EDUCATION - No Child Left Behind Change ( About Time)

"Obama Orders Revamp of 'No Child Left Behind'" PBS Newshour 8/8/2011

Excerpt from transcript

GWEN IFILL (Newshour): For more, we are joined by Justin Snider. He's a contributing editor at The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on education.

JUSTIN SNIDER, The Hechinger Report: Well, I would say it's because we have tried the other way around. And we have tried to be tight on how to do it. And it hasn't worked.

We have been under NCLB for nine years now, and the progress that everybody wanted to see, everybody expected to see -- well, actually, realists probably realized we're not going to -- we're not going to see it -- hasn't happened.

And so we have got to try something different this time.

GWEN IFILL: And you're referring -- when you say the progress that people -- realists wanted to see was for Congress to act. And you say that is not going to happen.

So, explain to me what exactly this waiver would mean. Who gets it? Who decides who gets it? Exactly what do you have to do to get a waiver?

JUSTIN SNIDER: Well, Duncan has made it clear that all 50 states are eligible to apply for a waiver.

Unlike in Race to the Top, where it was clear from the beginning only some states would actually succeed, all 50 could succeed. But it is an application process. So a state will apply, and there will be an outside -- not just the Department of Education -- committee judging the state's application and deciding whether to issue the waiver.

Whether it's issued or not will depend on: one, whether the state has adopted standards that make it look like students will graduate from high school college- and career-ready; and, two, whether states are doing anything to evaluate their teachers' effectiveness; and, three, whether they're trying to turn around failing schools; and, four, whether they're doing anything -- or whether they have any plans to implement new accountability provisions.

Instead of the top-down way that is currently in place, they need to come up with local -- local methods to enforce accountability.

COMMENT: As I've said in the past, the problem with the current NCLB law (usual one-shoe-fits-all Washington approach) is that it relies on schools reaching a fixed goal-line. What a good program SHOULD do is have schools show IMPROVEMENT over time, until it reaches a general goal. On the punitive side, pulling money from schools does NOT help the issue, which is why having a fixed goal-line does not work. The schools should continue receiving money as long as they show improvement.