School Beat: NCLB and Civil Rights

In contrast to critics of the law such as the Children’s Defense Fund and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund is the advocacy/think-tank Education Trust-West ( http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/etw ), a self-described civil rights education organization that has been perhaps the only organization claiming to be working in the interests of low-income students and student of color as well as working to see the full implementation of NCLB. Consistently, Education Trust-West is also a strong supporter of the California High School Exit Exam.

Recently the director of Education Trust-West provided testimony to the California Department of Education in favor reauthorizing NCLB ( http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/ETW/NCLB+testimony+to+CDE.htm ). While some of the testimony was critical of the law, most of that criticism concerned the lack of full enforcement of particular portions. In general, Education Trust-West argues that because NCLB has caused the production of statistics demonstrating inequalities in educational attainment, it advances the full access to quality education for all students, especially for students from historically disenfranchised communities.

Because public education is indeed a civil rights issue, because proponents such as George Bush are using the mantle of civil rights to disguise their ulterior motive of weakening public education, and because a high profile group such as Education Trust-West (ETW) is defending this law on the grounds of civil rights objectives, it is important to examine their arguments. In doing so, we can see that their position remains within the constrained realm of NCLB itself, existing outside of the social realities that must be contended with if we are to actually succeed at building a strong, vibrant public education system that works to support all children in becoming engaged, effective participants in civic life.

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