Chapter 11: The Askers and the Tellers: Larger Messages From the Voices 3 Project

In April 2003, as I was coming to the end of a year’s visiting professorship at the University of Michigan, I was interviewed by one of the network television stations in Flint, Michigan. They were interested in my perspective on American education. I was asked if I had heard of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and then I was asked what I thought of it. My response at the time was, “The best you can hope for is zero progress.” Kerachsky (2009) has reported minimal progress on the National Assessment of Educational Progress since 2004. In short, there has been a 4-point rise in reading for 9-year-olds (from 216 to 220, about a 2% increase), a 3-point rise in reading for 13-year-olds (from 257 to 260, just over a 1% increase), and a 3-point rise in reading for 17-year-olds (from 283 to 286, about a 1% increase). In the period 2004–2008, there has been no significant change in the gap between White students and Black students or between White students and Hispanic students. For mathematics, the actual numbers are different, but exactly the same trend has occurred overall. This suggests that NCLB has had some impact on improving the scores of all students, especially at the elementary level, but has had virtually no impact on reducing the gap at any level. Over a longer period, 1971–2008, there has been a 6% improvement in scores for reading for 9year-olds and a 2% improvement in 13-year-olds, but no improvement in 17-year-olds since 1971. However, there has been a significant reduction in the gap in reading at all three levels. Again, for mathematics, the actual numbers are different, but exactly the same trend has occurred overall.