Tested: School-level Perspectives on NCLB

The No Child Left Behind Act, the major federal law supporting elementary and secondary education, is due for reauthorization by Congress. Teachers unions, business groups, civil rights leaders and researchers have all weighed in with recommendations to change the law’s provisions. But what do the people most impacted by NCLB -- educators working with kids on a day-to-day basis -- think about it?

Former Washington Post education writer Linda Perlstein spent a year with educators and students at Tyler Heights, an Annapolis, Md., elementary school that manages to ace state tests despite the many challenges facing its predominantly low-income, minority students. Perlstein will discuss her new book, Tested, which looks at the consequences of NCLB for Tyler Heights and the children and adults who work there. Tracy Wright, former principal of J.C. Nalle Elementary in southeast Washington, D.C., will join Perlstein to offer a separate perspective on NCLB’s school-level effects.

Join the New America Foundation for a panel discussion on what NCLB really means in practice for children, teachers and principals working in America’s most challenging schools.

Participants

• Steve Coll
  President
  New America Foundation
• Linda Perlstein
  Author
  Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade
• Tracy Wright
  Former Principal, JC Nalle Community Elementary School, Washington, D.C.
  Leadership/Achievement Specialist, New Leaders for New Schools
• Sara Mead
  Senior Research Fellow
  New America Foundation