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| In a Web-exclusive interview with FRONTLINE, Nicholas Lemann, the Washington
correspondent for The New Yorker and a noted expert on the history and
politics of education reform, talks about the debate over President Bush's
education bill, the real winners and losers, the obstacles that remain, and what Bush achieved in his first major legislative victory. |
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| A brief summary of the testing and accountability provisions of the No Child
Left Behind Act, which was signed by President Bush on Jan. 8, 2002. |
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| The phrase "no child left behind" was not only a mantra of George W. Bush's
presidential campaign, it provided the name for Bush's ambitious
education-reform bill. Keeping that promise is a tall order, and the
president's supporters are fervent in their belief that the only way it can be
done is by enforcing higher standards for all students through increased
testing and tougher accountability for schools. What are the underlying
arguments in favor of the president's plan? And what do the experts see as the
pitfalls of the new testing policy? Here are excerpts from FRONTLINE's
interviews with U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, education policy experts Amy
Wilkins and Bob Schwartz, and educational testing experts James Popham,
George Madaus, and William Schmidt. |
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| Congress set aside $400 million to help states develop and administer the tests that the No Child Left Behind Act mandated for children in grades 3-8. Here's a look at the four companies (three test publishers and one scoring firm) that stand to benefit most. |
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Government Resources
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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001: Executive Summary |
| The Education Department's official site includes this summary of the bill, as
well as a fact sheet and a document entitled "Testing for Results," which explains the
administration's position on testing. |
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Fact Sheet: Accountability for Student Achievement |
| The House Committee on Education and the Workforce offers this overview of the
testing and accountability provisions of the final bill. The House site also
offers this summary of
the overall bill. |
Other Resources
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No State Left Behind: The Challenges and Opportunities of ESEA
2001 |
| The No Child Left Behind Act is an extension and revision of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA). This report from the Education Commission of
the States (ECS) "summarizes the new ESEA, looks at states' readiness to
implement provisions of the law and provides key questions for policymakers to
consider." |
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FairTest: Analysis of ESEA |
| The National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), is an advocacy
organization working to ensure that evaluation of students and workers is fair,
open, and educationally sound. FairTest staff prepared this analysis of the
testing and accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. |
Reports and Commentary
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"Testing Limits," by Nicholas Lemann |
| "Can President Bush's education crusade survive Beltway politics?" (The New
Yorker, July 2, 2001.) |
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"Long Road to Reform," by David S. Broder |
| "A partial account of how the landmark [education] legislation managed to
survive intensive lobbying pressures and deep suspicions harbored by many in
both parties, as well as a political upheaval in the Senate and the outbreak of
a war on terrorism." (The Washington Post, Dec. 17, 2001.) |
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"Leaving Education Reform Behind," by Chester E. Finn Jr. |
| "Bush will sign the bill. But there's not much good left in it." (The Weekly
Standard, Jan. 14, 2002.) |
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"Reading Between the Lines," by Stephen Metcalf |
| "The new education law is a victory for Bush -- and for his corporate allies."
(The Nation, Jan. 28, 2002) |
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"Why the Education Bill Is Likely to Fail," by Lorraine
Woellert |
| "President Bush wanted a reform bill so badly that he may have compromised his
way into a toothless one." (BusinessWeek Online, Dec. 26,
2001.) |
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"How to Fix America's Schools," by William C. Symonds |
| "What would it take to achieve the President's goal of 'no child left behind'?
A broad range of experts and educators helped us draw up seven strategies that,
pursued together, would go a long way toward fixing America's schools."
(BusinessWeek, March 19, 2001.) |
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"High Stakes Are For Tomatoes," by Peter Schrag |
| "Statewide testing of students, with penalties for failure, has run into
opposition from parents across the political spectrum." (The Atlantic
Monthly, August 2000.) |
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"Hard Lessons," an interview with Diane Ravitch |
| Diane Ravitch, former Bush education adviser and author of Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms (2000), argues for a return to academic rigor in our nation's public schools. (Atlantic Unbound, Nov. 1, 2000.) |
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