The No Child Left Behind Act and Standardized Testing is Dumbing Down Students

Even though standardized testing was piloted in several states, the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) nationwide has created several negative effects on the U.S. educational system. Designed with the intention of making schools more accountable for their curriculum, requiring more qualified professionals in the classroom, and offering incentives to high performing schools, the program has been anything but successful. The reality has been just the opposite of NCLB intention. Since the beginning of NCLB and the mandating of standardized testing the curriculums have narrowed, schools are unable to fill all positions with properly qualified professionals, and student dropout rates have been on the rise.

The implementation of mandatory standardized testing has resulted in the narrowing of curriculums, robbing students of courses such as Arts, Science, and History. With such high focus on testable material, schools have set curriculums high on reading, writing, and arithmetic. The American Educational Research Association, the nation’s largest professional organization in scientific study of education, issued a research-based position on high-stakes tests that stated “testing inevitably creates incentives for inappropriate methods of test preparation” (AERA). Teachers have begun to fall away from teaching a wider spectrum of information to concentrating on assignments and working repetitive drills that are believed to produce the highest test scores. Several schools are taking Arts such as music and theatre out of the classroom. Less time and focus are given to science fairs and projects that occupy time and funding that can be spent toward test preparation software and booklets. As a result, standardized testing has reverted schools into memorization of test subjects and pushed the students chances of reaching higher levels of learning to the wayside.

NCLB also requires schools to acquire teachers that are “highly qualified” to teach in their subject field, creating a shortage of teachers. In order to be considered “highly qualified,” teachers must have majored in all their class subjects. This means that science teachers who often are asked to teach biology, chemistry, and physics or earth science would have to hold a major in all of these subjects (Darling-Hammond 16). The federal law’s failure to institute better methods of judging teacher qualifications has created road blocks for interdisciplinary teaching. The expense of obtaining multiple majors is simply too excessive for the small salaries teachers already live on and teachers are ultimately detoured from pursuing multiple majors. This has forced schools to search for more qualified teachers in the classroom, and there simply aren’t enough college graduates with required majors who are willing to enter into the teaching field. In fact, many current teachers are choosing to leave their schools for another line of employment.

As if the narrowing of curriculums and the inability of obtaining 100% “highly qualified” teachers in all the classrooms wasn’t enough, students are growing tired of the educational inadequacies and deciding to drop out of school. The national Educational Longitudinal Study produced data that indicated high-stakes testing was not associated with improved scores but associated with higher dropout rates (Jacob 100). Schools no longer harbor a learning atmosphere. With curriculums narrowing and many teachers turning to test approved assignments and repetitive drilling, students are beginning to tune out. The classroom no longer contains a thirsting for knowledge; it has been replaced by the demand and preparation for testing year in and year out. Students are not being shown the real world applications of their education; instead they are drilled constantly to score high on standardized tests so they can qualify for advancement to the next grade level. In the end, they lose interest or reach their threshold of tolerance and drop out.

Even with all the inadequacies of NCLB, there are some that would point to the positive increase in parent involvement with their child’s academics. Child Trends Databank compiled data from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics that showed a significant rise in parent involvement on numerous activities. Between 1999 and 2003 there was a 10% increase in attendance to general meetings, 5% increase in scheduled teacher meetings, 5% increase in attending school events, and a 5% increase in parent volunteers and service on a committee (“Parental Involvement”). Although parental involvement is a positive, it only accounts for a fragment of the educational needs as a whole. Parents may be attending more parent/teacher conferences, but many still do not understand what is going on inside the classroom, much less the school, district, and state in which the classroom operates. More simply stated, parents simply don’t understand the politics that restrict their children from receiving the best education possible.

The installment of the NCLB Act was an attempt to increase education across the nation and establish a level of excellence in the nation’s education system. The

Act has been a failure on a large scale. Emphasis on standardized testing has to be removed from America’s educational system. Although testing may be necessary in the educational system, the weight high-stakes testing has on funding and rewards for schools and districts has created a backlash effect. Federal laws demanding more education and qualification for teachers that are already underpaid and underappreciated are detouring future graduates from choosing a career in the educational field. This continues to enlarge the shortage of qualified teachers in the classrooms. What bears the greatest tragedies are the effects passed down to the students of the classroom. The desire to learn has been stifled, the means to learn has been narrowed, and the entire nation is left to suffer from its result. The children are the future, and NCLB is dimming the lights on the nation’s brightest stars.

Works Cited

“AERA position statement concerning high-stakes testing in pre-K-12 education.” 2000, July. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association. April 4, 2007. http://www.aera.net/policyandprograms/?id=378.

Darling-Hammond, Linda, and Barnett, Berry. “Highly Qualified Teachers for All.” Educational Leadership. v.64 no.3. 2006. 14-20.

Jacob, B. “Getting tough? The impact of high school graduation exams.” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. v.23 no. 2. 2001. 99-121.

“Parental Involvement in Schools.” 2003. Child Trends Databank. April 12, 2007. http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/39ParentalInvolvementinSchools.cfm