Whether NCLB and similar “accountability”
mandates can deliver that result is hotly debated,
and many critics argue that the mandates have
unintended negative consequences for children,
teachers, and schools, including narrowing the
curriculum and testing too much and in the wrong
ways. Yet the majority of Americans support the
movement’s stated goals,18 among them that all
children should be achieving at high levels.19 This
public support—for the goals, if not the methods—
can be viewed as a demand that educators do
something to improve student achievement and
close the gaps that all agree are damaging many
children’s future prospects and wasting their
potential