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Law Professors See the Damage Done by No Child Left BehindMarch 12, 2013, 11:40 am

By Michele Goodwin

Kenneth Bernstein, a retired award-winning high-school teacher, recently issued a warning, first in Academeand then

reprinted in The Washington Post: Professors bewarestudents educated under the No Child Left Behindand Race to

the Toppolicies are heading your way.

Bernstein explained, I want to warn you of what to expect from the students who will be arriving in your classroom,

even if you teach in a highly selective institution.

He was right to warn us, except for one error: Those students have already arrived. Very bright students now come to

college and even law school ill-prepared for critical thinking, rigorous reading, high-level writing, and working

independently.

Bernstein described what many college professors and even graduate-school professors have come to know firsthand.

For more than a decade, a culture of test taking and teaching to the test has dominated elementary and secondary

education in the United States, even at elite public and private schools. And now its effects are being felt by professors.

At the Association of American Law Schools conference in January, a number of professors voiced concern about thesecultural shifts, their impacts in the classroom, and law schools roles in perpetuating the trends by placing high value on

LSAT scores. According to some conference participants, students writing skills are the worst they have ever

encountered. Moreover, they complain that students are less sheepish and more blatant about just wanting the answers.

The challenge of learning on their own is so overwhelming to some law students that it has become far more common

for students to demand their professors notes.

One professor at a top-20 law school recently confided that he has to teach his students how to write business letters. A

professor at another elite school complained that grading exams is far more difficult now because the writing skills of

students are so deficient that each exam requires several reads. Bernsteins article suggests that he knows what accounts

for thisfederal education policy. He may be right.

Teaching to the test is increasingly the dominant approach even in Advanced Placement courses taken for college credit.

As teachers and their schools are evaluated and even ranked in magazines on how well students perform on tests, the

emphasis at the ground level has shifted from teaching higher-level thinking to preparing students for standardized tests

of all sorts. And the stakes are high; schools have suffered losses in funds, teachers, and enrollment because of students

underperformance on tests. Indeed, in extreme cases, schools have been shut down because of poor test results.

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Policy makers thought test taking would serve as an effective accountability measure and would make the United States

more internationally competitive.However, policies intended to create incentives for better teaching and hard work have

hurt students the most.

Teaching to the test overshadows (if not supplants) teaching critical thinking, higher-order reasoning, and the

development of creative-writing skills. As Bernstein emphasizes, contemporary teaching or teaching to the test does not

require proper grammar, usage, syntax, and structure. In fact, those skills may be perceived as unimportant in thismodern ageas many of the tests taken by K-12 students employ multiple choice, and those that require essays grade

on a rubric that pays little if any attention to the quality of writing.

Law schools are complicit, according to Washington University in St. Louiss Brian Tamanaha,because they too play a

numbers game. They also emphasize tests, such as the LSAT, which may not be the best indicator for student success but

fits, as does GPA, into U.S. News & World Reports rubric for law-school rankings.

In the quest to fill seats and boost tuition, law schools have also allowed grades to inflate. Two years ago, one law school

increased all student grades retroactively by .333. The stakes boil down to student job placement.

Law schools essentially buy students who have the right GPA and LSAT scores, offering generous scholarships.

Sometimes they engage in bidding wars over top students. They recruit more transfer students than ever before

students who can buy up into a higher-ranking school than the one they were able to enter as a first-year. On one hand,

a student who works hard can attend the school of her or his dreams. Indeed, many of these students are smart, hard

working, and eager to prove themselves. On the other hand, increased transfer classes are less about the students and

more about recouping the losses from paying for so many scholarshipsnot to those in need, but to those who have

great test scores.

In time, this bubble will burst. No Child Left Behind has left behind so many who are ill-prepared for jobs requiring

nuanced thinking. What goes around in K through 12 comes around in postsecondary courses, and eventually in society

at large.

Michele Goodwin is a professor of law at the University of Minnesota with joint appointments at the universitys

medical and public-health schools.

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Unemployed_Northeastern 1 month ago


of 13 5/4/13 2:42


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Anything to distract from the ruinous cost and job outcomes that law schools provide, right?

15 people liked this.LIKE

I teach in one of those Asian tigers that everyone points to as out-achieving us on standardized tests.

