Source Note: “The Mistaken Premise of No Child Left Behind”

March 5, 2009 in Research Project

Title: “The Mistaken Premise of No Child Left Behind”

Summary: Blogger Peter Leppik believes NCLB will ultimately fail, and that opening bureaucratic doorways to increased parental involvement, not punitive corrective action, is the only way to help close the achievement gap.

Topic: Should the Obama Administration reform the No Child Left Behind Act?

Category: Citizen; Blog

Publication Information: Dispatches from the Frozen North, 9/24/04

Author: Peter Leppik

Location: frozennorth.org

Accessed: 9/24/04

Support:

• 2014 proficiency deadline: Leppik believes the majority of America’s public schools will not meet the 100% proficiency requirement, claiming it’s not possible for every school to pass every test.
• Puntitive measures as incentives to meet proficiency goals: Leppik feels that there is already plenty of motivation for educators to strive for educational improvement, and that the proficiency goals and standard of “adequate yearly progress” place undue stress on already overworked, underpaid educators. As the educators are already doing their best, he sees increased parental involvement as the only viable way to close the achievement gap.

Audience and Agenda: Leppik is the co-founder of VocalLabs, a Minnesota-based consulting firm specializing in market survey techniques. He recieved a Master’s in Physics from the University of Illinois. In his spare time, he maintains Dispatches from the Frozen North as a personal blog.  For the purposes of my research project, Leppik represents the educated concerned citizen archetype.

Usefulness: Peter Leppik’s blog entry demonstrates how many members of the public were well aware of inherent flaws of NCLB’s accountability system at the outset of its implementation as federal law. This serves as partial confirmation of many current criticisms, as by comparing the arguments of educators, policy analysts, and politicians in the last couple of years to the initial claims made in the first years of NCLB, we see a linear trend of specific criticisms, namely the unreasonable nature of the proficiency goals. 

Works cited:

“About the Frozen North,” http://www.frozennorth.org/node/4

“About VocalLabs,” http://www.vocalabs.com/about/

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