Has No Child Left Behind Improved Public Education?

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By Dennis Van Roekel, a 23-year teaching veteran and longtime activist and advocate for children and public education, Van Roekel is president of the 3.2 million-member National Education Association.  As NEA President, he leads the nation's largest labor union and advocate for quality public schools.

Another flawed premise of NCLB is that public schools—all by themselves and without regard to the effects of poverty, homelessness, lack of health care, inadequate nutrition, drugs, and violence on their students—will be able to get 100 percent of all students to proficiency by 2014. Schools must become more engaged with their communities, and communities must become more engaged with their schools. That’s why NEA supports proposals for community schools, where schools will coordinate educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services for students, families, and the community.

NEA believes the federal government has a vital role to play in advancing the quality of America’s public schools. As such, we urge the federal government to embrace its role [1] as a supporter—not a manager—of district and state responsibilities by:

•    Establishing the goal of great public schools for every student by 2020;
•    Strengthening enforcement of civil rights laws to promote access and opportunity;
•    Guaranteeing the funding required for complying with past congressional actions and current federal mandates;
•    Establishing high-quality educational research and development as essential to educational improvement; and
•    Supporting innovation and best practices to accelerate state based improvement efforts and improve student learning based on proven teaching strategies and programs grounded in sound teaching and learning research.