A Década de Progresso Educativo Perdida Sob a NCLB: Que Lições Tirar Desse Fracasso Político?

Abstract

It has been ten years since President George W. Bush signed the law "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). The revision of one decade of evidences demonstrates NCLB failures both in its objectives and in a broader way. In fact, its misguided dependence on standardized tests and sanctions applied to schools have been harming the eff orts towards the educational reform. Many schools, particularly the ones a ended by low income students, became a li le bit more than a test preparation program. It is about time to recognize this failure and to adopt a more eff ective course for de federal government's role in education. The policies developers should abandon strategies based on the faith in testing and punishing. The data accumulated in the last ten years point out that: 1) NCLB severally aff ected the quality of teaching and its equality. 2) NCLB was not able to signifi cantly increase the average academic performance or to signifi cantly narrow the performance gaps.