Commentary: Obama must examine No Child Left Behind

Annette Fuentes | The Progressive Media Project

"Our schools fail too many," he said, in his inaugural address.

One big reason for that is No Child Left Behind.

Seven years ago, President Bush signed it into law, and there is probably no public school in the United States that hasn't been shaken by the changes it set loose.

It requires a system of testing and standards that is supposed to raise student achievement in reading and math, especially for the lowest-achieving students (Latino, black and low-income students of all backgrounds). Schools have to maintain statistics, broken down by race, gender and income level, on which students passed proficiency tests. Supposedly, no longer can bad teachers or poor administrators hide their failures.

But from its beginning, No Child Left Behind has promised more than it can possibly deliver. It has failed to consider the reality of most classrooms, it has ignored how most children learn and it has underestimated the challenges teachers face. And if student scores haven't jumped up, it has strangled the schools' funding.

(More here.)