Change? How much? To what Degree?


It is fairly obvious that the present Bush Administration’s Department of Education is locked into their process of “test and punish” with relation to No Child Left Behind. Responding to much criticism over many years, their idea of profound change of the process is to develop a pilot program in which schools can now be labeled with different levels of failure.

The announcement of this new (March, 2008) policy creating a spectrum of failure came with the following press release: “Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced a new pilot program under No Child Left Behind aimed at helping states differentiate between underperforming schools in need of dramatic interventions and those that are closer to meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind. I'm announcing a new pilot that will help states improve underperforming schools. This "differentiated accountability" program will invite up to 10 states to create more nuanced ways of distinguishing between schools in need of dramatic intervention, and those that are closer to meeting goals.” http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2008/03/03182008.html

This new policy sounds as effective in dealing with the deficiencies of NCLB as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

As you know by now, Arne Duncan has just been named the U.S. Secretary of Education in the Obama administration. Will he propose changes to Congress concerning the reauthorization of NCLB? If so, then what kinds of changes?

Some hints might come from his writings. Arne Duncan was one of the original task force members & signatories of the position paper A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. http://www.boldapproach.org/statement.html

Some of the points made in the position paper were:
-- “The effectiveness of NCLB has also been weakened by its unintended side effects, such as a narrowing of the curriculum”
--“…the broader, bolder approach pays attention not only to basic academic skills and cognitive growth narrowly defined, but to development of the whole person…”
--“[The new approach] assigns value to the new knowledge and skills that young people need to become effective participants in a global environment…”
--“… test scores alone cannot describe a school’s contribution to the full range of student outcomes.”
--“New accountability systems should combine appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods, and they will be considerably more expensive than the flawed accountability systems currently in use by the federal and state governments.”

In a speech Nov. 17, 2008 in New York, Arne Duncan stated of Obama “He is interested in results. … Rather than debate governance models – he urges an open mind to new strategies and approaches. He will support whatever works best.” http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2008/11/transition-chic.html

Obama’s campaign education platform stated: “Obama and Biden believe teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. They will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama and Biden will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.”
http://change.gov/agenda/education_agenda/

The important questions are will Mr. Duncan continue the tradition of rearranging deck chairs? Or will more substantial change to NCLB occur?

What do you think?



(Titanic image courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology)