Last week Education Secretary Arne Duncan joined Morning Joe on MSNBC to talk about proposed changes to No Child Left Behind. Duncan commented that "we basically want to get out of the way of the states. While the law has good intent, there are fatal flaws today. Far too punitive. Many ways to fail, no reward for success."
What officials want to fix is the rigidity of the current law, which set standards so restrictive that entire schools are deemed to be failing if only a few students don't meet test standards. Under current rules, a school's success is based on a statewide test that assesses several categories. If just one subcategory — such as students with disabilities or those who are economically disadvantaged — doesn't make its federal Adequate Yearly Progress benchmark, then the entire school fails.
Since President Barack Obama announced last month that he would sign an executive order allowing states to request waivers from mandatory participation in NCLB, at least 27 have indicated that they will ask to opt out.
In response to a question on what changes they are proposing, Duncan replied,"We encourage states to raise standards not dummy them down from no child left behind. Make sure districts are turning around chronically under-performing school. In exchange we will get out of their way and give them more room to move. The trade-off is a higher bar and give them flexibility to hit the higher bar."
The Nebraska Department of Education does not believe Nebraska will qualify for the proposed waiver of NCLB requirements. Many states have adopted a set of Common Core Standards- Nebraska is not one of them.
The NCLB goal that all students will be proficient in Math and Reading is a worthy one, but it is not realistic to expect all students to be proficient if you have high standards. I would like to see the feds back off on the punishment for low achieving schools, and focus on improving student achievement in those schools on "the naughty list". I believe in holding schools accountable for the performance of their students and the importance of student proficiency in "reading, writing and arithmetic." These are the basic skills that students need before they can ever be considered "college and career ready", the latest term for describing 12th grade student proficiency.
NCLB is often criticized because it "leads to teaching to the test." Yet all good teachers have objectives for their students and assess student progress toward meeting those objectives- which is teaching to the test. As far as I am concerned, this criticism is a false and misleading argument, jargon for those who fear accountability.
