Tougher Standards Urged for Federal Education Law

No Child Left Behind, the federal education law, should be toughened to judge teachers and principals by their students’ test scores, and to block chronically ineffective educators from working in high-poverty schools...

I have mixed feelings about this statement. On the one hand I agree that the standards should be toughened to help ensure that each student is receiving a quality education. On the other hand I disagree because I believe that this toughening of standards would be too much, too soon. No Child Left Behind has caused major problems and difficulties for schools trying to meet the minimum requirements. Some schools have yet to meet minimum requirements just once in the five years this law has been in place. While there is no simple answer I think a better solution would be to sign the law again, with nearly all the same requirements, and allow schools more time to meet the standards. The changes the law currently seeks are not easily achievable and require much more time for states, administrators, and teachers to devise and implement the necessary resources that will effectively bring about these changes. I don't want to oversimplify the issue at hand but I believe that the key to the success of No Child Left Behind is being more patient and allowing more time to reach the goals that have were set five years ago.

Source:
Schemo, Diana (2007, February 14). Tougher standards urged for federal education law. The New York Times, Retrieved February 15, 2007, from http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E13F83D5A0C778DDDAB0894DF404482