Editorial: Federal education reforms more of the same

As a presidential candidate, President Barack Obama blasted the irresponsible No Child Left Behind education law of the Bush administration.

Now he plans to reauthorize it.

The law was passed in 2001 to improve the nation's public education system through increased accountability for school systems, more flexibility for school choice and greater autonomy for districts.

States are required to annually test students in grades 3 through 8 and again in high school in reading and mathematics proficiency.

In theory, the reforms seem great. But in reality, the funding requirements and adequate yearly progress reports have tied the hands of administrators across the country and forced teachers to "teach to the tests" in order to stay in the good graces of the federal government.

Because of this, many educators have complained that the mandates of No Child Left Behind have really meant that "no child gets ahead."

Despite Obama's formerly critical position on NCLB, his blueprint for reauthorization of the law won't change many of its original measures.

According to reports in The Washington Post, major changes to the law include dividing the nation's approximately 100,000 public schools into three categories: high performing, struggling and those in the middle.

Schools that do well will be rewarded with added funding and greater flexibility with programs; those struggling will be punished (for example, school principals in the bottom 5 percent student achievement will most likely be fired); and those in the middle will be, for the most part, left alone.

Another measurement program will be put in place of the adequate yearly progress reports, and the standardized tests that limit teacher's curriculum will remain.

One key change will be the tracking of the progress of individual students. Currently, classes are compared to the year before.

For example, this year's fourth graders are compared to last year's fourth graders to see if improvements were made. But that testing method obviously opens the measurement to statistical discrepancies.

Yes, the new installment of No Child Left Behind will be better than its predecessor.

But that's still not good enough for our education system.
We must increase the incentives for the best and brightest to become teachers.

We need to put the money where it works.

We need to realize that government mandates for academic achievement won't ever work until parents, teachers and school administrators are all on the same page.