Because they teach to the test. Some of my students do wonderful work, if dutifully regurgitating

everything that has been discussed in grammatical English sentences constitutes wonderful work. But

rare is the student who can read between the lines or express a thought of his or her own. Even the

best of them are incapable of thinking for themselves.

In a world that prizes innovation, my host nation is either going to fail or continue to rely on reverse

engineering and licensing innovation from elsewhere. NCLB might allow the U.S. to hold its head

high when achievement test scores are compared, but it's going to sink us as a leader in creativity and

innovation.


Unquestionably NCLB has been a disaster to real education. But the dumbing down of public

education has been going on for several decades. Neither is this condition limited to younger students.

Graduate programs for EdD students is a joke that's not funny. Welcome to a world of

"professors" who aren't smart enough to lead a thirsty horse to water. I am appalled by the

substandard instruction graduate schools in education now provide. During my years at XX

University, I revered my professor in education and psychology Today at my alma mater, it is staffed

by dummies. Readers may not believe my words, but they are real. Two doctoral candidates sought

my advice and help last year, and I provided guidance in preparing dissertation proposals for them

from my alma mater. Both students told me the same story: The word "hypothesis" must be removed

from their papers. I asked why and received the same response: "My professor told me, 'I don't

understand the meaning of hypothesis.'" I wrote the dean of the graduate school to complain about the

decline in quality of education. A sweet young voice from the dean's office called me; I'm not sure

why. I felt as if I were speaking to a vacuum.The professorial staff of online doctoral programs is the

worst. Unprepared and unqualified professors now supervise doctoral programs of unprepared and

unqualified graduate students. What's going on at all levels of education in our country is a tragedy.

And it will continue and become even worse now that the nation's public schools have adopted a

national CORE curriculum. I don't see how it can get worse, but it likely will. The entire system will

soon be rotten to the core.


Thank you, Dr. Karl Bernstein, my seventh-grade science teacher who, exactly fifty years ago,

wrote the word "hypothesis" on the board in almost every class to discuss the day's

experiments. (He is currently my friend on Facebook and I need to go thank him personally

now.)

I don't remember any standardized tests except perhaps the Iowa Tests, and we spent no time

preparing for them.

(Whatever critical thinking skills I have, though, make me skeptical that a college professor

Tim Chambers 1 month ago

the_doctor 1 month ago

Richard Grayson 1 month ago


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would not know the meaning of the word "hypothesis." And that he or she wouldn't go to a

dictionary rather than tell a student not to use the word.)


We've seen this in Florida now where FCAT has been in effect since the Bush era (Jeb, who trust me

is NOT popular with teachers in this state). All of what has been described above and more, to an

extremely troubling extent. There is a need for accountability however the direction that was taken by

NCLB has had many troubling unintended consequences.


This is an example of "be careful of what you wish for lest it come true." It has. The worst part is

that, as we place more and more emphasis on tests as a basis for doling out opportunities for further

education, the people in the power structure of education and society will more and more be thosewho did well on tests. The most powerful principle in the field of interpersonal attraction is the

"similarity principle"--likes attract likes. So those individuals increasingly will look for others like

themselves, generating a society that has leaders whose strength is answering basically trivial

questions on multiple-choice tests rather than being powerful, ethical, and creative problem solvers.

Bob Sternberg


This is rather silly. Most other countries have high-stakes school testing. Are we suggesting most

students in most countries outside the US can't think for themselves?

I see the usual stereotypes about Asian students are being trotted out here, though.


I am very concerned about the over reliance on testing as a measure of learning. Students can't write

and don't know how to do research for credible sources to use in their writing. When businesses state

new employees can't think, isn't it perhaps time to change our reliance on testing. Years ago Daniel

Callahan wrote a book entitled Education and the Cult of Efficiency. He warned about what is

happening today.


Callahan, Raymond E., 1921- . Education and the Cult of Efficiency: A Study of the Social

SRQkitten 1 month ago

rjsatokstate 1 month ago

gerard_harbison 1 month ago

betsyrn 1 month ago

csulb1250 1 month ago


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Forces that Have Shaped the Administration of the Public Schools. Chicago: U of Chicago P,

1962.

LIKE

When the education system chooses to retrieve the arts, such

as music, visual arts and theater from their curriculum, you can expect a lack

of critical thinking in any subject.

