I’m glad he’s looking to overhaul this. A lot of teachers I’ve heard from are very frustrated with how it has played out in everyday practice.
This is an issue that I think is best handled on a local level but I don’t ever see us going back to that and hope that they’ll continue to reform the Dept of Ed and related policies

On the plus side, NCLB needed a huge overhaul, underfunded garbage that it was. I wonder whether this is going to work or not though. I’m a huge fan of the Obama plan to shore up the community college system, but how will this really work?
Part of the problem of the original was the focus on standardized testing, which was problematic as it left absolutely brilliant kids with learning disabilities in a bad spot. This doesn’t necessarily alleviate that particular requirement, but adds other, possibly even more problematic,stuff to it.
There are already complaints that some school districts are graduating kids that have no business holding a high school diploma. Will a focus on attendance and graduation encourage struggling schools to reduce classroom challenge and shove kids through that are unable to meet even the most basic requirements?
If I understand it correctly, it also seems to me to favor the stereo-typical white, middle-class schools. Top performers (not inner city) will be rewarded and learning climate (again, not inner city) will be graded. Inner city/impoverished area schools will find themselves on the wrong end of this one.
While I’m pretty sure the bill will take those concerns into account, I’d really be interested in hearing from actual educators on this one.

I agree, the laudable goal “that all students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career” is every bit as utopian as anything under the prior law.
This teacher (below) shares his experience. I think it gives a hint of what many public educators are up against when trying to reach that nice-sounding goal, and how many students are in fact currently leaving the public education system:
http://www.gazette.net/stories/011008/princol132359_32358.shtml
?The tragedy here is that it is David who is ? after 11 years of schooling ? ??useless? in almost every way, except as a consumer. David doesn?t know who fought World War II, the issues centered on the Russian Revolution, or when the Civil War was fought, can?t find Iraq or Vietnam on a world map, can?t count back change, can?t figure the square footage of the house he probably will never own and doesn?t know who delivered the Beatitudes. Also, he can?t consistently drive a finishing nail, wire a junction box, hang, mud and tape drywall or write a standard business letter.
?Finally, the only thing David can or will bring to our broken world is a defiant attitude of learned helplessness. We?ve taught many (most?) of a generation lessons in consumerism, boredom, violence, apathy, sexuality and fear. But not much else. It was, in fact, an ??easy sell.? We shouldn?t be surprised by David?s choice.?
?David glances over at me approaching him, puts his baseball cap on backward and walks into the hallway. The entire class laughs and, with some students standing up, applauds.?

If you have standards, some teachers will teach to standards and stop. If you don’t have standards, will kids really learn more? Good teachers should teach the standards and then go beyond. This complaint never made much sense to me. The standards are minimums.
If you have no standards, how to do you hold anyone accountable?

This is all garbage…and I am a teacher…in the most regulated education state in the Union….California…the article posted by Karl is absolutely correct…that type of student used to be the exception to the rule…the troublemaker…the outcast…the one that simply refused to abide by the rules…now that type of student is the norm…the expectation…the desired result of the bureaucratic idiots in all levels of government…that type of student is now the average…and the superior student..the one going to college based on merit not affirmative action or a desire simply to not let on how much our children don’t know…that A/B student is the exception.. the ridiculed by other students…the outcast…the social leper simply because they turn in their work daily, study for tests, and obey the rules of the school and teacher. oh yeah..they also listen to their parents and don’t talk back and don’t use F-this every other word even when talking casually to friends or an adult…. but then again…it isn’t the teachers…it is the system.. and mostly the parents…parents that rebelled against their parents now have children with no morality or ethics…the parent dresses inappropriately, acts defiant, expects to be handed a “good” life…so why should the child be any different… NCLB was a stupid law to begin with…funded or not…it is unconstitutional as is the Federal compulsorary education statutes… education worked best when left to the state and local districts… just like government…the Fed should be out of education as much as possible…so should the jerkoffs in the NEA and other unions… education should be handled first at home, then by the teacher… there are numerous examples around the country of entire districts that opted out of federal money and sometimes even state money and are outperforming other funded districts on every level…have higher literacy and math scores…higher REAL graduation rates…higher college attendence rates…and generally produce a BETTER caliber of young man or woman who is respectful, dutiful, and socially and emotionally better adjusted to their role in society… education when funded by the Federal government is nothing more than indoctrination of the uninformed by the cronically stupid to a mindset of entitlement and lack of pride

One of the problems that led to NCLB being enacted was the lack of standards from teacher to teacher. Just this year in my fifth grade class we got a student from a different school in the district. The student scored at the one percentile in the state standardized tests, yet was given a proficient grade by his fourth-grade teacher. No doubt this is multiplied many times over across the country. We need some type of accountability system, although I agree with the changes Obama’s trying to make. Most of my class are English as a Second Language students, and they are held accountable to the test after just one year in the country.
I agree with Your Name that teachers’ unions stand in the way of true ed reform. The head of our teacher’s union is on the board of directors of one of the two health care providers that we can choose from. Guess one provides the most benefits, but is also the way more expensive to the school district? Just down the road in Milwaukee an educational reporter found that up to 450 teacher positions could be saved by changing a health care option plan without reducing quality of coverage. And teachers’ unions have balked at every reform Obama and Duncan have proposed.