The Education Business Blog
Ann Foster of Parents for Public Schools has a great post about the pending No Child Left Behind reauthorization. She is a former school board member and presents a good balanced view of some of the key issues that need to be addressed.
In particular I appreciate her focus on the problems of including most Special Education students in the regular testing regime. She writes:
But perhaps the biggest travesty of all involved the most challenged and vulnerable students in the school district – children with physical and mental disabilities – which in some cases included those who could not even sit up. Sure, there was a provision in the NCLB law that allowed districts to exclude a certain percentage of special education students. But it had no relation to the number of special education students in the district. As a result, some children had to take the test who should have never been required to. It was cruel and unusual punishment. And it should never have happened.
Hear hear.
She also covers high-qualified teacher requirements, unfunded mandates, and other issues that Congress should deal with fairly this time around.