How No Child Left Behind Threatens Florida s Successful Education Reforms heritage.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from heritage.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
No Child Left Behind represents a prescriptive, complex,one-size-fits-all federal policy that undermines the principles ofstandards, assessments, and accountability by trying to implementthem from Washington, D.C. Rather than using the blunt instrumentof "proficiency" testing, states should be free to use innovativemeasures of academic progress over time.
Real education reform means giving parents, teachers, and childrenmore options and empowering parents to make the decisions involvingtheir children's education.
Testing requirements in No Child Left Behind are causing a "race tothe bottom" that threatens to eliminate academic transparency about student performance, denying parents, citizens, and policymakersneeded information on school performance. Congress should endfederal goals for student testing and allow states to opt out ofNCLB and reassert their policymaking authority.
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings recently commented that the No Child Left Behind Act is nearly perfect. "I talk about No Child Left Behind like Ivory soap: It's 99.9 percent pure," Spellings said.