History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
An 'act of war?'
- 08-11-2011
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Blog by John Merrow/Huffington Post
The news that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is willing to give waivers to states struggling to meet the demands of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been greeted with a sigh of relief in lots of places. He calls the law 'a slow motion train wreck' while bemoaning the failure of Congress to write a new version of the law, which actually expired in 2007. Whether the 'relief' will be anything more than a Band-Aid remains to be seen, because the Secretary and Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes made it clear that, to get waivers, states will have to meet certain federal expectations regarding charter schools, the evaluation of teachers, and the acceptance of common core standards. The feds are not backing away from intense federal involvement in public education and may in fact be ratcheting up. Even so, I don't see the Secretary or anyone in the Administration examining what strikes me as the root of the problem: NCLB's demands for more and more testing in reading and math. (more...)
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