Second Thoughts on No Child Left Behind

03/24/2009

Second Thoughts on No Child Left Behind

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

In an article in The National Review, Michael J. Petrilli, former associate assistant deputy secretary in the Bush administration's Department of Education and co-author of "No Child Left Behind: A Primer," writes that he's "gradually and reluctantly come to the conclusion that NCLB as enacted is fundamentally flawed and probably beyond repair."

A self-professed "True Believer" in the law during his years in the Bush administration, Petrilli now concedes problems that he had foreseen — that the "highly qualified teacher" mandate was a "huge overreach," and that requiring all states to reach proficiency by 2014 but allowing them to define proficiency would spur a "race to the bottom." But he also admits other problems that took him longer to recognize. These include the conversion of schools into "test-prep factories," and the fact that school-choice laws are meaningless when there are too few good schools for parents to choose. Petrilli says he remains a supporter of the ideas underlying the law, but no longer believes in "the machinery of the law itself." "The way forward," he writes, "starts with a more realistic assessment of what the federal government can reasonably hope to achieve in education," and includes weighted student funding and nationalization of standards.

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