No Child Left Behind ‘meaningless’

By Andrew Firestone

Massachusetts educators have apparently had enough of the federal “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) guidelines, and are seeking a waiver to get out of the program. They are joined by Anthony Pierantozzi, who said that the program, which uses test scores to determine whether a school is “failing” or not, and decides allocation of funding. One of the main gripes the state has had with the program is the requirement that 100 percent of students be “proficient” in English by 2014, or local education systems could face takeover by the state.

“In my opinion, when approximately 85 plus percent of the schools in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts now have “No Child Left Behind” status, it has become meaningless,” said Pierantozzi.

“I don’t believe that penalties in NCLB are useful in any way. I think that identifying a school as ‘failing’ is just not helpful. Certainly, I think we all are aware of the fact that all schools, regardless of the quality of them, regardless of the test scores, regardless of the percentage of graduation, or their average SAT score, all schools are in a mode now in today’s educational era of continuous improvement, and that’s I think what needs to be focused on; how continuous improvement and rapid improvement for students who need to catch up can be caused by improving educational strategy, instructional strategy and design and of course by providing top level teachers and instruction in the classroom and community and family support,” he said.

The superintendent said that the testing system used in Massachusetts (MCAS) has the ability to faithfully and dutifully track the important data in making decisions for educational methods.

“I think our MCAS system is an outstanding one. It informs our instruction, it allows educators to look at specific details regarding standards and frameworks, what children and young adults are learning, what they are learning well,” he said.

He said he supported the national alternative, called the “growth model,” which places the onus on teachers to show consistent growth tracking the abilities of their students.

“I think it’s all about growth, and in Massachusetts, we have a wonderful system to identify student growth as compared to what we call their peer group, which would be any student who got the exact same [test] score in their state test that they got the year before and they are compared in terms of growth to their next year,” he said.

His position gained steam this last Friday, September 30, when President Barack Obama said that he believed NCLB, passed in 2002 under the Bush Administration, was “flawed” and that he would accept waivers from many states that applied.