Obama to overhaul No Child Left Behind...

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Does he get any props for this? This is a GREAT move, I can't see how anyone can oppose it.


The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush?s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law?s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.

"This law must be completely overhauled. Enough is enough. Children are indeed humiliated and labeled failures through no fault of their own or their teachers."


Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers? unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable.

Yet the administration is not planning to abandon the law?s commitments to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and to encouraging teacher quality.

Significantly, said those who have been briefed, the White House wants to change federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded based on academic progress, rather than by formulas that apportion money to districts according to their numbers of students, especially poor students. The well-worn formulas for distributing tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have, for decades, been a mainstay of the annual budgeting process in the nation?s 14,000 school districts.

Peter Cunningham, a Department of Education spokesman, acknowledged that the administration was planning to ask Congress for broad changes to the education law, but declined to describe the changes specifically.

He said that although the administration had developed various proposals, it would solicit input from Congressional leaders of both parties in coming weeks to create legislative language that can attract bipartisan support. Some details of the president?s proposals are expected to be made public on Monday, when the president outlines his $3.8 trillion budget for the 2011 fiscal year.

The changes would have to be approved by Congress, which has been at a stalemate for years over how to change the policy.

Currently the education law requires the nation?s 98,000 public schools to make ?adequate yearly progress? as measured by student test scores. Schools that miss their targets in reading and math must offer students the opportunity to transfer to other schools and free after-school tutoring. Schools that repeatedly miss targets face harsher sanctions, which can include staff dismissals and closings. All students are required to be proficient by 2014.

Educators have complained loudly in the eight years since the law was signed that it was branding tens of thousands of schools as failing but not forcing them to change.

The secretary of education, Arne Duncan, foreshadowed the elimination of the 2014 deadline in a September speech, referring to it as a ?utopian goal,? and administration officials have since made clear that they want the deadline eliminated. In recent meetings with representatives of education groups, Department of Education officials have said they also want to eliminate the school ratings system built on making ?adequate yearly progress? on student test scores.

?They were very clear with us that they would change the metric, dropping adequate yearly progress and basing a new system on another picture of performance based on judging schools in a more nuanced way,? said Bruce Hunter, director of public policy for the American Association of School Administrators, who attended one of the meetings.

The current system issues the equivalent of a pass-fail report card for every school each year, an evaluation that administration officials say fails to differentiate among chaotic schools in chronic failure, schools that are helping low-scoring students improve and high-performing suburban schools that nonetheless appear to be neglecting some low-scoring students.

Instead, under the administration?s proposals, a new accountability system would divide schools into more categories, offering recognition to those that are succeeding and providing large new amounts of money to help improve or close failing schools.

A new goal, which would replace the 2014 universal proficiency deadline, would be for all students to leave high school ?college or career ready.? Currently more than 40 states are collaborating, in an effort coordinated by the National Governors Association and encouraged by the administration, to write common standards defining what it means to be a graduate from high school ready for college or a career.

The new standards will also define what students need to learn in earlier grades to advance successfully toward high school graduation.

The administration has already made its mark on education through Race to the Top, a federal grant program in which 40 states are competing for $4 billion in education money included in last year?s federal stimulus bill. In his State of the Union address, Mr. Obama hailed the results so far of that competition, which has persuaded states from Rhode Island to California to make changes in their education laws. States that prohibit the use of test scores in teacher evaluations, for example, are not eligible for the funds. The competition has also encouraged states to open the door to more charter schools, which receive public money but are run by independent groups.

More here...
Administration Proposals Seek Broad Changes to ?No Child Left Behind? - NYTimes.com

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Some more on it...

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is proposing to overhaul the No Child Left Behind education law, replacing the school accountability system that has slapped a failing label on more than a third of schools, including many that made big gains but just missed their annual targets.

No Child Left Behind prods schools to improve test scores each year, so that every student can read and do math on grade level by the year 2014.

In his budget plan, Obama proposed judging schools differently, looking at student growth and schools' progress from one year to the next. Schools that do well would get incentives and rewards; schools that do poorly would face intervention and other consequences.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan credited No Child Left Behind with shining a spotlight on children who need the most help. But he told reporters Monday on a conference call the law "does too little to reward progress."

The president's budget plan says Obama would recognize and reward schools for helping kids make gains, even if they aren't yet on grade level.

Administration officials have spent recent weeks discussing their goals in meetings with education groups. Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, said "this administration is not going to retreat" from pushing poor-performing schools to do better.

"The reality is, less might be expected of some, but more will be expected of others," said Haycock, who participated in the meetings.

There are no details yet; officials have spoken only broadly about their plan.

Championed by President George W. Bush and signed into law in 2002, No Child Left Behind is overdue for a rewrite and Obama hopes Congress will pass a new law this year.

Critics argue the law's annual reading and math tests have forced other subjects like music and art from the classroom and that schools were promised billions of dollars that never showed up.

The new budget blueprint, and the recent meetings with education groups, give a look at Obama's thinking on other aspects of the law:

_Teachers. The 2002 law said all teachers in core academic subjects must be "highly qualified" but let states define what that meant; as a result, most teachers in the U.S. are now deemed highly qualified. Instead, Obama wants to measure teachers by how much their students improve, and he wants to do a better job of making sure disadvantaged kids, who are more likely to get inexperienced teachers, get experienced ones. The budget would create a $950 million competitive grant program for teacher recruitment and retention.

_Spending. Obama wants to make federal education spending more competitive to drive states and schools to do better, rather than relying on formulas that give states and districts a certain amount of money regardless of how well they educate kids. The president began with the $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" competitive grant program created by the economic stimulus. His budget would make more K-12 spending competitive ? but money from the larger programs, those for poor children and children with disabilities, still would be distributed through traditional formulas. And his budget would add another $1.35 billion to the Race to the Top program.

_Standards. The president is pushing states to adopt tougher academic standards; his budget would give states money to align math and science teaching with higher standards. Nearly all the states have signed onto an effort by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers to develop a set of high-quality standards. The Race to the Top program also will reward states for working toward those standards.


Obama would overhaul No Child Left Behind - Yahoo! News