Petition Against the Re-Authorization of the No Child Left Behind Act

To:  U.S. Congress: Massachusetts Senators and Representatives

We, members of the Five College community, ask that Congress does not re-authorize the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in its current state. Since 2002, this law has proven to be more detrimental than beneficial to the students, educators, and communities it was intended to serve. Despite its supposed objective of “closing the achievement gap,” NCLB has failed to promote equity in schools because:
• The law is focused on punishing schools, students, and educators, rather than supporting them.
• Its system of accountability puts too much weight on just one measure of assessment.
• The Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) system sets unrealistic goals for many schools and does not take into account progress that does not meet its artificial objectives.
• This law imposes additional requirements on schools (an expanded testing program, providing students in schools that do not make AYP the option to transfer, etc.) without providing them with adequate resources to carry out these mandates.
• The expanded high-stakes testing program forces some schools to narrow their curricula to tested subjects and/or spend an increasing amount of time on test preparation. For some students, these curricular changes sacrifice learning with understanding for rote memorization of disjointed facts.
• The law's sanctions for underperforming schools and the negative consequences of its implementation disproportionately punish students of color, students living in poverty, students with disabilities, and English language learners

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Petition Against the Re-Authorization of the No Child Left Behind Act Petition to U.S. Congress: Massachusetts Senators and Representatives was created by Members of the Five College Community and written by Miriam Stevens (steve20m@mtholyoke.edu).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.