What's Wrong with No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and What You Can Do to Change It

Resources from FairTest on ESSA

• FairTest opposes US Department of Education's harmful draft regulations on accountability, calls on test reformers to submit Comments to DoE and contact their Members of Congress. See the action alert, FairTest comment (PDF), the letter to Congress here.

• The New Federal Education Law: A Basis for a Stronger Testing Resistance and Assessment Reform Movement

• Building a Stronger, More Effective Assessment Reform Movement under ESSA

Resources from FairTest on NCLB

• October 2015: Independent Test Results Show NCLB Fails

• FairTest Reaction: Latest NAEP Results Add To Evidence Of Test-And-Punish Era Failures

• Fairtest Reaction To 2015 Annual Gallup/Phi Delta Kappan Survey

• August 2015: FairTest Analysis of Key Assessment and Accountability Issues Facing the ESEA Reauthorization Conference Committee

• July 2015: FairTest faxed this letter to all Senators asking them to oppose NCLB-lite amendment and support grade span testing.

• January 2015: FEA Recommendations for Improving Federal Law

• April 2012: FairTest, 12 other organizations, and prominent individuals have drafted the following a national Resolution on High-Stakes Testing. We call organizations and individuals to endorse it.

• January 2012:  NCLB's Lost Decade: A Report On the 10th Anniversary of NCLB

• Summary and Critique of Key Provisions in Harkin-Enzi ESEA/NCLB Reauthorization Bill of October 2011

• FairTest chairs the Forum on Educational Accountability, which has released core recommendations for ESEA/NCLB reauthorization here.

• See Failing Our Children, Fairtest's NCLB Report

• The movement to overhaul "No Child Left Behind" accelerates; over 150 national education, civil rights, religious, disability, Labor & civic groups representing more than 50 million members urge replacing failed test-score sanctions with systematic reforms via the the joint statement sent to Congress calling for major changes in No Child Left Behind Law; FairTest convened this alliance. See the press release in Text or PDF
  

• In "From the Frying Pan to the Fire While Adding Gasoline," FairTest responds to the Administration's dangerous "flexibility" proposals to change NCLB.
   
• A slide show of basic facts about Duncan's AYP waiver plan and the Senate HELP bill reauthorizing ESEA
   

• Detailed FairTest study of NAEP results shows NCLB has not led to improved student learning

• FairTest comments on US Education Department's "Race to the Top Assessment Program" hearing in Boston on Nov. 12.
  - See oral remarks in text or PDF.
  - See detailed comments (including oral remarks) in PDF.
  
  

• FairTest critical comments on US Education Department's "Race to the Top Fund" guidelines.

  • The more detailed comments FairTest has submitted to the Department of Education can be found at http://fairtest.org/sites/default/files/FT_Detailed_Comments_RTTT_Draft_Guidelines.pdf.

    
    
    
• Questions for Arne Duncan, Nominee for Secretary of Education
   
• NCLB will cause 70-100 percent of schools to fail.
  See numbers and recommended solutions to this crisis.
   
• The September 2008 issue of Peacework focues on education activism, providing a rich set of resources for parents, educators, students and other activists. FairTest's Monty Neill's lead article focuses on overhauling federal law (at http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/beyond-no-child-left-behind)
   
• See FairTest's Reaction To Sec. Spellings "Differentiated Accountability" Plan

• FairTest Factsheets:

  • "Confronting the Myths of No Child Left Behind"
    
    
  • Seven Ways to Work for NCLB Reform

  • NCLB After SIX Years

  • FairTest Position Statement on NCLB

  • See FairTest's one page basic fact sheet on NCLB. Text or PDF.

  • Reality Testing NCLB
    
    

• UPDATED- April 2008: See FairTest's report on What The Presidential Candidates Say About NCLB
  

• See FairTest's Letter sent to each of the Presidential Candidates urging them to overhaul NCLB in line with the priciples of the Joint Statement.

• FairTest's letter to U.S. House education staff in response to a letter from Education Committee Chair George Miller.

• Watch as FairTest Executive Director Monty Neill discusses NCLB and testing at a Chicago forum, with group conversation;

  • Video Link: 30 minutes.

  • Shorter Video Link: 12 Minutes

• Growing Resistance to "No Child Left Behind" A piece by FairTest's Monty Neill in the December 2006 issue of The Pulse - District Administration's Website.

• "Overhauling NCLB" Monty Neill's article in Rethinking Schools discusses mobilizing for an education law that actually improves schools.

• See FairTest's repsonse to the 2007 State of the Union Speech.

• See FairTest's Reaction to a National Gallup poll on No Child Left Behind published in a recent edition ofPhi Delta Kappan(web pdf)2005 NAEP Results show NCLB is not spurring improvement.

• Notes on the Recent NAEP Test Results by FairTest's Monty Neill.

• Urban NAEP Scores Again Show Test-Driven Education Fails To Aid Neediest Students - FairTest news release

• Assessment of ELL Students under NCLB: Problems and Solutions.

• Don't Mourn, Organize: Making lemonade from NCLB Lemons, by FairTest's Monty Neill, in Rethinking Schools (Fall 2003) http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bushplan/nclb181.shtmlSee this summary of what "improvement" on tests means for schools under the new Federally Mandated Testing Plan.The federal government has issued rules that will govern state assessment programs under Title I of the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

• See the ESEA draft Rules and a brief comment from FairTest.See FairTest's summary of the new elementary and secondary education act and its impact on students and schools.

• See FairTest's detailed analysis of the education bill highlighting problems, benefits, and potential ways methods of more authentic accountability than standardized testing could fulfill the bills requirements.

• FairTest's analysis of the impact of the new law on testing in Massachusetts

• Issues and Arguments on the Federally Mandated Testing Plan

• For information on the problems with the new ESEA reauthorization see the following pieces:

  • Major Problems With ESEA - Short

  • Feasibility of All Student Reaching "Proficient"

  • Suggested Minimum Goals for ESEA

• See FairTest's article on NCLB on the Tom Paine website

• See FairTest's January 7, 2002 Press release on the signing of the Education Bill.See FairTest's January 7, 2002 Press release on the signing of the Education Bill.

• Winter 01-02 FairTest Examiner piece on the passage of the Federally Mandated Testing Plan titled Dangerous Legislation: Congress Reauthorizes ESEA.