Congratulations on getting your theory that No Child Left Behind is causing states to lower their accountability standards into the news cycle (see here). It guarantees I'll be talking to people for months who actually believe NCLB has caused lots of states to lower standards for kids and to shy away from their accountability guns.
Would that we really had the standards or standards-bearers for which you're pining in that Golden Era before NCLB.
What's the basis for asserting that a race to the bottom has begun since NCLB? Did you check whether a before-and-after analysis supports the claim?
The discrepancies between National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and state scores are massive and they constitute a big problem, but not one NCLB has caused. Arizona, alone as far as we know among the states you explicitly call out, has lowered its standards and cut scores since NCLB took effect. It would be great if Arizona's leaders took more heat for that bad call. [Editor's note: heat delivered here.] But Texas and Arkansas raised their standards since NCLB was enacted. Even with these examples of states raising standards, it might be fair to say that NCLB poses a disincentive for other states to raise theirs, but that's not the same as states affirmatively lowering standards to look better under NCLB.
Scrutinizing state standards is important, but it's irresponsible to say NCLB is causing states to lower them when it hasn't. Can't we agree there's enough misinformation about NCLB already? Isn't there enough to critique without making stuff up?
The public needs to understand that low state standards do a disservice to kids (who will face much tougher standards in the world of work and college), and that low standards have negative implications for all of us. But telling people it's a problem that's been caused or made worse by NCLB - when this isn't true - is not much of a contribution to that important public conversation.
Please let me know if there's something I'm missing here.
Ross Wiener
Ross Wiener is Policy Director at Education Trust.