Critics Seek Changes To NCLB

A McClatchy (9/16, Vickers, Arkin, Bansal) article about the impact of No Child Left Behind over the past decade presents the views of a number of education experts on the disconnect between the law's intentions and its actual results. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, McClatchy reports, says that while the law had laudable goals, it failed to adequately fund its mandates, leading to hardships for districts. Meanwhile, education historian and former ED official Diane Ravitch argues that the law's "unrealistic" requirements of universal student proficiency-in addition to its narrow curricular focus- "has been detrimental for schools." McClatchy notes that Education Secretary Arne Duncan has moved to lessen the punitive impact of the law, but has been criticized by Ravitch and others for tying relief to his own education agenda. Meanwhile, Donna Harris-Aikens, director of education policy and practice for the National Education Association, dismissed the law's benchmarks as "arbitrary."