Wednesday, June 08, 2005
The Contradictions Of NCLB
Lawrence Uzzell, former staff member of the U.S. Department of Education, states the fundamental problem with the law as directly as possible:
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NCLB's success will depend on whether it is possible to produce excellent educational performance through centralization. Its advocates are in a self-contradictory position. They recognize that the educational policies of the last four decades?a period of almost uninterrupted centralization?have failed, but their remedy for that failure is yet more centralization. While invoking the principles of an "ownership society" on issues such as Social Security reform, they are pursuing almost the exact opposite model in schools. In a period of growing social mobility and individual autonomy, they are promoting a top-down, Great Society model of reform transferring power from individual parents, teachers, and principals to distant bureaucracies such as state education agencies.I could not have said it better myself.
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