ISSUE: No Child Left Behind

OUR VIEW: Federal education law in need of repair for high-schoolers

The Bush administration's No Child Left Behind initiative has never been very popular with educators. Now comes ample reason in a state such as South Carolina to look for alternatives.

Whether one accepts the most liberal or conservative estimates of the number of high school students graduating on time in South Carolina, the fact remains that nearly half do not.

As Congress considers changes in the No Child Left Behind law, the focus should be on recognizing the unmet needs of high school students. Federal neglect of secondary schools is described in a new policy brief, "In Need of Improvement: NCLB and High Schools,'' from the Alliance for Excellent Education.

"While well-intentioned," states Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, "the current NCLB simply does not address the dropout problem and permits far too many students to finish high school without adequate preparation for college or the modern work force." Nationally, 70 percent of high school students entering ninth grade do not graduate within four years.

While the existing NCLB focuses on improving outcomes for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, In Need of Improvement: NCLB and High Schools points out that high schools do not receive the attention and investment needed to support their students' continuing academic success.  South Carolina high school students are shortchanged by the existing NCLB because:

* Only a small percentage of high school students are actually covered by federal Title I funding, leaving far too many high schools without the requirements or resources to implement improvement strategies.

* NCLB holds schools accountable for test scores, but does not effectively hold high schools accountable for whether their students actually graduate.

* Seventy-five percent of South Carolina's eighth-graders read below a proficient level, yet there is no federal effort to improve reading and comprehension in middle and high school as there is in grades K-3.

* The limited tools NCLB provides to improve low-performing schools reflect neither research nor best practice and are not effective for high school reform.

Wise continues, "The present NCLB does not effectively reach high schools, and too many children are being left behind by the ninth grade. With the law up for renewal this year, this is the time to build on the ideals of ‘no child left behind' and pass legislation that will lead the nation toward 'every child a graduate.'"

Instead of what the brief calls "shortsighted proposals" that merely extend testing requirements to high schools or simply reserve portions of current funding streams for high schools, the alliance calls on Congress to reauthorize NCLB with a "a systemic solution that reflects all that is known about improving high schools from research and best practice."

As Wise concludes: "Research and best practice have demonstrated that there is no excuse for failing to address the needs of our high school students.''

In Need of Improvement: NCLB and High Schools is available at: http://www.all4ed.org/publications/NCLB_HighSchools.pdf .

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