George F. Will Gets Beyond NCLB

From tomorrow's Washington Post George Will writes: No Child Left Behind, supposedly an antidote to the "soft bigotry of low expectations," has instead spawned lowered standards. The law will eventually be reauthorized because doubling down on losing bets is what Washington does. But because NCLB contains incentives for perverse behavior, reauthorization should include legislation empowering

U.S. Students Not Comparing Well With Others

It seems as though American students continue underperforming when compared to many of their international peers: Finland and South Korea have topped the world in a new student ranking survey.According to the OECD, the two countries lead the world when it comes to education, especially in reading and science.In particular, Finnish students ranked top in science, while South Korean teenagers were

The Spellings Report: Pushing NCLB

The nation's report card has just come out and Queen of All Testing U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is positively giddy over the news: "Student achievement is on the rise," said Secretary Spellings. "No Child Left Behind is working. It's doable, reasonable and necessary. Any efforts to weaken accountability would fly in the face of rising achievement."Spellings noted that 48 states

Is This How To Build A Better NCLB?

The federal No Child Left Behind Act is up for reauthorization, and among the interested parties the jockeying for position has begun:Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House education committee, says he hopes to steer a bill renewing the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) through the House this fall, and one of the key changes he plans to propose is incentives for states and

President Bush: The Reasoning Behind NCLB

President Bush tells us why he pushed N.C.L.B. in the first place: all he wanted to do was help public schools: President Bush, acknowledging public frustration over his No Child Left Behind Act, said Thursday the point of the law is not to punish schools that fall short, but to help them.Bush suggested the White House and its allies must do a better job of explaining the goal of holding schools

NCLB And The New EduReality

With the federal No Child Left Behind Act up for renewal this year, Democratic control of Congress has changed what was once a given into a somewhat likely: President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind education law is headed for fundamental changes as Congress rewrites it this year, including a likely softening of do-or-die deadlines.School administrators long have complained about the annual

The NCLB Files: The Day Of Reckoning Approacheth

The Day of Reckoning is rapidly approaching for a number of Florida public schools: DADE CITY - It's the last day of FCAT testing, and folks at Cox Elementary are breathing a sigh of relief as they give the final makeups and pack up the materials.But worry tinges the air. The school has yet to make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the federal No Child Left Behind law. If this year's