President Barack Obama’s administration will offer states relief from the nation’s main public-education law if they agree to his schools agenda. States can avoid provisions of the No Child Left Behind law if they sign off on yet-unspecified administration “reform,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes said Aug. 5 in a press briefing.
The Education Department has pushed states to adopt national academic standards and merit pay for teachers. No Child Left Behind requires that more students pass standardized tests each year to receive federal funding. The administration has criticized the law’s focus on holding schools accountable only through testing proficiency, saying that encourages dumbed-down standards. About 80 percent of U.S. schools risk being labeled failing if the law isn’t changed.
“We want to deliver a very important message to schools and districts and states and parents and to children,” Barnes said. “Relief is on the way. Low expectations, uneven standards and shifting goals are unacceptable. Those days are numbered.”
Duncan in June said the administration would grant state waivers to the law if Congress failed to approve legislation changing it by the start of this school year -- a deadline the legislature isn’t likely to meet.
John Kline, the Minnesota Republican who chairs the House education committee, criticized that plan as an administration power grab. His committee is working on a series of bills to change the law, he said. They include promoting the growth of charter schools -- privately run public schools -- and cutting spending by eliminating half of the federal education programs under the current law.
Washington Gridlock The administration’s waivers “could undermine the committee’s efforts,” Kline said in a statement. He said he will be monitoring Duncan’s actions “to ensure they are consistent with the law and congressional intent.”
Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat and Senate education committee chairman, said he still hopes the Senate can produce a “comprehensive bill” reauthorizing No Child Left Behind.
“That said, it is undeniable that this Congress faces real challenges reaching bipartisan, bicameral agreement on anything,” Harkin said in a statement.
No Child Left Behind, signed into law in 2002, is former President George W. Bush’s signature education initiative. Officially called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the law requires schools to show that all students are proficient on state standardized reading and math tests by 2014. Schools also must demonstrate yearly progress toward that goal or risk losing federal money.
Though specifics haven’t been set, schools would be released from that deadline and annual progress requirements if they agree to such changes as raising academic standards and evaluating teacher effectiveness based on student achievement and other measures, Duncan said. The department will make details public in September, and states could receive waivers this school year.
“I can’t overemphasize how loud the outcry is for us to do something now,” Duncan said.
Poster Comment:
the law requires schools to show that all students are proficient on state standardized reading and math tests by 2014.
Cruel and unusual!
