Kids Left Behind, The - William H. Parrett

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disparity between those who have high-quality education and those who do not. Today the differences that characterize and separate the various social classes are more and more dramatic. Simultaneously, the wealth of the most affluent nations has soared to unparalleled heights while a growing “underclass” of citizens living in poverty has suffered declining economic opportunities. The rich have become richer and the poor poorer. The result is an “apartheid of ignorance” where education is the key factor that separates the rich from the poor, economic opportunity from economic despair, and the good life from the tragic world of the “other America.” Those who are well-educated have access to the richest economic system that the world has ever known. For those who lack education, the door of opportunity is slammed shut. The apartheid of ignorance has become an unavoidable reality in the United States.

      The second development driving the new American revolution in education is the emergence of a sophisticated research base for teaching and learning. After hundreds of years with little more than philosophy and theory as the foundation for teaching and learning, research has suddenly provided a strong and growing structure to guide the field of education. Perhaps the most important of these insights are the conclusions of research on schools where poor and minority students have been learning effectively. This research provides new understanding about how schools can effectively address the most challenging task in public education: teaching the vast numbers of our nation’s children who live in poverty. There is a growing consensus that underachieving poor children of any ethnic background can achieve high standards of academic excellence and break the cycle of poverty.

      This research base includes a variety of specific areas of inquiry. Perhaps most important is the neuroscience research and research on human growth and development. Neuroscience research has provided an understanding of the conditions that encourage and support learning, as well as those conditions that make learning next to impossible. Neuroscience research has helped to identify everything from infant bonding and conditioning, to parenting techniques, to personality development, to effective classroom strategies.

      There has also been important longitudinal research that has followed preschool and elementary children for more than 30 years. These longitudinal studies, particularly in the fields of early childhood education and learning disabilities, have helped to identify the long-term impacts of effective and ineffective school practices, permitting long-term analysis of the cost effectiveness of various educational programs and practices. In addition, there is a growing database of knowledge emerging from the research on resilient youth, violent youth, the relationship between teen risk behavior and health costs, and factors in the home, community, and schools that can predict both positive and negative attitudes and school success. There has also been substantial research on instructional and classroom management strategies, effective reform models, leadership, and ways that high-poverty schools reverse trends of low performance. The compelling conclusions from this research give us the ability to make long- and short-range predictions with a high degree of accuracy regarding teaching, learning, and the influence of educational policy on underachieving students of poverty.

      As a result of the unprecedented educational research of the last decade, a number of major conclusions have emerged:

      We know with absolute certainty that all children and youth will learn and achieve acceptable standards of academic excellence and school success, even children who are poor, non–English speaking, and learning disabled.

      Recent research has disproved Coleman’s conclusions that poverty has such a negative, pervasive impact on children and youth that schools can have little or no positive effect on these students’ education. Today, thousands of schools serving poor, at-risk students report academic levels similar to those of middle-class and upper-class students. It is now evident that a good school can overcome the debilitating effects of poverty and dysfunctional family life.

      Research has shown that teacher quality is the single most influential factor in student achievement. It is not surprising that some teachers can significantly raise student achievement while other teachers have little or no positive impact on student success. This is a crucial finding because many students actually show a decline in achievement over the course of the school year. It takes 2 years for these students with ineffective teachers to regain the resulting loss in achievement. If a student has an ineffective teacher for 2 years in a row, she or he is unlikely to ever catch up (Sanders & Rivers, 1996).

      Research has clearly identified instructional strategies, targeted programs, interventions, and exemplary models that ensure that low-performing students accelerate their learning and achievement. With appropriate action, schools and classrooms can expect immediate, dramatic results.

      There is growing evidence that poor and minority students can learn effectively when research-based best practices are used in schools and in the classroom (Barr & Parrett, 2003). When schools replace the failed practices of the “pedagogy of poverty” (drills, worksheets, and lectures) with research-based strategies, learning increases significantly, especially for the children of poverty. Research has identified very specific classroom strategies that will significantly increase student achievement when used correctly.

      Throughout the United States, a growing number of high-poverty, low-performing schools have become high-performing schools. By employing research on effective schools and best practices for low-performing and other at-risk students, and by monitoring student performance, these schools have transformed student learning in dramatic ways.

      These proven strategies identified by researchers give educators the ability to make accurate long-term predictions about student learning. Today, we know, without a shadow of doubt, that all kids can and will learn; however, this knowledge must be put into action, or children will be left behind.

      The changes in the economic marketplace and the emerging education research have motivated policymakers and lawmakers to conclude that all children and youth must be taught effectively and achieve high academic proficiency. This does not, however, mean that social and political battles have ceased. Rather, the new educational policy of No Child Left Behind has catapulted the nation into the next great battle for civil rights in America. The No Child Left Behind Act has suddenly focused the spotlight on the effectiveness of America’s schools in teaching the children of poverty. New requirements for student subgroups, data reporting, adequate yearly progress, and teacher quality have refocused the efforts of every school and school district in the United States and generated an effort toward school improvement and reform that is unparalleled in America’s history.

       “I am sick of all the spin doctors’ jargon and the weak policymakers’ sleight-of-hand concoction that is being called ‘Leave No Child Behind.’ It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that what they are talking about is ‘dumbing down’ public education.”

       —Parent, California

      Like any revolution, the transition occurring in public education is charged with conflict, confusion, confrontation, and in some cases, chaos. The good news is that in schools, districts, and communities across the country, many parents, policymakers, and educators have embraced this dramatic new educational challenge and are working diligently to ensure that all students, especially poor and minority students, are learning effectively. Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming support of this policy, some believe the No Child Left Behind Act will blaze for a while and then burn out and disappear. The first impulse of many educators is to be patient and simply wait out this new intrusion into their schools and classrooms.

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