President Bush introduced No Child Left Behind in 2001. And since then the federal law has been controversial, to put it mildly. Its goal is to increase accountability and student proficiency in the classroom. And it does so by tying federal funding to how schools perform on standardized tests.
Critics say the so-called “teach to the test” system leaves students foundering. Test prep companies, like Kaplan and Princeton Review, however, have done remarkably well. Kaplan’s revenues went from $354 million in 2000 to more than $2 billion today.
Jeremy Miller is a high school science teacher in Denver. He worked on-and-off for Kaplan for nine years, most recently as an in-school “coach” for its SAT and Regents’ Advantage program and branded K12 lesson plans. He earned $295 a day, more than all but the most senior teachers, and he came away with some valuable lessons on American’s broken public school system. His article "Tyranny of the Test" is in the September issue of Harper’s Magazine.
Read Harper's interview with Jeremy Miller here.
(Photo by Dave Scelfo)
