A general consensus in the education community is rare, but it appears that the vast majority of educators are rallying around the idea of trashing the No Child Left Behind law.
I am one of the many educators who are thrilled about the prospects of trashing the trash, but my excitement tempered when I started reviewing the details of the program that may replace it.
The proposed program, unveiled by the Obama administration over the weekend, is better. But a destructive method still remains—punishing the lowest performing schools by withholding funds.
There would be a mass ranking of the 70,000 public schools with the lowest 10 percent ineligible to apply for additional federal funds. In addition, the lowest 5 percent would be required to choose between shutting down, replacing half of the teaching staff, firing the principal, or converting to “independent management” (i.e., privatized).
