An Alternative NCLB (nee ESEA) Blueprint
by Frederick M. Hess • Sep 15, 2011 at 10:21 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
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ShareYesterday, several key Senate Republicans announced a five-bill package laying out their vision for overhauling No Child Left Behind (nee ESEA). The proposals offered by Senators Lamar Alexander, Richard Burr, Johnny Isakson, and Mark Kirk sketch a dramatically leaner federal role than does the Obama administration's "ESEA blueprint" (which itself represented a big step back from NCLB circa 2001).
The GOP proposals would retain strong federal requirements regarding transparency, annual assessment, and disaggregation of data; that Title I dollars be used to serve low-income children; and that states take steps to address their worst-performing Title I schools. But they would streamline the Title I plans that states submit to the Secretary of Education for approval, put an end to NCLB's ill-conceived and paper-driven "highly qualified teacher" provisions, provide immense flexibility when it comes to spending Title II and Title IV dollars, have Washington stop requiring states to label every school as making or not making "adequate yearly progress,