Please know that it is the creative side of the brain that fuels the critical

thinking and problem solving in any subject. This includes law, engineer,

medical, science, politics, accounting, education and so on. It is the arts that will give the child and

young students the tools that incorporate analysis and problem solving. This auto censorship in the

curriculum of the

school system has been overpowered by the combination of sports and poor classroom guidance.

Trying to program students so they will all

think alike will create a socio-cultural corruption that slows down the

evolution of society as a whole. The lack of the balancing act in subjects that

will prepare students for college is evident. They cannot spell never the less

write and their reading skills are deteriorated by misused of the visual

information. I agree that the idea of no child left behind is utopic in this economy. Yes we have

children that are left behind; we

are not equipped to address learning issues.


The decline in educational quality at all levels is indeed a national tragedy. Further, the increasing

tendency to "measure" the quality of a college or university (in particular educator preparation

programs) by the performance of not only its graduates but by the performance of the students of

those graduates (yes, through their performance on standardized tests) is flawed thinking at its worst.

The latest notion that is apparently gaining proponency at the Congressional level compounds the

idiocy of the situation...and that is that the "quality" of a postsecondary institution should be measured

by the salaries of its graduates...as if salary level could ever even remotely reflect the quality of one's

undergraduate education...or one's contributions to society. In our zeal to "measure" everything...and

by simplistic indicators, no less...we may find we are "measuring" all the wrong things.

As pools of qualified, interested, committed candidates for senior leadership positions in higher

education...especially the presidency...become increasingly shallow, might we conclude that an

educational system that forces learners into pre-set, mechanical, non-creative boxes is in some way at

least part of the cause? It seems logical that the level of effort and complexity expected in formal

education correlates with the level of effort and complexity that people wish to devote to their work.


The reason students can't write is that we stopped teaching them English. 'Whole language', the latest

fad, has abandoned prescriptive grammar in favor of 'holistic learning'. No more boring lessons about

noun clauses and participles. Problem is, if you don't know what a participle is, you can't learn not to

dangle them. A recent grad. student of mine, praised throughout her career as a great writer, had no

idea what a dangling participle was, or, more importantly, that it was something one should avoid.

PQ 1 month ago

11250627 1 month ago

gerard_harbison 1 month ago


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As usual teachers are blaming their failures on the tests, rather than on their own untested pedagogy

and crappy methods. Shoot the messenger.


Sorry -- "Whole Language" hasn't been the latest fad for over a decade. However, you folks in

colleges are now feeling the effects of your ed school colleagues' grand ideas!

Prescriptive grammar and the mere recognition of parts of speech has never made good writers.

The problem is not enough good reading. Schools have consistently dumbed down the reading

levels in order to get students through. Great readers make great writers.


So . . . when "No Child Left Behind" gets to college he/she can't read or write?

Those of us who teach writing have been saying this for several years. Thank you (teeth clinched) forconfirming our worst fears. However, college apparently isn't getting the job done either.

Based on classroom observation, the real problem here is not the testing, per se, but the blatant

practice of diverting actual "teaching" time to focus on test-taking strategies. Our students come from

high school trained to wait for someone to tell them that "this will be on the test". In other words, they

see no reason to learn anything that is not "coming on the test" - and the questions need to appear as

A. B. C. D. or "none of the above".


I am not sure what college you were observing, but that is not the case at all. Basic knowledge in

geography is absent, for example, when teaching and giving reference to a place and time

regarding the lesson in hand, many have no idea where Rome, Paris, and other places are. These

are basic information that is acquire at the very least in high school. It is not just the crippled

language it is the poor intellectual formation that lacks a foundation. The accreditation

institutions require testing in order to verify if the students are acquiring the proper knowledge

regarding the subject. I do agree that many test questions should be essay type instead of

multiple choices, but please do not think that the college professors are prepared to teach

students how to learn, this has to be addressed to the middle and high school curriculum.


