Even if NCLB had succeeded in raising test scores, it would have flopped as a way to teach critical thinking, which means that science education, in particular, was bound to lose.

If anyone knows this study in more detail, I'd wonder how much of the loss was due to "teaching to the test" rather than teaching to learn. Was that a measurable phenomenon or just an anecdotally reported one?

Fred Bortz -- Science and technology books for young readers (www.fredbortz.com) and Science book reviews (www.scienceshelf.com)