Education Law

Abolish NCLB Now

The Concord Monitor had a great commentary piece in their Sunday paper titled, “Education reform is failing kids” and noted, “The Obama administration wants to reform No Child Left Behind. Reform, however, is not what this act needs. NCLB should be abolished.”

NSBA is urging Congress to act by summer to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and replace the flawed accountability requirements in No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

NSBA?s timetable for action was reinforced by recent remarks from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Duncan warned that, based on Department estimates, as many as 82 percent of U.S. public schools could fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the 2011-12 school year?even in many schools that are exceeding previous achievement gains for their students. This year, 37 percent failed to meet the AYP benchmark.

“Although the intent of Congress was to improve academic achievement by all students, with particular emphasis on English language learners (ELL), students in poverty, and students with disabilities, the design of the current accountability framework in NCLB is seriously flawed,”said Michael A. Resnick, NSBA?s Associate Executive Director for Advocacy and Public Policy. “Further, when schools are identified as failing under this flawed system, the law then imposes a system of sanctions that is also flawed in terms of high cost, overbroad scope, and limited effectiveness in raising student achievement.”

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on March 28, 2011 (boomark / email).