The Answer Sheet: No Child Left Behind


Posted at 05:05 PM ET, 01/10/2012

Ravitch: No Child Left Behind and the damage done
By Valerie Strauss
Education historian Diane Ravitch explores the damage done to American public education in the decade since No Child Left Behind became law.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:05 PM ET, 01/10/2012 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, Diane Ravitch

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 10/12/2011

NCLB bill: The problem with ‘continuous improvement’
By Valerie Strauss
State and local officials may think that changing No Child Left Behind to require “continuous progress” rather than adequate yearly progress will give them needed flexibility, but if so, they should think again.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 10/12/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 11:45 AM ET, 09/29/2011

MCPS superintendent: Have we really learned lessons of No Child Left Behind?
By Valerie Strauss
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr writes that he is concerned about what may take the place of No Child Left Behind.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:45 AM ET, 09/29/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 09/27/2011

A bet on No Child Left Behind
By Valerie Strauss
In 2008, Diane Ravitch and Richard Rothstein made a bet about the future of No Child Left Behind and public education in the United States. Rothstein explains who won.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 09/27/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 09/22/2011

The problem with Obama’s plan to issue NCLB waivers
By Valerie Strauss
President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan would do well to listen to Daniel Domenech on the subject of issuing states waivers from key provisions of No Child Left Behind.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 09/22/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 09/13/2011

Do we really need another NCLB hearing?
By Valerie Strauss
Oh good. Congress is holding another hearing on Adequate Yearly Progress, and if there is one thing we need in Washington, it is yet another discussion onNCLB.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 09/13/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 11:22 AM ET, 08/13/2011

Virginia and the NCLB mess Congress left behind
By Valerie Strauss
Virginia’s 2011 scores on the Standards of Learning have left more than 60 percent of public schools labeled as failing under No Child Left Behind.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:22 AM ET, 08/13/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  The Answer Sheet, No Child Left Behind

Posted at 11:43 AM ET, 08/12/2011

How Duncan’s NCLB waivers could look in 2013 (to Ed Sec Bachmann)
By Valerie Strauss
Rick Hess writes: “The Obama administration steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the problems with ED's "backdoor blueprint" waiver strategy or the ugly precedent that it's trying to set. But those with even a glimmer of imagination can see where this is going...”

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:43 AM ET, 08/12/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 08/09/2011

Why states should refuse Duncan’s NCLB waivers
By Valerie Strauss
Monty Neill of FairTest writes that states should refuse to accept the Education Department’s waivers from key provisions of No Child Left Behind because they have to give up too much in exchange.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:00 AM ET, 08/09/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 04:14 PM ET, 08/08/2011

Obama administration’s NCLB waivers and strong-arm tactics
By Valerie Strauss
The Education Department says it will grant waivers to states for relief from key provisions of No Child Left Behind, but only if they follow education reform the Obama administration supports.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:14 PM ET, 08/08/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind

Posted at 01:57 PM ET, 11/04/2010

Margaret Spellings: The last NCLB defender?
By Valerie Strauss
It's hard to find strong defenders of No Child Left Behind these days, except, perhaps, for Margaret Spellings.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:57 PM ET, 11/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind | Tags:  arne duncan, diane ravitch, education secretary arne duncan, jay mathews, margaret spellings, nclb, no child left behind, vincent gray

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 06/21/2010

Christian churches oppose Race to the Top, Obama blueprint
By Valerie Strauss
An extraordinary letter sent to President Obama and U.S. lawmakers by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA -- which represents churches that have a combined membership of 45 million people -- should erase any doubt that the opposition to the Obama administration's education policies is wide and deep.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 06/21/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  arne duncan and school reform, charter schools and pastoral letter, churches of christ, education reform, elementary and secondary school act and reauthorization, esea reauthorization, national council of the churches of christ, national council of the churches of christ in the usa, obama and blueprint and education reform, obama and school reform, pastoral letter, pastoral letter and obama and education, president obama's blueprint for education reform, race to the top, reauthorization of no child left behind

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 06/08/2010

Study: N.Y. teacher performance pay program flops
By Valerie Strauss
On the heels of a study about an ineffective program in Chicago linking student test scores to teacher pay, here's another one, with the same results, from a New York program. Do you see a pattern?

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 06/08/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  d.c. teachers contract, merit pay, michelle rhee, nclb, performance pay, teachers, teachers performance pay, test scores and pay

Posted at 11:37 AM ET, 05/19/2010

Rand Paul’s views on education and reform
By Valerie Strauss
The political man of the moment is Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist and political novice who won the Republican Senate primary in a sign of the attraction of the tea party’s anti-government message. So let’s take a look at his views on education and reform.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:37 AM ET, 05/19/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind | Tags:  NCLB, abolish education department, nclb and rand paul, no child left behind and paul, rand paul and education, rand paul and education department, rand paul and school reform, rand paul views on education

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 05/17/2010

Why Obama, Duncan should have kept quiet about Rhode Island teachers
By Valerie Strauss
Lo and behold, several months after every teacher at a low-performing Rhode Island high school was fired so the school could get a fresh start, and after Education Secretary Arne Duncan praised the firings as an act of “courage,” and after President Obama declared that the firings showed a “sense of accountability,” well, after all of that, the teachers have been rehired.

