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Show The ABC's of No Child Left Behind: Accountability, Benefits and Controversies Cameron Diehl no longer merely places for teaching youth reading, writing, and arithmetic. Renowned columnist George Will explained that families are also responsible for student achievement and even suggested an extended school year to better compete internationally. Schools reflect the families from which their pupils come- the amount of reading material in the homes, the amount of homework done, the hours spent watching television, etc. Anyone who thinks parents hunger for greater academic rigor should try to get parents to pay the price-more dollars for more school days and decreased vacation time" (Will, 2005 P. A15). Recent evidence from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) demonstrate the urgency of refocusing efforts on American education from an international perspective. In 2003, 49 nations performed in the third TIMSS, the first having occurred in 1995. There were positives-only Singapore and Japan outperformed U.S. fourth graders in science, and the achievement gap between white and African American students narrowed from 110 points to 78 points since 1995. In 2003, the U.S. showed a significant improvement with eighth grade results, by 15 points in 1995 and by 12 points from 1999. The achievement gaps between whites and African-Americans as well as white and Hispanic students have narrowed. Those scores are noteworthy; African-American student scores climbed from 422 to 462 between 1995 and 2003 and Hispanic scores rose from 446 to 482 between the same years (TIMSS at a Glance, 2005). Unfortunately, the TIMSS also revealed bad news: American fourth graders still trail behind 11 countries (Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Belgium, Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Russian Federation, England and Hungary) in mathematics. U.S. eighth graders trail the same 11 nations in mathematics plus five more (South Korea, Estonia, Malaysia, Slovak Republic and Australia). Eight countries (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Estonia, Japan, Hungary and Netherlands) lead in eighth-grade science scores. Let's be honest-no one in the White House is losing sleep because Hungarian students specifically are outperforming Americans in three of four measured TIMSS categories (TIMSS at a Glance, 2005). However, American kids will be in direct competition with students from the global community (read between the lines: Singapore, Japan, China, Europe) and this data should be distressing to educators, policymakers, parents and students alike. Susan Sclafani, the Assistant Secretary in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education in the United States Department of Education, added these numbers: "The percentage of 12th graders scoring 'Below Basic' on the NAEP 2002 Math Assessment was 35% of ALL students, 56% of Hispanic students, 69% of African-American students, and 60% of low-income students" (Sclafani, 2005). This is par- ticularly worrisome, she observed, with "300 million qualified people just an internet click away in China, India, Japan and Russia... If we fail (our students), by 2015 America will be a second rate power and the nexus of innovation will be overseas" (Sclafani, 2005). Such concerns are echoed by research that shows "the percentage of American students completing high school has actually fallen since 1970... and college graduation rates remained essentially flat" (West, 2003). This despite evidence that a college graduate makes 140% of the hourly wage as a percentage of a typical high school graduate's wages (West). Employment opportunities are also more plentiful for college graduates; between March 1993 and March 2003, employment of people aged 25-64 with advanced degrees increased by more than 3.2 million (U.S. Department of Education, 2005 a) It is also argued that student achievement directly leads to national economic growth. A recent report estimates that, "significant improvements in education over a 20-year period could lead to as much as a four percent addition to the Gross Domestic Product" (U.S. Department of Education, 2005b). In today's dollars, that sum tallies over $400 billion of financial growth that otherwise would be lost if education is not prioritized. Bottom-line: the more Americans who attend college, the more secure America's long-term economic interests will be. Education is supposed to be the great equalizer in human society. Yet for a nation that guides the globe politically and economically and expects to do so for generations to come, this grim data paints a disturbing portrait of America's future. Analysis: It is indisputable that for a variety of reasons ranging from poverty to location, American students lag behind other students internationally. The legal argument aside, the ultimate question is whether or not student performance has improved with the recent federal foray into education. NCLB proponents claim that cooperative federalism places the emphasis on "what works" as opposed to strict Constitutional authority. NCLB has demonstrated major problems from recent decades, in particular, the achievement gap between students and the sociological inequalities reflected in classrooms. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings declared that due to NCLB, more progress has been made in the past five years to close the achievement gap between white, African-American and Hispanic 9-year-olds then in the previous thirty years (Spellings, 2005). NCLB has also required consistency in curriculums, pointing out correctly that while Alabama kids do compete with Utah kids domestically, American kids as a whole are on a new competitive field with other nations and the educa' tional establishment must adapt accordingly. "In most comv tries with a common curriculum, linkage of curriculum, assessment, and teacher education is tight. In the U.S., there is lit' 28 |