U.S. state and local officials again called on Congress to pass renewed “No Child Left Behind” education legislation, writing in a letter on Tuesday that it must become “a top priority for every member of the House and Senate,” Reuters reports. Nearly a year ago – on Feb. 6, 2012 – the same groups, including the National Governors Association, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National School Boards Association, made a similar plea to re-authorize the federal education funding law. No Child Left Behind tied funding to students’ performance on standardized tests, and penalized schools for “failing” – measures that educators and lawmakers, including current Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said were too restrictive…
…Read MorePodcast Series: Innovations in Education
Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Education law’s promise falls short after 10 years
The No Child Left Behind education law was cast as a symbol of possibility, offering the promise of improved schools for the nation’s poor and minority children and better prepared students in a competitive world.
Yet after a decade on the books, President George W. Bush’s most hyped domestic accomplishment has become a symbol to many of federal overreach and Congress’ inability to fix something that’s clearly flawed.
The law forced schools to confront the uncomfortable reality that many kids simply weren’t learning, but it’s primarily known for its emphasis on standardized tests and the labeling of thousands of schools as “failures.”…Read More
Schools chiefs see a path to proposing their own accountability systems
Some state education chiefs say that if Congress does not overhaul No Child Left Behind, the main federal law governing public education, by the fall, they may be allowed to propose their own accountability systems as an alternative, reports the New York Times. These education chiefs said this week that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his aides have signaled that they may grant a waiver on a crucial provision in the law, a requirement that all children be proficient in English and math by 2014, a goal widely seen as unrealistic…
…Read More