Journal on Policy and Complex Systems Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2020 | Page 121

“No Child Left Behind” and the Predictable Failure of Education Policy 1 Barney Ricca St. John Fisher College [email protected] Journal on Policy and Complex Systems • Volume 6, Number 1 • Spring 2020 Abstract The 2001 “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB) was a signature piece of legislation of President George. W. Bush. It focused on using standardized assessments to hold schools accountable for student achievement, with the goal of having all students in all states meet grade level targets by 2014. However, by 2014, no state had met the goal of having all students at or above grade level. The failure of this policy arose from a failure to understand schools and learning as complex systems and from a resulting unclear understanding of how to measure such complex systems. Both learning and classrooms are self-organizing systems. Unlike good health, however, which can be operationally defined by quantifiable measures (e.g., blood pressure) and which generally can be attained by known means (e.g., lose weight), good learning achievements are less easily defined, and the process by which to get there is less well understood. Furthermore, learning in schools occurs at the intersection of many different, and often competing, systems, making the non-complex approach to assessment and reform undertaken by the NCLB doomed from the beginning. Keywords: complex systems; education policy; learning; self-organization “Ningún niño se queda atrás” y el fracaso previsible de la política educativa Resumen La “Ley de Que Ningún Niño se Quede Atrás” de 2001 (NCLB) fue una firma de legislación del presidente George. W. Bush. Se centró en el uso de evaluaciones estandarizadas para responsabilizar a las escuelas por el rendimiento de los estudiantes, con el objetivo de 1 Apologies to Seymour Sarason (1990). 117 doi: 10.18278/jpcs.6.1.7