No debate: the No Child Left Behind Act has not worked

New York Times, Dec. 29, 2007

No debate: the No Child Left Behind Act has not
worked.

“Democrats Make Bush School Act an Election Issue”
(front page, Dec. 23) notes that “policy makers debate
whether the law has raised student achievement.”

There is no debate among those who have looked at the
data. The law has not produced improvements on state
or national reading tests, nor have achievement gaps
been narrowed. There has also been no change on
American fourth graders’ scores on the Progress in
International Reading Literacy Study tests from 2001
to 2006. (No Child Left Behind was introduced in the
2002-3 school year.)

Despite huge increases in instructional time and
billions of dollars spent, there have been no
improvements.

Stephen Krashen
Los Angeles, Dec. 23, 2007
The writer is professor emeritus of education at the
University of Southern California.