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).
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doi: 10.18278/jpcs.6.1.7