Behind Act News Today

Testing requirements in No Child Left Behind are causing a "race tothe bottom" that threatens to eliminate academic transparency about student performance, denying parents, citizens, and policymakersneeded information on school performance. Congress should endfederal goals for student testing and allow states to opt out ofNCLB and reassert their policymaking authority.

American leaders have emphasized the need to improve performance inscience, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Instead of focusing on federal solutions and increasing federalspending policymakers and the private sector should refocusattention on systemic education reforms at the state, local, andschool levels to dramatically increase the number of students whosucceed in STEM fields at school and in the workforce.

Many District of Columbia students attend schools where they are too often exposed to crime and violence. Policymakers in the District should recognize that school safety is an important problem and should redouble efforts to reduce crime and violence, and D.C. families should be given the power to choose the best schools for their children so that more children can attend school in a safe learning environment.

States and school districts must implement the school choiceprovisions in the No Child Left Behind Act at the beginning of thenew school year. Some states will comply readily while others willdo the bare minimum to get by.

Two years after its enactment, implementation of the No Child LeftBehind law proceeds by trial and error. Congress missed theopportunity to enact significant programmatic flexibility forstates. It should resist special interest demands for more funding(states have billions of unspent education funds), ensure effectiveimplementation of parental choice and tutoring options, and enactgreater flexibility for the states.

A compilation of national education statistics.

Seven years ago, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act, billed as an antidote to what ails America's public schools. But if President-elect Barack Obama wants to improve our education system, he should look at what Jeb Bush did in Florida, not what George W. Bush signed in Washington. The No Child Left Behind Act, also known as NCLB, has been a troubled program. It stripped away much local school autonomy and expanded red tape and micromanagement from Washington-based bureaucra...