WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday morning
unveiled major changes in the way public schools are evaluated,
scrapping an essential element of President George W. Bush’s signature
education program in favor of letting states come up with their own
plans.
Bush had good intentions with his “No Child
Left Behind” plan of 2002, Obama told a crowd of educators and
students, but it ended up inspiring states to lower their standards and
schools to “teach to the test.”
“Accountability is
the right goal,” Obama said, “but experience has taught us that in its
implementation No Child Left Behind is … hurting instead of helping.”
Under
his new plan, Obama will basically throw out the requirement that every
student pass state tests by the 2013-2014 school year, and let states
draft their own plans to improve the performance of struggling students
in troubled schools.
Schools will not necessarily
get failure grades for missing particular goals on state achievement
tests and states will be eligible for more flexibility in how they spend
federal money previously marked for special tutoring programs.
Obama
hasn’t been able to reach an agreement in Congress on how to amend the
elementary and secondary education act that carries the No Child Left
Behind provisions, so the changes will come by way of state waivers.
The
Department of Education will let states apply to change the way they
test students and the way they judge school and district performance.
States may begin to apply as early as this November.
The
waivers will relieve elected officials all over the country who were
expecting a raft of school failure grades next year. Some 80 percent of
U.S. schools were projected to earn the “failed” label under the old
standards.
But some members of Congress are
already reacting negatively to Obama’s move to do this with his
executive power rather than through legislation. Some believe that Obama
and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are assuming too much power this
way.
Obama said Friday morning that he has no
other choice. His team has been working with Congress for several months
to try and remedy the problems without success.
“Congress has not been able to fix these flaws so far,” Obama said, “so I will.”
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