An independent assessment of how public schools are performing under the No Child Left Behind law has found nearly half of them are failing to perform as required—a number that’s significantly lower than the total claimed by the Obama administration, which wanted to make changes to the Bush-era legislation.

 

Last spring, President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan asserted that 82% of public schools were flunking under No Child Left Behind.

 

But a study by the Center on Education Policy (CEP), a Washington research group with Democratic ties, says the percentage is 48%.

 

Schools are deemed as failing if they fail to raise student reading and math scores enough to match testing targets set by their states.

 

Democrat Jack Jennings, president of the CEP, told The New York Times that he didn’t know why the administration’s estimate “was so far off.” He added: “Obviously they didn’t use the right methodology.”

 

Margaret Spellings, Bush’s education secretary, said in March that Obama and Duncan deliberately exaggerated projections of failing schools in order to build support for rewriting the law. “They’re overstating the numbers to make a political point for reauthorization,” Spellings said.

 

In response to questions about the discrepancy between his department’s numbers and those of the CEP, Duncan said. “Whether it’s 50%, 80% or 100% of schools being incorrectly labeled as failing, one thing is clear: No Child Left Behind is broken.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Failure Rate of Schools Overstated, Study Says (by Sam Dillon, New York Times)

AYP Results for 2010-11 (Center on Education Policy) (pdf)

Obama Education Plan Backfires: Popular Principal Removed to Make Way for Stimulus Money (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)