Though the NYT's Sam Dillon tries to put the best face possible on it, what comes through in his report today is that Bush's NCLB is an unqualified disaster. Math comprehension has improved only slightly and reading comprehension--wait for it--has actually gotten worse!

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - The first nationwide test to permit an appraisal of President Bush's signature education law rendered mixed results on Wednesday, with even some supporters of the law expressing disappointment.

Math scores were up slightly but eighth-grade reading showed a decline, and there was only modest progress toward closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, which is one of the Bush administration's primary goals. In many categories, the results indicated, the gap remains as wide as it was in the early 1990's.

This will come as no surprise to teachers and school administrators. Teachers have said from the very begining that eliminating anything in the curriculuim that doesn't apply to the test--'teaching to the test'--was a terrible idea and more likely to hurt learning than help it. School administrators have complained that dumping a massive unfunded mandate on the nation's educational system at a time when an irresponsible tax-cutting fever was running amok was a recipe for failure. After five years of this Republican educational voodoo, we now have the answer: they were both right.


On the left, scores before NCLB; on the right, scores after 4 years of NCLB

Margaret Spellings, Bush's hack Secretary of Education, followed the usual administration procedure by immediately declaring that black-is-white and the numbers proved the NCLB is a 'success'. The Emperor said he was 'pleased' and Spellings blamed the poor showing on immigrants.

Mr. Bush, meeting with Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at the White House, said he was pleased with the test. "It shows there's an achievement gap in America that is closing," Mr. Bush said.

In an interview, Ms. Spellings called attention to the improvement in math by fourth graders. She said the less robust increases and outright declines in some reading scores were understandable in part, because the nations schools are assimilating huge numbers of immigrants.

"We have more non-native speakers, there are lots of so-called at-risk, hard-to-educate students, and in spite of that, steady progress is being made," she said. "We're on the right track with No Child Left Behind."

The comparatively small number of immigrant kids in the school system is hardly large enough to skew the results of a national test, but it makes a convenient excuse that the administration's brain-dead right-wing supporters will accept without thinking, which is what they do best.

Unfortunately, Mr Dillon doesn't bother to break down any of the numbers by region, cherry-picks the results he deigns to report, and asks for comment only from people or groups who have backed the NCLB from the beginning, not its real critics. But that's standard for the NYT propaganda machine: take dismal results like these and pretty them up to make another Bush cock-up seem at least marginally successful.

The truth is that the NCLB is a trick, a snare and delusion designed to turn schools into outright corporate training factories where only information necessary to getting a job is considered relevant. The old idea of a well-rounded education is being thrown out the window in favor of rote learning and courses restricted to the corporate values embodied in the test. Arts? Citizenship? Forget it. The first has nothing to do with employment and the second could conceivably produce citizens who aren't sheep. Neither is acceptable. Kids who know how to think critically don't grow up to be Republicans.

The bad news here is that these catastrophic results don't mean the NCLB is in trouble. It isn't. Conservatives love tests. The NCLB is going to be with us for a long time and, like everything else the radcons in the administration are doing, will continue to inflict a lot of damage it will take years, maybe decades, to overcome once the voters come back to their senses.

If they ever do....