Collision or Collaboration? No Child Left Behind and America's International Competition

Amid rising concerns about America’s international competitiveness, increased attention has been paid to serving high-achieving students and to improving math, science, and technology instruction in K–12 schooling. Some proponents have been quick to suggest that this effort readily complements the No Child Left Behind Act’s emphasis on addressing “achievement gaps” in math and reading. They believe that resources can be channeled to low-achieving students without short-changing high-achievers or impeding America’s ability to develop the scientists, mathematicians, and engineers crucial to international competitiveness. In a recent article, Frederick M. Hess and Andrew Rotherham questioned this conventional wisdom, arguing that in a world of finite resources and limited attention, these two agendas are more likely to collide than coexist.

Join us for a discussion of whether the No Child Left Behind Act and the international competitiveness agendas are complements or competitors in the realm of K–12 schooling, and what this tension means for schooling and public policy going forward.

About the Author

 

Frederick M.
Hess



  • An educator, political scientist and author, Frederick M. Hess studies a range of K-12 and higher education issues. He is the author of influential books on education including “The Same Thing Over and Over,” “Education Unbound,” “ Common Sense School Reform,” “ Revolution at the Margins” and “Spinning Wheels,” and he pens the Education Week blog, Rick Hess Straight Up. His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets such as Teachers College Record, Harvard Education Review, Social Science Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, American Politics Quarterly, Chronicle of Higher Education, Phi Delta Kappan, Educational Leadership, U.S. News & World Report, National Affairs, The Washington Post, New York Times, The Atlantic and National Review. He has edited widely cited volumes on education philanthropy, stretching the school dollar, the impact of education research and No Child Left Behind.  He serves as executive editor of Education Next, as lead faculty member for the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program, on the review boards for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the Broad Prize for Public School Charters as well as on the boards of directors of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, 4.0 SCHOOLS and the American Board for the Certification of Teaching Excellence. A former high school social studies teacher, he has taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Rice University and Harvard University. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University as well as an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum.


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  • Email: rhess@aei.org
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