Book Presentation

The passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation in 2002 was the result of a bipartisan effort. In the wake of the September 11^th attacks, the members of Congress came together to produce something positive for the American people, and especially for those most vulnerable to the fear and negativity of reality: our children. The motive for many involved in the creation and passage of this legislation was to do something good for our public school system. The bill promised a great many things, including increasing funding for schools that serve the poor; ensuring that educators are highly qualified; and holding federally funded schools accountable for raising achievement of every student by breaking down the achievement data. Few people would object to such aspirations.

But in Many Children Left Behind, the authors (all founding members of an education think tank) ask why is it that in the two years since NCLB went into affect, educators, legislators, parents and states are up in arms about NCLB? The authors make a case that NCLB, rather than improving public education, actually undermines the public school system, and does more damage than good to the students it claims to help.

The authors claim that, alongside the technical issues with NCLB (including under funding), the very premises upon which the legislation is founded are faulty. Already, we see the results of the law, including school quality declining, the children of the poor receiving even more limited instruction because their schools will be the first to be reported as failing and NCLB making the public schools even less accountable to the public.

This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book.  This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, viewpoints and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.