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"No Child Left Behind" Hurts Small Schools

Linda McCulloch, Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Claudette Morton, Executive Director of the Montana Small Schools Alliance, today pointed out how the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has harmed small schools in Montana.

"The President and Congress did not understand small schools when they passed the No Child Left Behind Act," stated McCulloch. "They operated under a ‘one size fits all’ mentality, but rural Montana schools have very little in common with gigantic public schools in Washington, D.C. or Los Angeles."

"Most of them think of urban schools with thousands of students and hundreds of teachers," Morton agreed, "so they certainly didn’t create something that would work for the 84% of Montana schools that are classified as ‘rural.’ And most of them can’t conceive of Montana’s 53 one-room schools."

On behalf of the Montana Small Schools Alliance, Morton has just signed on to a statement asking Congress to fix the many flaws of the No Child Left Behind Act or NCLB. The unified statement was put together in April by McCulloch and representatives of the Montana Rural Education Association, Montana School Board Association, the MEA-MFT, School Administrators of Montana, the Montana PTA, and the Montana Board of Public Education.

"Almost all of our small schools have limited finances," Morton stated, "so it is difficult to find good teachers who meet the rigorous requirements of Montana law. In small high schools, teachers must teach a number of different courses. That is much more difficult under NCLB rules."

"In the really small schools," Morton continued, "there may be only one or two teachers and usually they have to serve also as principal, counselor, librarian, federal testing coordinator, and custodian. In Winnett, one person is the superintendent, principal of three schools and teacher of one or two classes each semester. NCLB requirements do nothing at all to help these people teach or administer better, but wastes valuable time because they are required to do all the administrative things that urban schools do."

"I will put our teachers in rural schools up against anybody," Morton concluded. "They know the demanding state standards, and they apply them to the individual needs of their students."

McCulloch agreed emphatically. "Our teachers are wonderful," she concluded, "which is why our Montana students test above the national average on virtually every type of test."

"The sad part is that the federal government does have a role to play," McCulloch concluded. "It should provide help to schools serving children with special needs and ethnic minorities and children with limited English proficiency. Instead, it has taken away local control and is requiring all our schools to act like big urban schools, which is wasting time and taxpayer dollars and frustrating teachers and administrators in Montana."

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