My observations are that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program, like its cousins School to Work (STW) and Goals 2000 are federal programs designed to restructure education and the workplace. They are all the brain child of Marc Tucker, who seeks to totally change the educational system. When federal programs come along that attempt restructuring the education system, it reminds me of the first major attempt at restructuring the education system. The first major attempt occurred after the war between the States in the Southern military districts (the Status of Statehood was removed) known as reconstruction.

During the period known as “reconstruction”, Reconstruction was the systematic restructuring of the educational, religious, legal, political and social systems were implemented across the Southern States. The federal government mandated what was to be taught in the schools, who could preach, what they could preach, which politicians could be in office, and other methods at remaking the whole framework of the South.

Reconstruction was used as a way to implement government schools throughout the South. As part of the government school program, the children were presented a standardized curriculum. They were also re-socialized so as to no longer see themselves as “Texans” or “Tennesseans”, but rather as Americans. They were taught that no state should receive preferential treatment over the other States and that they were all of equal importance. They also sought to remove the influence of the Puritan teachings and replace them with the ‘enlightened’ mindset of the European educational systems, which had largely removed the religious influences. The systematic remake of the educational system wanted the removal of moral absolutes which were used to evaluate others. Although reconstruction did more than this, for the scope of this hub, the emphasis will be on the education system.

Besides controlling the schools through curriculum, there was also the control exerted through licensing. By controlling who could teach, the system could be changed. This was done in reconstruction, by the government controlling who could be a pastor, who could be a teacher, who was elected and who the judges were.

In many ways there are striking similarities between the NCLB program and the reconstruction program. Both seek to give more control of the schools to the federal bureaucrats, who control the curriculum. Some press retports claim that the program does not do this, yet by accepting the increased federal funds, the 'voluntary' program is reuired to be implemented. By implementing assessments and required levels of achievement, the federal control is totally changing the education system.

On the surface, it looks like it will improve the education standards for all students and will close the gap between groups. The reality is that it levels the playing field for students by taking them to the lowest common denominator. For example if some students of a particular group do well on the exams, while the other students do not, then there are problems. If these uneven scores continue a consecutive second year, then the whole grade level or class is considered a ‘failure’ because on sub-group did well and the others did not. Such gaps are what the NCLB program seeks to eliminate. So when advocates talk about eliminating education gaps, there is a big difference between what the public thinks it means and what is being implemented.

The standards used are international standards (e.g. United Nations standards). By using the UN standards, the agendas deemed important by the international community are the values presented in the schools. These new standards are talked about in terms of “benchmarks”. These values are politically correct (i.e. anti-gun, anti-patriotic, no unalienable rights,). What that means is fuzzy math and disregarding grammar, punctuation and spelling errors in English. The examinations focus more on the attitudes of children rather than achievement. The children will be expected to meet the benchmarks established by government appointed educational boards rather than elected school districts.

The program includes many measures of accountability. Among these measures of accountability are tests that address the “attitudes” of the students. Attitudes do not represent academic achievement. Attitudes are how the children think and believe about various items, including culture and various social issues. The program is designed to be a “lifelong learning” process where the attitudes are constantly maintained to fit within government mandated thinking.

When the NCLB proponents talk about multi-culturalism, they are not talking about being exposed to other cultures. They are talking about eliminating the evaluation of comparisons between cultures. They want to eliminate the idea that one culture is superior in any way to another culture. They want cultural relativism. This amounts to re-socialization as was done in the South. The major difference is that now students are being trained to be citizens of the world, rather than citizens of a particular nation.

The NCLB is particularly insidious in that it implements the idea of seamless transitioning into the workplace. Children are steered into various careers at an early age, based on government standards as is done in many European nations. Some may see this as necessary for providing an educated workforce, yet it limits upward mobility by locking children into particular career paths from an early age.

1. NCLB and reconstruction both rely on strong federal control of schools
2. NCLB and reconstruction both control the curriculum taught in the schools.
3. NCLB and reconstruction both control who is ‘qualified’ and allowed to teach.
4. NCLB and reconstruction both seek to eliminate learning and achievement differences.
5. NCLB and reconstruction both seek to eliminate local control of schools.
6. NCLB and reconstruction both seek to create a new sense of identity for the student.
7. NCLB and reconstruction both seek to change the ‘attitude’ of the students.
8. NCLB and reconstruction both seek to implement European styled education systems.