Don't Just Get Rid Of NCLB, Get Rid Of The Thinking That Created It
Now that the mandate to run our nation's schools according to No Child Left Behind has utterly collapsed, and many of the best minds are suggesting that we move on, there is still a prevailing contingency seeking to not just prop up but expand many of the tenants of the failed policy.
Our political leadership in Washington DC continues to be obsessed with the intricacies of the accountability measures imposed by NCLB. Rich people continue to exhort educators to adopt business practices which are in great part what helped bring about NCLB. And state after state across the country continues to divert precious dollars from early childhood education, art and music teachers, and foreign language and advanced placement programs to teacher incentive and evaluation systems mandated by NCLB.
In just the latest absurdity of how lawmakers continue to use NCLB-inspired thinking to "leverage the system" by