Source Notes: “White House official touts unpopular ‘No Child Left Behind’”

March 13, 2009 in Research Project

Title: “White House official touts unpopular ‘No Child Left Behind’”

Summary: White House PR fails to impress the public in proficiency-challenged Washington state.

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

Category: Journalistic; Newspaper article

Publication Information: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1/16/08

Author: Brian Slodysko

Location: seattlepi.nwsource.com

Accessed: March 9, 2009

Support:

• Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings: Said she would continue to work towards the Department of Education’s stated goal of nationwide proficiency by 2014.
• National Center for Education Statistics: The organizations data indicates the state of Washington is below the average national graduation rate, with 74% of high school freshman going on to graduate.
• Dr. Monty Neill, Executive Director, National Center for Fair and Open Testing: Neill argues that Washington students’ performance on reading assessments has declined following the passage of NCLB, and that the data proving this stands in contradiction of the official Department of Education stance on the law.

Audience and Agenda: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer was founded in 1863, and is the largest newspaper by circulation in the Pacific Northwest, at 435,581. The newspaper’s website receives approximately 3.6 million visits per month, according to its Quantcast Audience Profile, with 2.9 million of those from readers in the United States.

Usefulness: The article illustrates the highly contentious nature of No Child Left Behind within state-level education circles. While there is widespread agreement on the need for accountability in education, NCLB has left a sour taste in the mouths of many state and local educators. The article helps frame the current debate over NCLB, making useful for setting the stage for the rest of my research project.

Works cited:

“About the Post-Intelligencer,” http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/facts/

“Top 100 Newspapers in the United States,” http://www.infoplease.com/ipea/A0004420.html

“seattlepi.nwsource.com – Quantcast Audience Profile,” http://www.quantcast.com/seattlepi.nwsource.com

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