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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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In Our View: Leaving No Child Behind

Bipartisan plan makes much-needed improvements to federal education law

The Columbian
Published:

Congress finally seems prepared to adjust the No Child Left Behind Act and, well, leave it behind.

Led by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a bipartisan, bicameral committee recently approved by a 39-1 vote a revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides the foundation for President George W. Bush’s signature legislation. The compromise involved is noteworthy, as is the need to update the No Child Left Behind Act. Under No Child provisions, 88 percent of public schools in Washington last year were deemed as “failing,” a fact that points out the unrealistic nature of the law.

The compromise forged by Murray and Alexander contains victories — and defeats — for both sides of the aisle. As Russell Berman wrote for The Atlantic: “Advisers and advocates in both parties described the bill as a genuine compromise between a bipartisan plan that passed the Senate and a more conservative House bill that would have eviscerated the federal role in education policy and shifted more resources away from needy schools.”

The proposal will reduce the reliance upon high-stakes tests, particularly in evaluating teacher performance. But it will retain such tests in assessing schools and will require schools to make test results public and break them down by students’ race, income, and disability status. It will free schools from some federal oversight that many critics feel is oppressive, but will require states to intervene with the bottom 5 percent of schools in terms of performance.

The bill also will establish funding of $250 million annually for early childhood education, which was a priority for the Obama administration and for Murray, a former preschool teacher.

The House of Representatives is expected to consider the bill in early December, with the Senate following. And while passage is expected, compromise is never easy in Washington, D.C. As Alexander said: “This is a difficult subject. It’s like being at a football game with 100,000 people in the stands, and every one of them knows what play to call next — and usually says so.”

Education reform is, indeed, difficult. The No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001 with strong bipartisan support, but it has been a political football ever since. With Congress having been due to update the legislation since 2007 but failing to find the will to do so, the Obama administration has exercised increasing power over education policy. A total of 42 states have received waivers for No Child Left Behind provisions, but Washington lost its waiver when it declined to mandate student testing as a measurement of teacher performance. Murray said, “Our bipartisan agreement will reduce reliance on high-stakes testing, so students and teachers can spend less time on test prep and more time on learning.”

Equally important is the retaining of safeguards for low-income students or those who have difficulty learning. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told The Atlantic: “It corrects what the federal government has gotten wrong in terms of policy, but it maintains what the federal government has gotten right in terms of policy.”

The goal remains to continue what was stated in the previous legislation — leave no child behind. As the compromise forged by Sen. Murray appears to demonstrate, there is a smarter avenue for achieving that desire.

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