[Krashen] Privilege Gap Remains (Published, USA Today)

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Published in USA Today October 26, 2005

Privilege Gap Remains

Contrary to Education Secretary Spellings’ claim
(“Tests will drive gains,” October 19), NCLB is not
working. No Child Left Behind promised to close the
gap between children of poverty and children not in
poverty. This has not happened.  The differences in
test scores between children eligible for free or
reduced lunch and those not eligible are nearly the
same in 2005 as they were in 2003.  

The administration has wasted 100 billion dollars of
taxpayers’ money on NCLB, and now Spellings wants to
waste more and extend NCLB to high schools.  This is
good news for test and workbook publishers, but bad
news for students and for taxpayers. 

Stephen Krashen, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California