Interesting point. I recently heard Gen. Stanley McChrystal speaking about his new book

and noting casualties among farmers in Afghanistan that could have been prevented with

basic geographic and cultural knowledge. There's a cost to narrowing the disciplines to the

logical-mathematical understanding that's driving our testing schemes. Reminds me of

Howard Gardner's "7 Kinds Of Smart" - I think we're down to teaching just one, though it's

segads1 1 month ago

Studio 3880 1 month ago

PQ 1 month ago

ericjhenderson 1 month ago


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not one he's named. I'd call it faux-tech as defined by centering our thought and pedagogy

on the narrow definition of tech as a synonym for the web. I love the web. I'm here. But, in

a broader picture, we need to put our new (and rightful) fascination with the web - and data

- in context. Perhaps the bubble burst will take us back to the classical liberal education

where it wouldn't be odd to find a kid who was, say, an athlete who was also a hobby

astronomer, solid writer, and poet. Not to have a nation of polymaths, but just a bunch of

literate and curious folks thinking broadly when they step away from their area of

expertise.


Study of geography and culture seems to be returning to middle and elementary school

curricula. My grandsons, 4th and 6th grade, are getting more geography and culture than

did my kids, but not as much as I did some 60 years ago.

1 person liked this.LIKE

Sadly, the test is the thing. The NCLB induced federal ideal of the good teacher is defined as the

over-tested, compliant, well trained, (over)work(ed)horse, who requires only marginal

compensation and care while producing high scoring, well tested student products on a constant

and reliable basis regardless of environmental familial biological and economical influences on

the raw student material they must prepare for evaluations.

What response will this sort of good teacher have when a student unpredictably finds some shred

of interesting material from the haystack sized compilation, also known as the bland standard

curriculum? Will her urge her to set aside, forget about this thing that fuels her curiosity,

inspiration and initiative to learn and find out more? After all there are tests to prepare for, lots

of random data to memorize for those long lists full of lettered bubbles.

LIKE

"The challenge of learning on their own is so overwhelming to some law students that it has become

far more common for students to demand their professors notes."

Baloney. The stakes have gotten so high that students are desperate to get good grades. Otherwise,

what future awaits them after law school?

I see it already in my own daughter, who wept after her first semester in college: "I didn't get straight

As. I'll never get into grad school!" I tell her it's not true, but am I sure?

That's the system we've created. And we wonder why students aren't full of the joy of critical thinking

and working independently?


Gopher63 1 month ago

jadedserf 1 month ago

sabbatical 1 month ago

visitingprofessor 1 month ago


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I am able to relate to the author about teaching to the test. I have started to do something differently

and seems to be paying off. For one when I ask a question in class - I wait for all possible answers. I

restate the answer and pause to think, and say something like - interesting but ask the other students to

make sense of the answer and reason for themselves if it is right or wrong. I do this for all other

student answers and then finally give my take on the question. I also announce in class that they need

to "believe" or "internalize" the reasoning - because I will not be there in the next semester to tell

them if the answer is right or wrong. For all they care in their life - " I am dead and gone at the end of

this semester".

I do have to say that feedback from students who have started working now have recommended that

my approach has helped them a lot.


It works both ways. I'm not an educator, but when my kids would ask for help on their

homework, I tried to guide them to the kind of questions they should be asking. Irritated the

heck out of them but I guess it sunk in. Years ago, when my daughter (now a PhD professor)

was first a TA in grad school, she admitted that she found herself guiding students into asking

the correct questions to get to the concept.

Oh yes, I've sat in on a couple of her classes. She uses the method cited, gathering and all

answers and using class evaluation of the composite.


No Child Left Behind = All Children Standing Still.


Or, NCLB = Every Child Left Behind


And where are the parents? When watching TV, are they discussing situations and how the person

could have made a better choice? Are the adults discussing the news and what they think it means for

the family? Do they demonstrate critical thinking skills when shopping with the kids in tow? My

parents did that & I did that for my child. We can't expect the schools to do it all! they get the kids for

8 hours. The parents get them for 16 a day plus 48 hr on the weekends.


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_perplexed_ 1 month ago




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True it is a collaboration between teachers, parents and students to move forward, but how about

the children in foster care? These adults that care for these children are mostly concern for their

health and protect them from the environment. Seldom you will find any of these children taken

care intellectually. How about the poor families and I mean poor by all means how can they

bring to the table such conversations? They have other problems that you never had, are you

considering these issues? and many can not even read nor write. I believe that the program ofNCLB was designed precisely to help such children from these families.

