On September 23, President Barack Obama announced the most significant updates to the national No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements since it was implemented by the Bush Administration in 2001. In his speech, Obama noted that the NCLB changes are “the most important thing we can do to make sure our kids are prepared for this new economy. We must start making the tough decisions now to ensure our schools are working the way they need to work.”

Obama also noted that despite national efforts during the past decade to improve student progress, nearly one-fourth of American high schoolers are not graduating and the United States has fallen to 16th place in the proportion of young people with college degrees.

The Politics

Despite widespread dissension between Republicans and Democrats, a special Senate committee has finally agreed upon more than 20 proposed amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Most significantly, these changes will impact which schools are held accountable to the Annual Yearly Progress standards. Instead of every school across America having to prove proficiency in math and reading, only the bottom five percent of schools in each state will be required to participate in statewide achievement tests. Schools with the largest achievement disparity between ethnic and white students will also be obligated to follow the reformed federal guidelines. 

One proposal offers students who are attending these low-performing schools the option to transfer to higher-performing public schools, while another recommends firing teachers and principals and even closing schools that do not improve their dropout rates and test scores. Other suggestions include targeted interventions for low-performing schools and improved evaluations for principals and teachers. 

The Proposal

Frustrated with the bipartisan quarreling, until federal regulations are approved, President Obama has granted each state a reprieve from the looming national aspiration to achieve 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by 2014. Upon approval, states will now be allowed to determine which standards help them achieve the new national goal of having students ready for college or a career by 2020. 

“The change we are making is not lowering standards. Higher standards are the right goal. Accountability is the right goal. Closing the achievement gap is the right goal. We are giving more flexibility to meet higher standards,” Obama said in his speech. “Let states, schools and teachers come up with innovative ways to give our children the skills they need to compete for the jobs of the future.”

The Critics

Critics believe one of the major flaws of NCLB is that in trying to hold all schools accountable to the same standards, the performance and creativity of good schools have suffered because educators are required to teach to the test. A previously top-ranked school in Massachusetts, for instance, which had successfully sent every graduating student to college for three years, failed to meet all the technical standards of NCLB. State Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester was one of the first to submit an application for approval by the ESEA Flexibility committee of Massachusetts’ five-tier system to evaluate student progress. 

The majority of the new policies under consideration resulted from Obama’s Race to the Top competition that invited governors and school districts from all 50 states to present innovative plans to improve teacher skills and student achievements. “Since Race to the Top has been launched, we have seen what is possible when reform is not just a top-down mandate but the result of local teachers, principals, school boards and communities working together to develop better standards,” Obama noted in his speech. 

The Proponents

Proponents declare that by changing the pass-fail standards and making school districts, principals and teachers accountable for students’ performance, teacher quality will increase and cookie-cutter learning will go away. 

To date, 42 states have formally stated their intent to request a waiver from the federal requirements by either November 14 or mid-February. In December, a peer review panel will review the first set of alternative educational accountability plans from 17 states. While nearly everyone connected to NCLB agrees that changes must be made, the new program does not have the full support of several influential groups, including the teachers unions, many Congress members as well as student disability and minority groups. 

The Opponents

Opponents of the flexible guidelines worry the changes will serve as the catalyst for another Houston Miracle. During the 2000 Presidential campaign, George W. Bush hailed his home state of Texas as a symbol for what the NCLB Act could achieve. Within one year of implementing the regulations at Sharpstown High School in Houston, dropout rates plummeted, from 463 to zero, and test scores soared. 

When the national publicity prompted suspicious administrators to look into the records, they discovered each of the 3,000 students in Houston who had left school, more than 30 percent of the student population, had been coded as either transferring out of the state or returning to their native country. The inflation of the dropout numbers was motivated by a $5,000 bonus, plus other perks, given to principals who met the goals. Reprimands, demotions, transfers and forced resignations were doled out to under-performing principals. 

Although a state audit was never conducted, dozens of low-performing students later accused administrators of holding them back in ninth grade so they could avoid taking the 10th grade statewide achievement test. By restricting the test-taking pool, average scores increased significantly. An independent study concluded that one high school was guilty of holding back more than 60 percent of its ninth grade class.

The Future

To prevent the same mistakes from happening again, the new flexibility program will require states, districts and schools to make a determined commitment to reforming education. “The purpose is not to give a reprieve from accountability, but rather to unleash energy to improve our schools at the local level,” President Obama recently told the media. “We want to provide more resources, but there has also got to be a commitment [at the local level] to make the changes that are necessary so that we see actual results.”