A Critique of No Child Left Behind in HBO’s The Wire (Season 4)

• In Event: Roundtable Session 47
  In Roundtable Session: Using Popular Culture to Explore the Sociocultural Aspects of Learning

Abstract

The Wire is a crime series that aired on HBO for from 2002-2008. Set in Baltimore, each season constructs a powerful critique of a different segment of society: the drug wars, the vanishing way of life for the city’s dock workers, big city politics, urban education, and the mainstream media. Season four (2006) of The Wire constructs a devastating critique of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy. In this paper, I argue for the pedagogical potential of The Wire for engaging education students in critically examining the negative effects of standardized testing on the educators and students represented in The Wire. The Wire’s critique occurs in the two education storylines constructed in season four.

Author

• James Trier, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill