n Public School Efforts, a Common Background: Private Education
By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: April 17, 2011
Ten years ago, the No Child Left Behind bill was passed by the House of Representatives, 384 to 45, marking the first step toward a major transformation of public education in America. The law has ushered in what its supporters like to call the “reform movement.”
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For the first time, human bias was removed from student assessment and replaced with scientific accountability systems.
No longer did teachers’ subjective opinions of children distort things. Scores on standardized tests became the gold standard.
No longer did a person with a clipboard have to spend days observing a school to determine whether it was any good. Because of the law, it is now possible for an assistant secretary of education to be sitting in his Washington office and, by simply studying a spreadsheet for a few minutes, know exactly how a school in