The Christian Science Monitor – Amanda Paulson
“Most people agree that No Child Left Behind has had plenty of flaws in practice and has long passed its usefulness, now requiring a complicated system of waivers so that states can bypass requirements. Among other things, critics claim that it’s led to too much testing, created incentives for states and districts to lower standards, and forced “fixes” for “failing” schools that often created turmoil while solving little. But it’s much harder to get people to agree on what a new law should look like. This week, the Senate is debating its version of a rewrite of the law, now dubbed the Every Child Achieves Act. And the House approved its own version on Wednesday. This is the closest Congress has gotten to a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act since No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed in 2001.”(more)