How does one measure an education? Is it with test scores, scholarships, job offers, GPA? Under No Child Left Behind, the answer was definitely test scores. Students had to take standardized tests and do well in math and reading or schools would lose funding for their ineptness. (How that logic runs, I’m not quite sure, because it is underperforming students who most need extra time with teachers, and you can’t get one-on-one help in a class of 35.)

Remembering the good old days of high school, all NCLB meant was a few days off from classes to take some easy tests. We’d take the tests, get snacks and the next year be rewarded with off-campus lunch privileges for doing well. In other words, NCLB was not a significant consideration. As for the effectiveness of the jewel atop President George W. Bush’s education platform, well, there is still a large achievement gap between students of color and white students, between students from different socio-economic backgrounds and, yes, there are regional disparities as well. American students still do not rank supreme in terms of academic standing, either in math, reading, science or pretty much anything.

So the news that President Obama is taking up the baton of educational reform — pretty much doing away with NCLB and implementing an entirely new strategy — does not come as wholly unwelcome news. As both a student and a tutor, I have seen the disparate levels of academic ability that exists between students. It is incredibly disheartening to work with someone who is graduating from middle school and still does not know how to subtract fractions, or to see a sophomore in high school struggle to read even contemporary literature. Reaching these academic benchmarks is something most of us, dedicated enough to schoolwork as we were to make it into UW-Madison, take for granted. But when you really look into it, it is undeniable that the current education system is, no matter what certain bills are called, leaving children behind.

Obama’s new plan would not measure the educational merit of a school based solely on test scores, but rather on students’ improvement over time. Students would be assessed annually, and schools could choose which subjects they wish to measure students’ progress in — it does not have to be in just math or reading. Interventions would be staged in those schools that are seen as failing, and those schools that perform admirably would be rewarded. For those schools that fall somewhere in the middle, it would be up to the school districts to figure out how to raise performance. The goal of this bill, as opposed to the NCLB goal of challenging standards for all, would be to graduate all students at such a level where they are prepared for college or a career.

Support for the bill is not universal, and some opposition is coming from groups whose support should never be lacking when such a bill is passed — the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Their concerns will have to be addressed before lawmakers decide on anything. It is the teachers who really understand what is going on in our schools today, as they are ones who go out and buy school supplies for students when the district cannot afford it, who stay at school ’til late hours of the night to help struggling students. We need to trust our teachers and acknowledge that they know what they are doing, often more so than any elected official who views education as a campaign platform.

There is an inherent problem with attempting to measure one’s education. How much can truly be measured by one’s ability to fill in a bubble neatly and darkly using a No. 2 pencil? Education is distinctly immeasurable. And what about all the different things one learns in school? I learned a lot more than Calculus while in high school, and a lot of that knowledge is going to be just as useful to me in the future. Learning does not just take place in the classroom, but also in volunteering, working, participating in extra-curriculars and sports and maintaining friendships.

Something needs to be changed in the structure of our education system. Every student should finish the curriculum of his or her elementary school, middle school and high school with the full capacity to learn and understand what is going on around him or her. The status quo is failing students. This new proposed legislation is not perfect, and probably no legislation aimed at measuring education ever will be. But it is a little something, and maybe with enough little somethings, we’ll end up with something good. It’s a learning process.

Elise Swanson ([email protected]) is a freshman with an undecided major.