Federal

Harvard Analysis Is Critical Of ‘No Child’ Law

By Lisa Goldstein — February 18, 2004 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Federal accountability requirements have derailed state education reforms and assessment strategies, according to an analysis released last week by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University.

The four-part report contends that the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act have no common meaning across state lines, and that the law’s sanctions fall especially hard on minority and integrated schools, requiring much less student progress from affluent suburban schools.

“Inspiring Vision, Disappointing Results: Four Studies on Implementing the No Child Left Behind Act,” is available from The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. For a summary of findings, read the press release. (Report requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)

The report, “Inspiring Vision, Disappointing Results: Four Studies on Implementing the No Child Left Behind Act,” examines the law’s impact on the 2002-03 school year, the first year of implementation. Parts of the report examine the law’s provisions on school choice and supplemental education services.

Those provisions, which are potentially available to parents whose children attend schools labeled “in need of improvement” under the law, have had little impact on schools and have not been seriously evaluated, the reports maintain.

“The reality for too many public educators is confusion and frustration as No Child Left Behind is leaving too many children ... and teachers ... behind,” Gary Orfield, the co-director of the Civil Rights Project and a professor in the Harvard’s graduate school of education, said in a statement accompanying the Feb. 9 report.

“The time has come for local, state, and federal educators and officials to work together to sort out the pluses and minuses and adopt administrative and legislative remedies to save the good objectives of the programs and remove the arbitrary and unworkable provisions,” Mr. Orfield added.

Ronald J. Tomalis, an adviser to Secretary of Education Rod Paige, took issue with the report.

“It’s what you would expect someone standing on the outside with an agenda to say,” he said. “In my mind, they really missed the mark on this report.”

Dual Systems

The Civil Rights Project’s study looked closely at how the No Child Left Behind law was playing out in six states and 11 school districts. The researchers conducted interviews, visited districts, and analyzed state and local statistics and government reports.

The report’s federal section notes that only 11 states had accountability plans that were fully approved by the Education Department as of June 2003, despite the department’s claim that all states were in compliance with the law. It also notes that even states run by Republican lawmakers have not necessarily been eager to carry out the provisions championed by the Bush administration through the law, especially when they have conflicted with local priorities.

In the state-focused section of the report, the authors conclude the federal requirements have complicated state efforts to build their own coherent accountability systems. Having dual state and federal accountability systems has meant that schools are receiving conflicting signals about their performance, the report says.

For example, 289 schools in Arizona are identified under the No Child Left Behind Act as low-performing and needing improvement, but the very same schools met state performance targets, earning either a “performing” or “highly performing label,” according to the Harvard report.

The report’s section on school choice shows that even though thousands of students nationwide were eligible to transfer schools in 2002-03, fewer than 3 percent of eligible students asked to do so. Also, no district examined in the study was able to approve all transfers.

Related Tags:

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
Assessment Webinar
Reflections on Evidence-Based Grading Practices: What We Learned for Next Year
Get real insights on evidence-based grading from K-12 leaders.
Content provided by Otus
Classroom Technology 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.
Mathematics Webinar How to Build Students’ Confidence in Math
Learn practical tips to build confident mathematicians in our webinar.

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 Inside Trump's Full-Force Approach to Ban Trans Athletes and DEI in Schools
Trump’s return to the White House has brought a new era of aggressive investigations of entities that flout the president's orders.
8 min read
Education Secretary Linda McMahon accompanied by Attorney General Pam Bondi, right, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon, accompanied by Attorney General Pam Bondi, right, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. The pair were announcing a lawsuit against the state of Maine over state policies that allow transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Letter to the Editor Public Education Benefits the American Worker and the American Economy
Our nation’s schools are central to our nation’s health and future, says this letter to the editor.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week
Federal Opinion Federal Education Research Has Been 'Shredded.' What's Driving This?
How to understand why the Trump administration's axe fell so heavily on the Institute of Education Sciences.
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 Opinion Here’s What the K-12 Field Thinks of the Trump Ed. Department
Educators discuss what the current administration’s changes to the U.S. Department of Education will mean for schools.
9 min read
US flag. Vector illustration with glitch effect
iStock/Getty Images