1. Educational Policy &
Reform Efforts
Kurt Love, Ph.D.
Central Connecticut State University

2. No Child Left Behind

3. No Child Left Behind
George W. Bush signed into law on Jan 8,
2002
All states need to design and implement
standardized assessments
No national achievement standard; states set
their own standards

4. NCLB: Arguments For
Decrease the “achievement gap”
Increase scores overall for all students
Federal government steps in for “failing”
state governments
Increased accountability on schools and
teachers

5. NCLB: Arguments Against
Teaching to the Test; narrowing of knowledge
Overemphasis on the “basics”
Elimination of the Arts, Technology, PE, etc.
All schools will be “failing” by 2014
Increased student resistance to school
Unnecessary emotional stress on students
Only a few studies show that high-risk testing is
making a difference

6. “Achievement Gap”

7. Education Debt
Instead of labeling the students as deficient
(“achievement gap”)...
Acknowledging the society inequities as the
problems that create differences in test
performances
Funding gap
Wealth gap
Health gap

8. Funding Gap:
City vs. Suburb
NYC = $11,000, Manhasset = $22,000
Chicago = $8,000, Highland Park = $17,000
Education Debt

9. Wealth Gap:
People of Color vs. White
White families are more able to pass down
wealth from generation to generation
Parents buying their children a car, paying
a down payment on a house, etc.
Savings accounts:
White women =$44,000
Latinas = $120
Black women = $100
Education Debt

10. Health Gap:
People of Color vs. White
Black people live a shorter life on average in
the U.S.
Less access to health care
Burden of living in locations of elevated
pollution
Education Debt

11. History of NCLB
Rod Paige, Superintendent of Houston Schools when
George W. Bush was Governor of Texas
Paige fabricates numbers in order to make it look like
Houston schools improved (both PBS and CBS report this
fabrication)
Paige uses the same model of accountability
Bush becomes president and makes Paige the U.S.
Secretary of Education
Bush and Paige advocate for a similar model of
accountability at the national level

12. Is NCLB Closing the
“Achievement Gap”?
From NY Times (April 28, 2009)
‘No Child’ Law Is Not Closing a Racial Gap
Despite gains that both whites and minorities did make, the overall scores of the
United States’ 17-year-old students, averaged across all groups, were the same as
those of teenagers who took the test in the early 1970s. This was largely due to a shift
in demographics; there are now far more lower-scoring minorities in relation to
whites. In 1971, the proportion of white 17-year-olds who took the reading test was
87 percent, while minorities were 12 percent. Last year, whites had declined to 59
percent while minorities had increased to 40 percent.
The scores of 9- and 13-year-old students, however, were up modestly in reading, and
were considerably higher in math, since 2004, the last time the test was administered.
And they were quite a bit higher than those of students of the same age a generation
back. Still, the progress of younger students tapered off as they got older.

13. National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP)
Grade 4 Reading = 42% proficient
(n = 2900 students across CT in 2009)
No significant change since 1992
Grade 8 Reading = 43% proficient
(n = 2800 students across CT in 2009)
Significant change for the first time
No significant change from 1998-2007 (34-37%)
Grade 4 Math = 46% proficient
(n = 2700 students across CT in 2009)
No significant change since 2003, but significant compared to the
1990’s
(1992 = 24%, 1996 & 2000 = 31%, 2005 = 42%, 2007 = 45%)
Grade 8 Math = 40% proficient
(n = 2800 students across CT in 2009)
No significant change from 1996-2007; significant from 2007 = 35%

14. Race To The Top
Federal grants awarded to states, not individual
schools
$4.35 billion from American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act 2009
States need to have certain educational policies in
order to be eligible such as no caps on the number
of charter schools, merit-based pay for teachers,
tying test scores to teachers’ evaluations, moving
power from local to state level, adoption of Common
Core Standards, and encouraging more testing

15. RTTT History
Arne Duncan was the CEO of Chicago Public
Schools when Barak Obama was senator of Illinois.
Duncan used a business model to control schools in
Chicago closing down neighborhood schools and
opening charter schools in their place.
President Obama appoints Duncan as Secretary of
education.
Duncan and Obama advocate for RTTT and get it
passed in the “stimulus package” of 2009.

16. RTTT: Arguments For
Increased accountability on teachers and
schools
Increase competition and choice among
schools by creating more charter schools
Alignment to one set of national standards

17. RTTT: Arguments Against
No studies show that charter schools are
any better than public schools.
No studies show that choice and competition
make a difference.
High-risk standardized testing has made no
long-term difference with the achievement
gap.