A diminished vision of civil rights

 At the core of today’s debates over school accountability lies a contentious question: Does the federal No Child Left Behind Act represent a historic advance for civil rights, or a giant step backward for the children it purports to help? Disagreement is especially acute among advocates for English-language learners. These students pose a fundamental challenge for the No Child Left Behind accountability scheme, owing to the near-total absence of valid and reliable assessments of their academic achievement. James Crawford, the president of the Institute for Language and Education Policy, looks at these issues in this opinion piece from Education Week.