“I think what No Child Left Behind got wrong was [that] it was very tight on how you got there, but very loose on the goals,” said Duncan, who added that it should be the other way around.
Alexander agreed.
“We need to get away from Washington announcing whether schools are passing or failing,” he said.
While Duncan and the other participants on the conference call agreed that NCLB needs to be reworked, they don’t plan on starting from scratch.
“We’re replacing the elements of ESEA that were No Child Left Behind, but we’re not replacing the entire Elementary and Secondary Education Act,” said Harkin.
“I think we do need to identify the problems in No Child Left Behind and make as clear as possible what needs to be fixed before we come up with a solution,” said Enzi.
All spoke of a bipartisan effort to improve the education legislation.
“I’m pleased with how much collaborative effort has already gone into this and how much people seem to be together on this,” Enzi said.
Harkin agreed that this cannot be a politicized issue.
“We must protect the bipartisan move forward to set high expectations for all students and to expect continuous progress towards a common goal,” he said.
“Last year we held ten bipartisan hearings where we heard about many of the problems in the No Child Left Behind Act. This Congress, we must rewrite this law to create a better and more flexible education system that prepares our nation’s students for success in college, careers and the global economy,” said Harkin and Enzi in a joint statement after the State of the Union address. “We share the goal of legislation that gives our children and grandchildren the high-quality education they deserve, and we look forward to working together toward that goal.”
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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