Lecture 15 POLS 207 Outline of Last Lecture NCLB the Obama Administration and Education Oh My I Continuing issues in NCLB II The Obama Administration s educational agenda A Race to the Top B National Assessment of Educational Progress common standards Outline of Current Lecture More Thoughts on NCLB and School Funding I No Child Left Behind A Is it even possible a Coleman Report 1966 II Federal Courts role in education A 14th Amendment litigation B Religious practices in the public school system Current Lecture For the most part states decide if their students are proficient in reading and math Is the national education assessment standard too high It s easy to cherry pick one question and point to it as an example of how dumb everyone is Postscript on NCLB Liberals and conservatives alike both criticize this Act which has been in effect since 2002 Some common criticisms Federal intrusion Insufficient funding Mandated testing distorts education over emphasis on subjects tested short changing excellence etc Unreasonable and arbitrary AYP standards But the most fundamental criticism of NCLB is the idea behind NCLB even possible Is it possible for no child to be left behind NCLB premised on belief that what a child brings to school doesn t matter or if it does the classroom experience alone can overcome it But we know that this is not the case What a child brings into the classroom in terms of attitude work ethic etc DOES matter BUT note Coleman Report published in 1966 see D M 16 534 o Lead researcher James S Coleman 1926 1995 o Its core finding was that the home environment matters MORE than the school environment in terms of explaining student performance o However this doesn t mean that the school environment doesn t matter o It is unrealistic to expect that we can overcome by 2014 or even in the longer term using the public education arena alone the massive racial ethnic class inequalities of American social and economic life Are the underlying goals of NCLB attainable Some practical realities facing 21st century education reform efforts o School is only part of a child s life with diminishing impact as the child gets older o Balancing the inclusion of all against achieving the excellence of some Especially an issue among suburban schools How to balance educating high and low achievers in the same classroom o Recurring difficulty of replicating and scaling up replicating at a state or national level education success stories Often things get lost in translation and the success story isn t easy to replicate at a state or national level o It s hard to define proficient or to define common standards Remember that the Federal role in public education is an old but limited legislative role Northwest Ordinance 1787 Federal Courts role particularly over the last 65 years or so There are basically two sources of the Federal government s involvement in public education o 14th Amendment litigation Due process clause fairness Equal protection clause equality Courts record on civil rights is invariably tied into these two clauses and their interpretation of them o Civil rights legislation Federal statutory law 14th Amendment esp since 1950s Religious practices within the public school system o See D M 16 554 57 o 1st Amendment no establishment clause and free exercise clause o Starting in the 1940s these 1st Amendment restrictions began applying to the states as well as the national government Wrapping up Federal courts heavily entangled esp since 50s in civil rights and religious practices litigation but NOT school financing except for some rulings on vouchers Vouchers are more of a 1st Amendment issue than a financing issue See D M 16 535 37 because it goes back to religion in school If private education were secular By constitutional language congressional practice and judicial rulings o U S Congress has virtually unlimited power to tax and spend including subsidizing private activities and institutions o BUT most private K 12 education is religious so government funding for private schools is entanglement o See again Lemon Test D M 16 555 56 Secular purpose Neither advance nor inhibit No excessive entanglement