Breaking news: civil rights groups disagree on NCLB. Though John Jackson, the NAACP's national director of education, tells Education Week, "Unity is always best," it is proving elusive. Sparks flew this summer with the release of a report by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University that said NCLB's Adequate Yearly Progress requirements are disproportionately affecting minority communities and undermining their schools' ability to improve performance. The Achievement Alliance, a group of civil rights, business, and education advocacy groups that formed last year, quickly countered. Its news release said, "The fact that students in larger, more diverse districts are being paid attention to and given extra help is a welcome change in an education system that routinely shortchanges such students.... This additional support should not be characterized as punishment." Bingo.
"Civil Rights Groups Split Over NCLB," by Karla Scoon Reid, Education Week, August 31, 2005 (Subscription required)