Every Latino Child Left Behind
In 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was instituted and changed the way public schools operated. For the first time in the history of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), NCLB marked a deliberate and strong federal approach to increase equity in education. As a nation, we committed to holding all students to high academic standards, closing the achievement gap for some of our nation's most vulnerable students, and providing parents the tools to hold our school systems accountable for their success or failure. In doing so, the academic performance of students-disaggregated by race and ethnicity, income and disability-took center stage by requiring data that showed academic progress. The law mandated that action must be taken by schools when children were falling behind.
But the overly prescriptive nature of NCLB led to actions like state over-testing. Several weeks ago both the House and Senate passed bills to rewrite NCLB. In the House, H.R. 5 narrowly passed with no Democrat support. This bill known as the "Student Success Act" goes too far to the extreme. Not only would House Republicans allow federal dollars - intended to support the most in-need schools and the children they serve - to be moved to more affluent schools, but they would strip all federal oversight for how tax-payer dollars are spent in the name of "local flexibility." Is taking from the poor to give to the rich how we expect to secure equity and win the battle for civil rights in education in 2015? And are we ready to place our unquestionable trust in states to do right by our kids when they have failed so many times before?
But the overly prescriptive nature of NCLB led to actions like state over-testing. Several weeks ago both the House and Senate passed bills to rewrite NCLB. In the House, H.R. 5 narrowly passed with no Democrat support. This bill known as the "Student Success Act" goes too far to the extreme. Not only would House Republicans allow federal dollars - intended to support the most in-need schools and the children they serve - to be moved to more affluent schools, but they would strip all federal oversight for how tax-payer dollars are spent in the name of "local flexibility." Is taking from the poor to give to the rich how we expect to secure equity and win the battle for civil rights in education in 2015? And are we ready to place our unquestionable trust in states to do right by our kids when they have failed so many times before?
The more bi-partisan Senate rewrite S. 1177, known as the "Every Child Achieves Act," attempts to strike a balance between state flexibility and federal oversight. But while the bill retains vital guardrails such as annual assessments and the disaggregation of data by critical subgroups (i.e., race and ethnicity, English learners, students with disabilities); more needs to be done to secure the civil rights of our most vulnerable students. Nowhere in the bill is there language that requires states to intervene once the state has identified that a school and its students are in need of support.
An amendment sponsored by Senator Murphy (D-CT) that would have made the necessary improvements to the ECAA by requiring states to identify schools where Every Latino Child Left Behind | NCLR Action Fund:
