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.