New NCLB Survey:
Teachers Want Reform that Makes Sense

A survey released by the Civil Rights Project confirms what the National Education Association has been saying since the so-called "No Child Left Behind" Act was first proposed.

Teachers want to achieve the No Child Left Behind Act's goals of closing the achievement gap and helping all students achieve to high standards. And yet, they are pragmatic about what it will take – more than rhetoric and political posturing. It will take resources for things that work.

Civil Rights Project Director, and co-author of the report, Professor Gary Orfield commented: "Since the law is all about how to change what happens in the classroom, it is about time we seriously examined what teachers have actually experienced and how they are responding to the reforms. What the teachers say fits with what we have been finding in our ongoing study of six states and eleven districts and we think that the teachers' thoughtful ideas deserve to be taken seriously."

The study found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, education reform was already underway in most states and that, in many cases, the No Child Left Behind Act has interfered with those efforts.

As policymakers at the local, state, and national levels move toward making needed changes in the law, they should listen to these compelling voices from the classroom about what students, teachers, and schools need to be effective, including:

• Curriculum and instructional materials aligned with state standards.
• Additional time to collaborate with other teachers.
• Small classes.
• Experienced administrators, experienced teachers, and involved parents.
• Education reforms that are focused on rewards, recognition, and help for schools that are struggling, rather than sanctions and the punitive and arbitrary "corrective actions" embodied in No Child Left Behind.

The Executive Summary of the report is available here.

The Civil Rights Project’s work in elementary and secondary education is funded by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the National Education Association.

09/04