Blog #7: Bill Would Overhaul No Child Left Behind

Senior Senate Democrat Tom Harkin released a draft for revisions to the No Child Left Behind education law on Tuesday that would dismantle the provisions of the law that used standardized test scores in reading and math to label tens of thousands of public schools as failing. This is the first piece of legislation overhauling the law to reach either Congressional chamber since President George W. Bush signed it in 2002. The Harkin bill would give back some powers to states that were taken over by Washington under the Bush-era law. This includes the leeway to devise their own systems for holding schools accountable for student progress. Mr. Harkin’s bill would keep the law’s requirements that states test students in reading and math every year in grades three through eight, but it wouldn’t hold schools responsible to raise the proportion of students showing proficiency on the tests each year. Critics of the bills are saying that “Congress, parents and taxpayers would have no meaningful mechanism by which to hold schools, districts, or states accountable for improving student outcomes.”

I think that a revision of the No Child Left Behind law is vital for our children’s future education. Although a good idea in theory, the law has no helped students the way it was meant to when it was created. Children are still falling behind, and instead of it only being the low socioeconomic students, it is all ranges of students who are suffering. I think that we need to look outside our own country and our own past, and see what other countries are doing to improve their education systems. If this bill or a bill similar to it is passed, this will bring America’s education rankings up to those of Japan and other successful countries. Our children will be able to better interact with these people in the future and be more competitive in the workforce.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/education/12educ.html?_r=1&ref=education