We will see how far this debate will go.


Federal legislators and presidential candidates are setting up No Child Left Behind to fail. John Edwards is the latest candidate to suggest that we need multiple ways to "measure higher-order thinking skills, including open-ended essays, oral examinations, and projects and experiments." That translates into loopholes that will allow school districts to skirt accountability and confuse parents as to how well their schools are really doing.

Edwards betrays a lack of sound understanding of good educational practice as well. Kids who can't master the basics simply aren't ready to be tested on "higher-order thinking skills."

Rep. George Miller, the Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee and an original sponsor of the NCLB, has proposed watering down the law to allow additional accountability measures, such as school graduation rates to supplement standardized tests.


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Well, if they would have give the program adequate funding it might have been more of a success, As it is, it was a promised program nothing more than a political carrot to make voters think Bush actually cared about education.

IMO, you just summed up ALL conserv ideas on the domestic side of government. Carrots with no real progress. Just window dressing.

More on the so-called program.


As an education ’08 campaign issue, No Child Left Behind has been a bit of a dud.

Although Republican and Democratic front-runners can’t find a good word to say about the president’s signature school reform law, they’ve all found creative ways to straddle the issue in tones that sound sweet to their constituencies.

But don’t assume education will end up a dud issue in the presidential elections. There’s a sleeper (dare I say napping?) issue bubbling up: preschool. I’m guessing you haven’t noticed that the earnest and usually uncontroversial issue of preschool has taken on a bit of political zip.


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No Child Left Behind has been a bit of a dud

From what I've read about it, it's been more than a bit of a dud. The teachers don't like it, the school boards don't like it, and it has had limited success.

It was a typical conserv program. It sounded good but as a domestic program it sucked!

It was underfunded shortly after the ink dried.