Reuters – Susan Cornwell
“Two senior U.S. senators released a bipartisan proposal on Tuesday that would shrink federal influence on U.S. elementary and secondary education, keeping a mandate for annual tests, but letting U.S. states decide how to use the results. The proposal is a rewrite of No Child Left Behind, a law signed in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush. It required that U.S. children take annual standardized tests, and sanctioned schools that do not meet performance targets. The law was intended to help children do better in school by setting high standards and increasing teacher accountability, but it was criticized as too test-focused and too punitive after struggling schools lost students and funding. Senator Lamar Alexander, the Republican chairman of the Senate’s education committee, and Senator Patty Murray, its top Democrat, negotiated for months to produce the bill announced Tuesday. They said there would be a committee vote on it next Tuesday.”(more)