(note - for a PDF formatted version of this fact sheet click here)

Independent researchers have found that evaluating and paying teachers for test scores is either damaging or irrelevant to improved learning.*  Unfortunately, even evidence of harm does not seem to affect the growing popularity of such schemes. Policymakers, including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, should stop promoting this failed approach.

See the PDF Fact sheet at http://www.fairtest.org/files/AYPproblemandSolution091807.pdf

Supporters of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law use many arguments to defend the controversial law. The strongest-sounding arguments have little to do with the law’s actual provisions, while others are simply false. We have prepared this fact sheet to help people reply to the various claims made in defense of NCLB; sort, pick and adapt the points you need. 

All children can learn to high levels.

States and districts should not bar students from graduating based solely on standardized test scores. The Standards on Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association and National Council on Measurement in Education states that a major decision about a student should not be made "on the basis of a single test score." Dozens of educational and civil rights organizations join FairTest in endorsing this basic principle and opposing high-stakes graduation exams.

High Stakes Tests Do Not Improve Student Learning

A FairTest Report

by

Monty Neill, Acting Executive Director

January 1998

See related NAEP reading and math scores

1) Hold a public forum in your community to discuss NCLB.

2) Persuade your organizations to pass resolutions calling for reform of NCLB. (Such resolutions are often issued by unions, religious groups, professional associations, and parents groups.) Ask them to:

After six years, there is overwhelming evidence that the deeply flawed “No Child Left Behind” law (NCLB) is doing more harm than good in our nation’s public schools. NCLB’s test-and-punish approach to school reform relies on limited, one-size-fits-all tools that reduce education to little more than test prep. It produces unfair decisions and requires unproven, often irrational "solutions" to complex problems. NCLB is clearly underfunded, but fully funding a bad law is not a solution.

"How to Improve High-Stakes
Test Scores Without Really Improving"

by Richard L. Allington, Ph.D., University of Florida,
in Issues in Education: Contributions from Educational Psychology.
Adapted by CalCARE and FairTest.

What is the "No Child Left Behind" Law?

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a federal law that provides money for extra educational assistance for poor children in return for improvements in their academic progress. NCLB is the most recent version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

States set educational proficiency level

Under the U. S. constitution, states have the primary responsibility for public education. However, if states want to receive federal NCLB funds, they must agree to the law's requirements to: