NCLB: Act II covered federal developments affecting education. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: federal.
On the campaign trail, President Obama pledged: "You don’t reform our schools by opposing efforts to fully fund No Child Left Behind." He said that in his biggest education speech of the general election campaign.
At the National Governors Association's winter meeting this weekend, most news organizations focused on some governors' reluctance to take portions of the stimulus money. (For examples of the coverage, see here and here.)
Here's a thought experiment: As a parent, I know that my son's elementary school in a "leafy green" suburb of Washington made AYP last year. But what if that school had needed to make AYP as it's defined in South Carolina, where the proficiency levels are notoriously higher? Or California, which has set low annual targets until the 2014 goal of universal proficiency begins to loom? Or Maryland, which has the smallest "n" size of any state—a fact that makes it more difficult to make AYP across all of the subgroups of students?
Rep. George Miller told my colleague Alyson Klein that the economic stimulus package would make it easier to reauthorize NCLB. By putting money on the table for schools, President Obama has demonstrated that he is going to be serious about fully funding the law, the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee argued.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spent this morning at a Northern Virginia school promoting the need for school construction money in the economic stimulus package. Yesterday, though, he spoke to the American Council on Education's annual meeting and discussed an issue that may be important for the next version of the NCLB.
One inquiring mind asked me this week why this blog has been dark for three weeks. The simple answer is: NCLB hasn't been in the news. Everything has been about the stimulus. Until last Thursday.
Over at the Quick and the Ed, Robert Manwaring asks an important question about the Title I money in the stimulus package: How would cash-strapped districts comply with the program's "supplement, not supplant" rule?
Alyson Klein provides an extensive summary of the $100 billion for education in the Democratic economic stimulus package. You also can read the House Appropriations Committee's 13-page summary.
In The Washington Post today, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings tells her prospective successor to keep NCLB. If you've heard her speak in the past two years, you wouldn't learn anything new. Test scores are up, she writes, especially among poor and minority children. The backlash against NCLB's accountability rules, she writes, "speak[s] to the harsh truths it reveals."
Has NCLB improved the targeting of money toward low-income students? I went round and round and round on that question with John See, Kevin Carey, and Michael Dannenberg back in December 2007. All of it was based on the reporting for this story.
Stay informed with EdWeek Update, our daily newsletter.
Reprints, Photocopies and Licensing of Content
All content on Education Week's websites is protected by copyright. No part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the written permission of the copyright holder. Readers may make up to 5 print copies of this publication at no cost for personal, non-commercial use, provided that each includes a full citation of the source. For additional print copies, or for permission for other uses of the content, visit www.edweek.org/help/reprints-photocopies-and-licensing-of-content or email reprints@educationweek.org and include information on how you would like to use the content. Want to seamlessly share more EdWeek content with your colleagues? Contact us today at pages.edweek.org/ew-for-districts-learn-more.html to learn about how group online subscriptions can complement professional learning in your district or organization.