The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 continues to cause ripples throughout the national education system. The ripples have spread outward to Park Rapids, where the school district now faces a failure to meet annual yearly progress.
Congress is examining the legislation and its effects as it debates whether to renew its terms. Even a complete overhaul might not turn this policy into a winning proposition.
The values driving No Child Left Behind seem worthy enough. The legislation aims to create equality of output for children historically ignored by the educational system. It ties federal funding for schools and teachers to the performance of their students and sets a goal of 100 percent competency in math and reading by 2014.
The reality as the educational policy plays out creates more problems than it solves. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have compiled a laundry list of problems.
Democrats in Congress argue the system of measurement causes educators to teach to the test, neglecting important subjects such as social studies, science and the arts. Worse, training students in rote memorization of facts promotes regurgitation instead of critical thinking skills necessary for a rapidly adapting workforce and culture.
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School vouchers allowing students of poorly performing schools to attend other schools only exacerbate financial woes for schools struggling to get by and are meaningless in most rural areas.
Conservatives with sharp fiscal wits can point out the conflicting twin goals of mandating a high quality of teachers and simultaneously decreasing class sizes by hiring more. The economic cost of trying do both quickly becomes staggering.
Other Republicans resent the intrusion of the federal government into matters long regarded as local issues, as current state-created standards of measure cannot accurately compare schools. Sometimes, trivial measures can hold a school back.
The Park Rapids School District apparently missed meeting its annual yearly progress because not enough Native American students took the math test. The problem was not even last year, but a cumulative score on the exam or attendance for the test - the district wasn't informed. Fortunately, the level of violation will not cause the school further harm this year other than being forced to report its "shortcomings."
Of the many solutions proposed by lawmakers, a couple may more accurately measure gains made by schools. Measuring individual student progress instead of a grade-by-grade comparison would show a more accurate picture of learning. Also, the proposal to include other factors such as performance in other subjects, graduation rates and advanced studies would give a more complete picture of a school.
On the whole, though, educational reforms need to be thought through again. Mandating 100 percent competency is an impractical goal when no other government program (or private program) can claim a unanimous success rate. It's time to change the program before the ripples create a wave capable of submerging a waterlogged education system.
