Federal Federal File

Author to Continue Protest Over NCLB

By Alyson Klein — October 01, 2007 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Many critics of the No Child Left Behind Act have written to members of Congress to express their dissatisfaction with the law in recent months, but the author and education activist Jonathan Kozol has gone a step further.

Mr. Kozol has been on a partial hunger strike since July, subsisting on a mainly liquid diet, supplemented by some small, solid meals, such as cereal with skim milk. His protest has been derided in some quarters, but Mr. Kozol’s efforts seem sincere. As of mid-September, he had lost about 29 pounds.

He said in an interview last week that he began the hunger strike when he “got the sense the Democratic leadership [in Congress] is going to basically renew No Child Left Behind without the sweeping revisions that it would take to make this a helpful law instead of a grossly punitive law.”

Mr. Kozol, 71, who explored the stark differences between underfunded urban schools and wealthy suburban schools in his 1991 book Savage Inequalities, said he’ll begin eating regularly again once Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, agrees to champion some substantial changes that Mr. Kozol has outlined for the nearly 6-year-old law.

See Also

For more stories on this topic see No Child Left Behind and our Federal news page.

Mr. Kozol would like Congress to reshape the system for gauging whether a school makes adequate yearly progress under the law so that it relies less on standardized tests. He’d like Congress to mandate other measures, such as portfolios of student work, to determine whether students are achieving.

“High-stakes tests are useless to the teacher and the child,” he said. “They give you no specifics on the child’s areas of weakness. They simply place a label of success or failure on the child’s forehead.”

Mr. Kozol also would like states to provide the resources so students in struggling urban schools can transfer to better-performing suburban ones.

Mr. Kozol has already spoken to a top aide of Sen. Kennedy’s, and said he plans to meet with the education committee chairman in the coming weeks.

Melissa Wagoner, a spokeswoman for Sen. Kennedy, confirmed that Mr. Kozol plans to meet with the Senate committee’s chairman soon.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Mathematics Webinar
Engaging Every Learner: Strategies to Boost Math Motivation
Math Motivation Boost! Research & real tips to engage learners.
Content provided by Prodigy Education
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Student Well-Being Webinar
The Ripple Effect: Mental Health & Student Outcomes
Learn how student mental health impacts outcomes—and how to use that data to support your school’s IEP funding strategy.
Content provided by Huddle Up
Artificial Intelligence K-12 Essentials Forum How AI Use Is Expanding in K-12 Schools
Join this free virtual event to explore how AI technology is—and is not—improving K-12 teaching and learning.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Opinion Trump's Barrage of Executive Orders for Education: How Significant Are They?
A Washington insider discusses the immediate—and long-term—implications of the administration's education goals.
8 min read
The United States Capitol building as a bookcase filled with red, white, and blue policy books in a Washington DC landscape.
Luca D'Urbino for Education Week
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin. From Dismantling Library Services Agency
The president referred to the agency as "unnecessary" in a March executive order, after which it started winding down many operations.
2 min read
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. A federal judge blocked the president's attempt to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Federal Opinion We’re All to Blame for What Has Become of the U.S. Dept. of Education
The trouble started decades ago with a flawed plan to improve America’s schools, writes a former New York superintendent.
Michael V. McGill
5 min read
Illustration of pointing fingers.
DigitalVision Vectors<br/>
Federal Trump Ends $1 Billion in Mental Health Grants for Schools
The Education Department told grantees that their awards reflected the Biden administration's priorities.
5 min read
Guests listen as President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate the passage of the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," a law meant to reduce gun violence, on the South Lawn of the White House, July 11, 2022, in Washington.
Guests listen as then-President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate the passage of the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," a law meant to reduce gun violence, on the South Lawn of the White House on July 11, 2022, in Washington. The U.S. Department of Education on April 29 told grantees that had received money to train and hire more mental health professionals in schools that it wouldn't renew their grants.
Evan Vucci/AP