Back to school

Back to school:

"No Child Left Behind has left many American children behind, so the Obama administration has proposed a comprehensive overhaul of the controversial 2002 legislation championed by his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama's proposal softens some of the hard edges of NCLB, provides plenty of new cash to help states improve schools, and emphasizes student readiness for college and careers over test scores."



These changes will surely mollify some of NCLB's many critics. But will they work? Or do Obama's changes merely water down the best parts of NCLB - the determination to close the achievement gap and to force accountability for schools that consistently fail to make progress - without offering any new returns?
We're still waiting on full details, but we're concerned. It's true that NCLB was far from perfect. Critics were right to attack its hyperfocus on test results, its unfunded mandates, and its loopholes which allowed states to dumb down their standards rather than help students reach higher ones. The original NCLB was all sticks and very few carrots, and that was discouraging to students, teachers and schools.
Obama is right to offer more carrots - his approach rewards schools that make progress, rather than just punishing them if they fail. Mirroring his innovating "Race to the Top" competitions for reform, Obama's budget offers $900 million in competitive "school turnaround" grants and $1.3 billion in competitive funds for recruitment and training of effective teachers. We saw in California this year how the promise of federal education money forced the Legislature to make some long-needed changes - like finally allowing teachers to be held accountable for student progress.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/07/EDB21BS2HT.DTL#ixzz0f3PL2rY0