BrianGarst.com

I’m not a fan of the No Child Left Behind, but it has served to demonstrate something that many educrats simply have trouble accepting: accountability works.

The nation’s students have performed significantly better on state reading and math tests since President Bush signed his landmark education initiative into law five years ago, according to a major independent study released yesterday.

The study’s authors warned that it is difficult to say whether or how much the No Child Left Behind law is driving the achievement gains. But Republican and Democratic supporters of the law said the findings indicate that it has been a success. Some said the findings bolster the odds that Congress will renew the controversial law this year.

. . .The report, which experts called the most comprehensive analysis of test data from all 50 states since 2002, concluded that the achievement gap between black and white students is shrinking in many states and that the pace of student gains increased after the law was enacted. The findings were particularly significant because of their source: the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy, which in recent years has issued several reports that have found fault with aspects of the law’s implementation.

My objection to No Child Left Behind is based on two points, the principles of federalism and my belief that market forces would be much better at introducing accountability than government, certainly more so than the federal government. Nevertheless, it has at least introduced some measure of accountability into a system that has long existed with next to none.