Living in a Post-NCLB World, Part II
Why did this happen? First, because NCLB didn’t work very well. The federal government is good at distributing money. It can fund research, provide information, and set standards. It has a significant if limited capacity to prohibit people from doing bad things. But it is very difficult for the federal government to make state and local governments do good things they don’t want to do. And that’s where NCLB fell down. You cannot create a regulatory apparatus that mandates, via adherence to enforceable rules, the transformation of bad schools into good ones.I’ve been thinking about this some more and thought it would be worth elaborating.
Brown v. Board was a case of the federal government prohibiting people from doing bad things. It hasn’t been
QUICK Hits
Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day.- What do Amazon.com and university rankings have in common? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
- Suppose that a collection of teachers got together, started a blog, and tried to grab policymakers’ attentions. What would happen? (The Chalkboard Project)
- Slate asks: When did it get to be so hard to fire a teacher? (Slate)
- Is Congressman Obey merely trying to make a point about the danger of summer learning loss? National Journal experts weigh in on RttT vs. EduJobs. (National Journal)
- What happened to studying? (The Boston Globe)
- Turnaround: Annapolis High School style? (NPR)