Thursday, March 25, 2010

NCLB and Acronym Fatigue | Capitol News Connection

NCLB and Acronym Fatigue | Capitol News Connection

NCLB and Acronym Fatigue

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Posted 24 March 2010 by Megan Hughes from Washington ,
The past month, I've been covering how the DOE wants to reauthorize ESEA, and essentially do away with NCLB and the consequences for schools that fail to make AYP. This could change state tests across the country, from the MSA to the FCAT. Did you catch all of that?

Teachers often complain about "test fatigue." Well, as a reporter following around Arne Duncan and trying to explain the current state of standardized testing, I officially suffer from "acronym fatigue."

To give you that first bit in English: the Department of Education wants to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a law that was first enacted in 1965 as part of Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" package to fight poverty. The version of the act signed into law in 2002 under President George W. Bush is called "No Child Left Behind" (shortened to NCLB and pronounced nicklebee to education insiders.) It went into effect with bipartisan support and put in motion the practice of standardized testing that exists today. It also established the controversial benchmark of "Adequate Yearly Progress." Its reauthorization has been pending since 2007. Although it's been a lightning rod in the education community, it gets extended every year.