[CALIBK12] [CSLA Research Update] NCLB and top students report

[Stephen Krashen]

Thanks to Lesley Farmer for these valuable notices. 
This one is very interesting. Here is my response to it, to be published in the Baltimore Sun. My view is that NCLB didn't help any group of students. Note that the Fordham Foundation is a conservative think tank.

To appear in the Baltimore Sun, June 18

Researchers from the Fordham institute, according to the Sun, claim that "top students show little gain from 'No Child' efforts" (June 18) because fourth grade reading scores for the poorest-performing students have increased 16 points since 2000 but the top group only increased three points on a national reading test, the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). 

As the Fordham report notes, however, 12 of the 16-point increase in the low-scoring group occurred before No Child Left Behind was implemented, between 2000 and 2002. Since NCLB was implemented in 2002, the top students (highest 10%) have increased two points, the poorest performers (lowest 10%) have increased four points, a very small difference and very modest gains over five years (see their figure A on page 3). As the Fordham researchers point out, the gains by the low achievers may have had nothing to do with NCLB. 

In fact, there has been little overall change in NAEP scores since NCLB began, and no narrowing the gap between children from high- and low-income families.

Stephen Krashen



--- On Fri, 6/20/08, Lesley Farmer <lfarmer at csulb.edu> wrote:

> From: Lesley Farmer <lfarmer at csulb.edu>
> Subject: [CALIBK12] [CSLA Research Update] NCLB and top students report
> To: calibk12 at listproc.sjsu.edu
> Date: Friday, June 20, 2008, 10:48 AM
> Top Students Said to Stagnate Under NCLBA new NCLB report
> finds that
> teachers shift attention toward low-performing students
> rather than
> achievement for all students. The report draws on national
> test-score
> data and results from a nationwide survey of 900 public
> school teachers
> in grades 3-12 to paint a portrait of a generation of high
> achievers
> left to fend for themselves as schools and teachers shift
> their time
> and resources toward educational strategies aimed more at
> bringing the
> bottom up than on raising achievement for all children. The
> data show,
> for instance, that from 2000 to 2007, the scores of the top
> 10 percent
> of students essentially held steady on National Assessment
> of
> Educational Progress tests in reading and math. The scores
> for the
> bottom 10 percent of students, meanwhile, rose by 18 points
> on the 4th
> grade reading test and 13 points in 8th grade math—the
> equivalent of
> about a year’s worth of learning.Thomas Fordham
> Foundation. (2008).
> High-Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB. Washington, DC:
> Author.http://www.edexcellence.net/doc/20080618_high_achievers.pdf
> 
> --
> Posted By Lesley Farmer to CSLA Research Update at
> 6/20/2008 10:44:00
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