LIKE

No Child Left Behind assumes that all children learn the same way and can all be tested by

the same test. And if they "fail" then it is the failure of the teacher to teach. For many

children, poor children, especially, it is not that teachers are not teaching compassionately

enough or that they don't teach with rigor, it has to do with issues that teachers have

NOTHING to do with.

Did the child have enough to eat before they came to school? Did they sleep in a safe,

clean and quiet environment? Did they have to travel miles to get to the school that will

take them? Do they emotional issues, learning disabilities, health concerns that effect their

learning?

There is nothing in NCLB that deals with those issues. NCLB was NOT designed to help

students. It was set up to crush unions and disenfranchise teachers.

How can one respect what teachers do for your child, if you don't respect the work they

do?

LIKE

Actually, we were very poor growing up.

LIKE

I have read this article and all the comments. I agree with most of the article, but see a gap in the

logic. The leap between NCLB (a very rough attempt at righting the ship of public education) and

teaching to the test lies where? It's very clear to me. When we, as a society reward and advance

those whose students 'test' well, then teaching to the test is going to occur, 100% of the time. The idea

that NCLB is based on seems sound. Measuring student achievement in its current state is largely

flawed. One of the giant parts of that flaw is 'teaching to the test' which results in higher test scores

and the primary motiviation to teach to the test and to have students receive higher test scores is

promotion, career advancement , and compensation (salary and/or bonus). What we in the education

community actually DO about not wanting to leave these children behind, and to truly teach some of

the skills which will be indispensable throughout the children's lives,

is what will make the difference. We want smart kids, good thinkers, critical, reasoning young people

to emerge form our schools. It that is truly what we want, then we must design educational programs

that accomplish those goals, not necessarily the compensation outcomes and job advancement

PQ 1 month ago

lsguerrero 1 month ago

11274304 3 weeks ago

dpcowboy 1 month ago


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palmares so coveted among our educators and administrators.


Folks might be directed to examine the literacy standards associated with the Common Core. Therewill still be high stakes tests ... but the nature of the assessment is changing (PARCC and

SmarterBalance) ... although not yet to the degree suggested by the Gordon Commission the other

day.

Community Colleges are coming to understand the importance and potential impact of the Common

Core. Four year institutions still have a ways to go.


I don't know if No Child Left Behind is the reason, but, "Very bright students ...[who are] ill-prepared

for critical thinking, rigorous reading, high-level writing, and working independently," describes the

majority of graduate students (not law students) currently enrolled in my classes. They are struggling

and demonizing me because I'm not accepting or passing low-quality work. I believe them when they

report they are working hard, but unfortunately, their strategies of "hard-work" do not translate into

the necessary skills and abilities required in graduate courses.

It's frustrating to them that I won't give them credit for just submitting assignments (regardless of the

quality). They genuinely believe they deserve an A just for showing up and turning in an assignment.

They also equate low grades with my physically assaulting them - numerous students tell me their

grades were "a slap in the face". I provide detailed instructions with detailed grading rubrics AND

specific, detailed feedback that explains why their work does not match the instructions and rubrics,

but they still perform very poorly.

I genuinely don't know what else to do. I can't, in good conscience, pass poor quality work just to

make struggling students feel better about themselves.

On top of everything else, I'm being told that funding is dependent upon retention and graduation

rates, so something must be done to retain and pass these poorly performing students. Basically, I'm

being told to lower my standards. Am I the only person who believes a graduate degree should

require high quality work and represent advanced skills and abilities?


Confirmation bias, much?

LIKE

There is no empirical evidence in this post or in the original piece demonstrating the allegations

against NCLB. Also, this blog post does not distinguish the populations most addressed by NCLB,

that is, those at the lower end of the achievement scale.


imanonymous 1 month ago

Justin Uliano 1 month ago

markbauerlein 1 month ago


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I grew up with No Child Left Behind and standardized testing, but I still feel that I was prepared for

college because I had several very excellent teachers in high school who were truly dedicated to

making us think critically and have the skills we needed. Standardized test deserve a lot of blame, but

there's other stuff going on too...


Well said, Michele. And unfortunate as a trend. It is also telling that our swing to narrow technical

proficiencies - tests - seems inversely proportional to the strategic investment that the Chinese

government is making to balance their overreliance on tech expertise as compared to ability to

innovate - the ability to think and to confront emerging business and human situations with the

required creativity... http://forumblog.org/2012/12/t...- eric j henderson, marketsforgood.org

LIKE

All of what has been described above and more, to an incredibly unpleasant level.


