NCLB's Pedagogy of the Absurd

No Child Left Behind was the topic of much conversation at the 2006 International Reading Association's Annual Convention.

The June/July issue of The Reading Teacher, published by the International Reading Association (IRA), carried a brief piece on comments and views on NCLB expressed at the convention. As part of a panel discussion for the Reading Hall of Fame, Kenneth S. Goodman said that some of the programs and testing currently being used by NCLB was a "pedagogy of the absurd." Goodman is Professor Emeritus of Language, Reading, and Culture at the University of Arizona; he is also a member of the Reading Hall of Fame and a past president of IRA.

Goodman was not the only critical voice aimed at NCLB at the convention. Keynote speaker Michael Pressley lambasted NCLB for its overemphasis on testing, saying that "Every minute spent on testing is a minute not spent on instruction." His views were amplified by Opening General Session speaker Jonathan Kozol who pointed out that many schools spend as much as a quarter of their year simply preparing for tests. Pressley is a professor of educational psychology and teacher education at Michigan State University and spent six years as editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. Kozol is an educational activist who won the National Book Award in 1968 for his book Death at an Early Age; he focuses on race, poverty and education.

S. Jay Samuels criticized the law for having unrealistic goals. He said that the goal of having all children (including special education students and English language learners) score at the level of proficiency is something that not even countries that rank at the very top of international educational assessments are able to achieve. Samuels teaches education psychology at UCLA and worked as co-editor on the book What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction.