Recently, President Barack Obama has granted the state of Wisconsin a waiver to be exempt from many of the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, as reported by the Sheboygan Press. The No Child Left Behind Act has been at the forefront of criticism for several years now, with many in education stating the law’s primary goal of all students reaching a proficient level in math and reading is unobtainable. Schools that did not reach the 100% proficiency goal would be labeled failures, sanctioned and have their funding cut.
Many other critics believe that NCLBA has actually caused schools to have lower and more limited standards. By requiring schools to show their student’s proficiency through standardized tests with narrow testing ranges, students’ educations have been filtered down to the bare minimum of acceptance with some schools emphasizing only the subjects which are tested.
I say good riddance to NCLBA with the personal belief and hope that soon, this stagnating measure will eventually be gone from the country entirely. With half the United States no longer bound by the act and other states seeking to be freed from its grasp, its days are numbered.
The White House released a statement saying that in order for a state to be granted a waiver, it must “[agree] to raise standards, improve accountability and undertake essential reforms to improve teacher effectiveness.”
Along with schools having higher standards, state and local officials will also be given more flexibility within their educational practices. The flexibility aspect is most important in solving our education problems as no two schools nor students are the same and a one-size-fits-all law will continue to benefit no one.
Aspects of Wisconsin’s educational reformation are challenging as well as highly beneficial to its students. Wisconsin students will now need to attain more credits in the areas of science and math. Many education officials are also advocating for more elective requirements, especially in art, music and world languages. This is due to NCLBA’s damaging effect that many schools cut such programs in order to save money to pay for the courses on which students were tested.
Wisconsin also intends to develop a more efficient and fair way in which to measure a school’s performance, as noted by The Christian Science Monitor. From these comprehensive performance scores, the highest performing schools will be rewarded and have their teaching methods accentuated for other schools to learn and adapt. The lowest performing schools will have four years to show improvement with their new plans, which must be state-approved. If such schools are unable to show improvements, they may face closure.
Rewarding the best schools is a much needed requirement of any new law and would be a rallying cry against NCLBA’s “No child left behind, no child gets ahead” effect. For too long our education system has been focused on satisfying the lowest score requirement. This has been done by lowering standards and spending more time on lower performing schools. Unfortunately, this results in the suffering of the upper and middle segments of students. By rewarding our best performing schools and highlighting their procedures, a new law may have the intended effect of producing more prepared students as well as the unintended effect of raising standards to levels that are challenging for everybody.
Overall, Wisconsin’s educational strategy aims to make students well-rounded, prepare them for colleges and careers and prune the educational tree of its weaker hickory sticks. The flexibility of the new laws will allow for a more personalized educational experience for Wisconsin students. These goals and achievements would never have been possible under the old NCLBA.
Jared Mehre ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science.
