Obama To Rebrand "No Child Left Behind"

Washington Post: In Effort To Subdue Negative Connotations, Education Department Seeks New Name, Image

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Maria Glod.

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Seven years ago, a rally at the Department of Education promoted one of then-President George W. Bush's most significant domestic achievements -- the No Child Left Behind law. The backdrop: a red schoolhouse.

"We serve the ideal of the little red schoolhouse," then-Education Secretary Rod Paige said of the structure attached to the agency's main entrance on Maryland Avenue SW. "It is one of the greatest symbols of America -- a symbol that every child must be taught and every child must learn."

But now that symbol has been ripped down.

The Obama administration has made clear that it is putting its own stamp on education reform. That will mean a new name and image for a law that has grown unpopular with many teachers and suburban parents, even though it was enacted with bipartisan support in Congress.

"It's like the new Coke. This is a rebranding effort," said Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. "The feng shui people believe you need to take the roof off buildings to allow bad chi to escape. Let's hope this helps."

The 2002 law dramatically expanded the federal role in public schools. It mandates math and reading testing for millions of students and penalizes schools with too many youngsters who fail those exams.

During his run for office, President Obama said he wanted to change the law to do more to help schools, "rather than punishing them." Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called the law's name "toxic."

Toxic or not, is No Child Left Behind headed for extinction?

Lawmakers have yet to tackle an overhaul, and Duncan has not offered specifics on how he would like to see the law revamped. But the administration has said it will not back down from testing students or holding schools accountable.

Duncan has said he wants even higher standards that measure U.S. students against peers worldwide. But he said states and schools should have more flexibility in achieving goals.

Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said Duncan sometimes sounds a lot like former Bush education secretary Margaret Spellings. Like Spellings, Duncan has been promoting charter schools and merit pay for teachers.

"Other than kind of the aesthetics of it, it's not clear the schoolhouse represents anything more substantial," Hess said.

One thing is clear: Federal education law will soon have a new name.

No Child logos on the Education Department elevators are being stripped. Official correspondence to states now refers to the law's original name, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

On Saturday in a steady rain, construction workers pulled down the schoolhouse and its No Child Left Behind sign. Instead, photos of students, from preschool to college age, are going up on 44 ground-floor windows, forming an exhibit that can be seen from outside. There are images of young people reading, attending science class and playing basketball.

In a note to his staff yesterday, Duncan said the photos should "serve as a daily reminder that our mission is about helping kids."

Matthew Yale, deputy chief of staff for Duncan, said the department is considering a contest to rename the law.

"We want to think about something that's forward-looking instead of something that seems to have a negative connotation," Yale said. "We want to think of something that talks about future and potential."

Education blogger Andrew Rotherham, a former member of the Virginia Board of Education, posed the same question a few months ago. He got a slew of answers.

Some were sincere: "Successful Schools for a Strong America Act."

Some less so: "Don't task, don't fail act"; "No nutty education reform idea left behind"; and "Caitlin. Everybody seems to be naming things Caitlin these days."

[ttinsly]

This no child left behind should be re-named to its true intent: make sure each child remains ignorant: learns passively what they need to learn, don't ask questions just study for exams, don't read full books only portions in order to learn to be good employees. No creativity. No thought. We can't have a well educated public that thinks for itself. No non-bureaucratic teachers either. Instead, teach those elementary school kids to equate education with bubbling and passive learning - good future employees.

"As Harry S. Truman suggested, "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." Due to this fear, are we, then, to all conform with lock-step in perverse obedience to the State's dictates, outlooks and agendas in an increasingly Orwellian milieu? If not, then we must constantly remind ourselves and each other of US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas's vision: "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.""

[from_the_north]

From personal experience, I can say "No child left behind" is a failure. This program doesn't allow gifted children to excel in any field and doesn't allow kids with disabilities to get the help they need. This program makes the standards sooooo low that all kids can pass, it does not increase what our children learn - it decreases it. There is no room for excellence, all the kids have to be the same. This is ridiculous. As we all know, in the real world there are achievers and under-achievers in every field. Instead of making basic courses - reading, writing and arithmatic manditory, kids can now graduate from High School and never learn how to add 2+2 or read a book, let alone speak proper English. What is a High School diploma worth? I wish we could go back to the system we had in 1990. Look at other countries, Finnland for example, is rated so much better in the PISA study. Why? Because they want the kids to learn. In the Pisa study, the USA is in the lower middle field on achievements. This is a scandal, one of the richest countries in the world and we are rated below average!!!!Our schools seem like kindergardens.

[Dgunner]

You have to get the kids involved. The kids have to want to be involved. Just showing up and sitting in a class room all day . Well this isn't going to cut it. The people of the United States can keep fooling thier selves until H-ll freezes over . The children who want to learn will show it in thier grades. The ones who have a learning disability need the extra help. Let the rest of the seemingly know it all teenaged anti-socials be drafted . There needs to be a more narrow line drawn for these standards. If the child doesn't play by the rules learn the matieral and test out ? Put a rifle in thier hand and form a special unit in the military for up front bullet stoppers.

[stn_sage]

Listen! Getting rid of the name of what passes as bad policy and bad law is OK---for a starter! But, doing a George Orwell '1984' on it, isn't good enough!

Besides, naming it something else---CHANGE THE D*A*M*N THING! Re-write it!
Improve it! Fix it! Correct it so it reflects relative achievement in a district, taking into account ALL students! Don't penalize EVERY district
throughout ALL of America because each has a few "challenged" students!

The Republicans---with help from a few Democrats---wrote NCLB so all districts would show FAILURE---and then be PENALIZED financially!

It's time to do things the correct way---not the Republican way!

[ToolMangler1]

I think that his thoughts really were for the children, not himself. He knows as well as most that "If he takes care of us, we will give him the legacy he wants"

[zhynaryll]

As a former educator, I can truly say that this "law" was a disaster to those whose job it was to enforce it! Didn't matter who was in charge, be it Kennedy (who co-sponsored it) or Bush (who signed it). It was ill-conceived and punished schools for where they happened to be. In a rich suburb? No sweat! In the inner city? Tough love - shut it down! We need to get rid of all the compulsory testing and get back to teaching those subjects shown to be of real need in the world today, not "feel-good" subjects to give sub-standard students a grade so they will "fell good" about themselves. Allow students to actually fail, and experience what the real world is about, and take the necessary steps to make a positive change in their lives. Wake up, parents!!

[iam4honesty]

Everything George W. Bush ever touched turned into a disaster. The idiot is a walking train wreck.