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 05/17/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  central falls high school, central falls teachers, rhode island teachers rehired, teachers and rhode island, teachers fired in rhode island, teachers rehired

Posted at 02:46 PM ET, 05/06/2010

How Obama should set literacy goals
By Valerie Strauss
A literacy expert writes that the Obama administration's proposal for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, A Blueprint for Reform, is on the right track in its literacy goals in its Blueprint for Reform. However, the goals as currently stated are very general and could lead to literacy approaches that might not be effective.

By Valerie Strauss  |  02:46 PM ET, 05/06/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  literacy goals, obama and blueprint for reform, obama and literacy, reauthorizing ESEA, rewriting nclb, rewriting no child left behind

Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 04/29/2010

What does being “college and career ready” mean?
By Valerie Strauss
It is one of President Obama’s key education reform goals: Ensuring that all students who graduate high school are “college and career ready” by 2020 is one of President Obama's key education reform goals. But what does that mean?

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:00 AM ET, 04/29/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind | Tags:  ESEA reauthorization, NCLB, Obama and education reform, college and career ready and obama, college and career ready,, what does "college and career ready mean"

Posted at 03:54 PM ET, 04/02/2010

Florida school reform: Worse than you thought
By Valerie Strauss
Look at the way the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature handles important issues and it becomes easier to understand the lack of serious thought that has gone into its dangerous school reform plans.

By Valerie Strauss  |  03:54 PM ET, 04/02/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind | Tags:  Florida, NCLB, school reform

Posted at 01:38 PM ET, 04/01/2010

Where in the world is...?
By Valerie Strauss
After Hurricane Katrina, one-third of Americans aged 18-24 could not locate Louisiana on a map, and almost half couldn’t find Mississippi. The country's general lack of geographic knowledge is why the National Geographic Society holds its annual geograpy bee for kids.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:38 PM ET, 04/01/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind | Tags:  geography, no child left behind

Posted at 01:00 PM ET, 03/31/2010

Closing the school-to-prison pipeline
By Valerie Strauss
By Judith Browne-Dianis. Every day, too many children in this country unnecessarily lose learning time and, too often, get criminalized for their immature actions. It's time to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. This is the civil rights challenge of our day.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:00 PM ET, 03/31/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  school equity, school to prison pipeline

Posted at 05:04 PM ET, 03/24/2010

Florida Senate approves disastrous teachers bill
By Valerie Strauss
On Wednesday, the Florida Senate passed a bill that would end job security for teachers in the state and require school districts to evaluate and pay them primarily on the basis of student test scores.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:04 PM ET, 03/24/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  FCAT and bush, Florida Senate Bill 6, NCLB, standardized tests, teachers

Posted at 11:19 PM ET, 03/18/2010

School restructuring and AYP
By Valerie Strauss
It’s a good thing that President Obama wants to eliminate the requirement in No Child Left Behind that required schools to prove that students were making “adequate yearly progress.” A new report shows one-third of the nation’s public schools failed to meet AYP targets in the 2008-09 school year. But Obama's faith in restructuring of schools that don't meet AYP is misplaced. An article by Alexander Russo explains some unexpected consequences of restructuring.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:19 PM ET, 03/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind | Tags:  NCLB, No Child Left Behind, President Obama, restructuring schools; education reform

Posted at 05:25 PM ET, 03/18/2010

Teacher who hung Obama in effigy should go
By Valerie Strauss
The teacher at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island who hung President OBama in effigy--apparently in reaction to Obama’s support of the firings--should go.

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:25 PM ET, 03/18/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  President Obama, central falls, rhode island school, teachers fired

Posted at 01:15 PM ET, 03/16/2010

Jay Mathews (and Obama) vs. me on tests
By Valerie Strauss
My unrivaled colleague Jay Mathews says I wrote that standardized tests "are too unreliable to tolerate.” I didn't exactly write that. Here is where Jay and I part company on the issue of how we use standardized tests.

By Valerie Strauss  |  01:15 PM ET, 03/16/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  No Child Left Behind, standardized tes

Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 03/13/2010

Obama’s contradictions on education
By Valerie Strauss
President Obama has said repeatedly that his education goal is to make sure that every child has a quality education and the opportunity to graduate from college -- and he displayed his commitment to that by donating some of his Nobel Prize money to organizations that help underserved children get ready for college. But his education policies are guaranteed not to reach that goal.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:00 AM ET, 03/13/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  Arne Duncan, No Child Left Behind, President Obama, Race to the Top

Posted at 11:56 AM ET, 12/01/2009

Cuban: 'The Leave No Pound Untouched' Act and how NOT to reform schools
By Valerie Strauss
By Larry Cuban. What might policymakers do if they were dead-set in reducing the number of fat kids? Imagine civic, business, and foundation leaders so worried about the social and individual costs of health problems that overweight children would face as adults that they wanted schools to fight a war on fat. Imagine, further, that these policy elites, riding the current moral crusade against fat children, wanted to solve the problem now.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:56 AM ET, 12/01/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  school reform

Posted at 06:30 AM ET, 11/19/2009

Diagnosed with “over-comprehension:” My standardized test nightmare
By Valerie Strauss
This really happened (and I hope Arne Duncan, Al Sharpton and Newt Gingrich read this): Second grade. Everglades Elementary School in Miami. Mrs. Hirsch, my classroom teacher, passed out the first standardized test I had ever taken. Math and language arts. I took the exam and declared that I had done very well. Soon after the outstanding Everglades principal, Mrs. Kazer, called my mother and said, “Libby, we have to talk....” I got every answer wrong. Why?

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:30 AM ET, 11/19/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind, No Child Left Behind | Tags:  Arne Duncan, standardized tests