special education students or English-language learners--varies widely from state to state.
• E. All of the above.
  

3. Examples of NCLB's impact on classrooms include:

• A. In Maine, teacher-made, classroom-based assessments are being replaced by standardized tests.
• B. Philadelphia fourth graders read fewer books.
• C. Maryland schools are spending 20% less time on social studies.
• D. Oregon is cutting foreign-language and music classes and spending more time on testing.
• E. A significant reduction in arts-education programs, particularly in urban schools with large number of students of color.
• F. All of the above.
  

4. Which of the following statements about whether NCLB is an "unfunded mandate" is true?

• A. Section 9257 of NCLB says: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize . . . the Federal Government to . . . mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this Act."
• B. 90% of school superintendents have said NCLB requires them to make expenditures NCLB doesn't provide.
• C. The nonpartisan General Accounting Office concluded that NCLB did not qualify as an "unfunded mandate" because states could not accept federal funds if they didn't want to comply with its provisions.
• D. All of the above.
  

5. The approximately $130 billion spent so far on the war in Iraq is:

• A. About 4 times what the federal government annually spends on K-12 programs for all 50 states.
• B. Enough to hire 2.4 million elementary school teachers.
• C. Enough to provide Head Start slots for an additional 18 million children.
• D. Enough to provide full four-year college scholarships for more than 3 million students.
• E. Each of the above.
  

6. According to the Children's Defense Fund:

• A. States spend on average almost three times as much per prisoner as per public school pupil.
• B. 9.3 million children lack health insurance.
• C. Three million children live in households suffering from hunger or "food insecurity without hunger."
• D. All of the above.

7. Which of the following does NCLB specifically provide funds for?

• A. Smaller class sizes.
• B. Multicultural education.
• C. Full-day kindergarten.
• D. Test research.

8. Which of the following provisions is NOT contained in the NCLB legislation?

• A. Greater access to school records for military recruiters.
• B. Greater access to school facilitates for groups like the Boys Scouts that discriminate against gays and lesbians.
• C. Greater access to bilingual programs for English-language learners.
• D. Guarantees of "constituntionally protected" prayer in schools.
• E. Greater access to school funds for faith0based and religious groups.
  

9. A 2003 Gallup poll on NCLB showed that:

• A. 76% of the public knew "nothing" or "very little" about the law.
• B. 66% said a single statewide test was not a fair measure of whether a school needed improvement.
• C. 84% said that determining "reasonable improvement from where [students] started" was a better measure of school performance than a fixed test-score target.
• D. 71% thought it was important to close gaps in test scores among different racial groups.
• E. Only 16% thought these gaps were caused primarily by the quality of schooling they received.
• F. All of the above.

10. A U.S. Department of Education survey of private schools found that:

• A. Two-thirds said they would refuse vouchers if they had to accept studnets randomly.
• B. Over half would refuse vouchers if they had to administer the same tests that public schools do.
• C. Three-quarters would refuse to accept special-needs students or English-Language learners as voucher students.
• D. All of the above.
  

Source: Rethinking Schools Online - http://tiny.cc/dKpY2



Questions:

1. What are your thoughts about standardized testing?
2. Does NCLB really contribute to students being successful?