A lot of this is the american cultural confusion of training with education. Training is useful for

education but training is not education. Those that will gain from tertiary education are no more than

2 to 5% of the population. Pretending otherwise leads to watering-down tertiary education. You are

not allowed to fail 2/3 of first year biology, chemistry and maths students. You should be able to do

so but you are not allowed to fail so many students. My impression from teaching 1st year students

over more than 20 years has been that no more than about 1/3 of a class really benefit from what you

are trying to teach them.

The problem of course is which ones? Piling multiple choice exams, essays and interviews one upon

the other at the admissions stage does not achieve a class where the majority of the students are worth

teaching. All selection processes are an attempt to predict future from past performance. It does not

work very well and more testing is not the answer. For the sake of equity you should give as many as

possible the right to fail and accept a high attrition rate.

I have been a published scientist for over 30 years now. I think I do have some capacity for criticalthinking but it would be hard for me to place where it came from. Sounds irrational but I think it is

innate.

It can also disappear. I always find "gifted children" rather amusing: most are not gifted at all but by

simple Pavlovian dog training have been taught to respond as if they were. A lot are not gifted at all.

Few thought I had gifts at all as a child. Then there is the huge class of people who "peak in

highschool". They might have appeared bright, and could very well have been so, when they were 10

y but turn out to be very ordinary people at 25 y. Many simply wake up one day and decide that they

will not act as if they are bright any more. After all they will be more socially accepted if they

dumb-down. As any NERD can tell you people with a mind of their own are not really trusted by

Bonegirl06 1 month ago

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society.

I am an Australian first generation graduate & PhD. I decided to become a NERD when I was 10.


Please cconsider what may be the sadest outcome of teaching to the test policies. I have 45 years of

teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels in architecture and fine arts. In addition

to my degrees in Fine Arts, I have a MA in education. Because of this, I often taught classes in

curriculum development for the Education Department. The very limited abilities of my most recent

students included a distinct lack of independent thinking, and more importantly, an inability on the

part of many students to exercise sound moral judgement in their behavior and, in their practica, their

expectations for there young students. The university's policy on acceptance requirements was almost

entirely focussed on the applicant's grade point average. What this awards is a kind of professionalism

in being a student! These are the people who "behave". they are tagged as "good students", not

because they have acquired the ability to think, but rather that they have mastered the system. The

university assessment policy continued to reward them with higher grades. When h


... THUS, introducing newly trained(!) test oriented teachers into the delivery side of education -

further entrenching the test based rubric! Forgive the glitches in my comments. I am typing on an

iPad.

LIKE

There are so many students who wouldn't even learn to read if the schools don't somehow push basic

standards. So all students are dragged down to this level.

It is the parents who ultimately are responsible for their children. Yet the government gives benefits

and allows parents to ignore their role. Parents have time to text, get manicures, tattooes, hair done,

etc, but expect teachers to do everything for their children.

Parents in poverty have time for their children if they care to. Look at Ben Carson. His mother had a

3rd grade education, he went to the Detroit Public Schools, but she made sure he had a good

education. Hence Yale, UM medical school and an illustrious career as a Neurosurgeon.

Require parent participation in schools to receive government benefits. Even 3 hours a month,

although more is better.


Guys, it's just as bad here in the UK. At 40 years-old, I have just finished a double major Honours

degree followed immediately with an MA. I have been continually astonished (and mortified) by the

dismally shoddy academic levels demonstrated by the 'kids' on the courses I have taken. Critical

Thinking? Almost nil. Close reading skills? Negligible. Writing capabilities? Dire. And don't get me

porker 1 month ago

porker 1 month ago

california 1 month ago

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started on analytical technique, application of logic, rhetorical and linguistic strategies! But seriously,

it's pretty damn appalling. Don't get me wrong, I realise that being at University is a learning

experience, and we are all there to get an education, but if lecturers are forced to pitch at a woefully

low common denominator, everybody suffers. Of course there are many exceptions to my

characterisation, but taken as a group, students arriving in higher education today demonstrate, by

their academic deficiency, a very troubling trend.


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law professors see the damage done by 'no child left behind' - the conversation - the chronicle of...

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