The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) has been at the center of controversy since it became law in 2002. Two significant intentions of this legislation were to improve academic achievement for the disadvantaged and to provide language instruction for limited English proficient and immigrant students. Although meritorious goals, the controversy centers on the NCBLA not only failing in its desired results, but actually hurting high school graduation rates.

Researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas at Austin found, in a recent study, that the impact of Texas’ public school accountability system, which served as the model for the NCLBA, directly contributed to lower graduation rates in large urban school districts. The NCLBA held schools accountable for student achievement based on standardized test scores and tied federal dollars to the outcome of these scores.

Under pressure to show improved ratings in student test scores, school districts took measures to ensure higher test scores by holding students back. Although this helped raise test scores, it also contributed to affected students getting discouraged and dropping out of school. Ironically, the disadvantaged students who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of the NCLBA had become disenfranchised from public education and this in turn has made the school districts look as though test scores were improving. Consequently, the loss of disadvantaged students has allowed the school districts to be rewarded for improved test scores.

If the NCLBA has failed, it begs the question of what we can do to reform education. Maybe it’s time we turned away from government mandated programs, standardized testing for success measures, and go back to the basics of hiring the best and the brightest teachers we can find. After all, when those classroom doors close at the start of each school day, it is the teacher that is at the center of helping students succeed. If we want to fund a worthy reform in education, then let’s implement the No Teacher Left Behind Act where adequate funding is provided to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers we can find. Let’s put our resources into ensuring that we can provide the best salaries and working conditions for our teachers commensurate with the value they add to an ever-advancing civilization. We can’t begin to think about “no child left behind” if we’ve left our teachers behind.

The gigantic department store chain culture that has all but eliminated small businesses has not left education untouched.  The small, proprietary specialty shops of an older era were either put out of business or were bought and merged into the big business supermarkets and super department stores of today – where the wide array of commodities are standardized and available under one roof.  Similarly, the wide array of course offerings at colleges and universities have also become, to some degree, standardized.

A number of years ago, Colorado, like many other states, passed legislation that allowed any student from a Colorado community college graduating with an A.A. or A.S. degree to automatically transfer to the Colorado college or university of his or her choice with junior status.  The rationale was that the courses are virtually the same at every college for freshman and sophomore-level classes, and Colorado taxpayers should not have to foot the bill when a four-year institution capriciously and arbitrarily doesn’t accept a student’s transfer credits from another public institution of higher education within the state of Colorado.

But are these courses really the same?

What happens when universities value the bottom line more than the quality of the curriculum and the quality of the student experience?  Similar to the department store approach of protecting the bottom line by selling in large volume and outsourcing the manufacturing of products, some institutions are known for large volume and outsourcing.  At a large university, for example, freshman and sophomore classes of 300 to 400 students in a single class are not uncommon.  Outsourcing instruction to teaching assistants is typical.

Community colleges generally have not been caught up in the competitive bottom-line mentality because, without graduate programs, they cannot outsource to teaching assistants.  And by the nature of the community colleges (at least in Colorado), large class sizes of 300 to 400 students run contrary to the community college role and mission of providing more personal attention.  Although a course may look the same on paper, there may be a great deal of difference in the student experience if the course is taken at a community college or if it is taken at a large university.  And bigger doesn’t always mean better, nor does it mean it is less expensive.

Education is not a super department store of classes, and the measure of success should not be on profit margins and the marketability of courses and programs.  The bottom-line in education is measured by how we change lives.

Advanced Placement: The End of an Era

Advanced Placement (AP) is a program that was implemented by the College Board more than 50 years ago. The program allows students in more than 60 percent of the high schools in the United States - including many of those in eastern Colorado - to receive college credit by taking exams for selected college courses. It has been a good way for some high school students to get a head start on their college degree while in high school. However, the AP program has not adapted to changes in pedagogical best practices and may have outlived its usefulness.

According to a report titled, "Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College" produced by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU), AP has become an obstacle to education reform as best practices in pedagogy are encouraging more in-depth investigative and research-based learning. This is in contrast to many AP courses that feature broad surveys and superficial knowledge.

As AP continues to be locked into the pedagogical theories of 50 years ago, there are a growing number of private secondary schools - particularly those on the leading edge of college preparatory - that have chosen to withdraw from the College Board's Advanced Placement program and are replacing the AP program with their own curricula that aligns with best practices advocated by the AACU, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and other organizations dedicated to classroom learning.

The primary criticism of AP is that it teaches to a standardized test. Most seasoned educators believe - and their belief is supported by modern neuroscience - that covering large bodies of information that students must retain long enough to take a three-hour test is not the best way to promote meaningful learning. Former President of Harvard University, Derek Bok wrote, "It is extremely difficult to capture what students should be learning in a single set of exams, especially when colleges and their student bodies are so diverse."

There is already a best practice taking place in eastern Colorado that doesn't utilize AP, but gives high school students one of the most successful starts possible in their college education. This practice is a strong partnership among many schools who are working with Morgan Community College (MCC) in allowing qualified high school students to take regular college classes through MCC while still in high school for dual (both high school and college) credit. These college courses have supplanted the AP courses with a distinguished record for student success at virtually every university and four-year college in Colorado - and many universities outside of Colorado as well.

If we don't allow a declining AP program to define the transition between high school and college, we will find new opportunities for collaboration between secondary and post-secondary educators. Indeed, if we want the students of tomorrow to be the beneficiaries of the best education we can provide in high school and college, then now is the time to bring secondary and college educators together to make stronger connections for a richer, engaging, and relevant curriculum.