photo: talkradionews/ BY-NC-SA

President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act has been widely criticized for leaving students behind across the nation. Critics say standardized testing became so rigorous and influential for a school's survival that states began to lower their standards. You know the tension if you, or someone you know, go to a public school when those STAR and CASHEE test start to get passed around. At my high school they reminded us that testing helped the school, and they would give up little breakfast snacks before STAR testing to help us relax - and they even made testing days half days.

But Obama and his administration are proposing some changes to the 2002 No Child Left behind Act. To break it down:

Instead of the law’s pass-fail school grading system the proposed one would measure divide the schools into three categories: the high performing school, the poor performing schools, and the thousands of schools in the middle. They would also measure individual students’ academic growth, regardless where they start. So if you were a D to C student, and become a C+ to B student they would take recognize how much better you have done. Schools would judged on more than just those fill in the bubble test scores but also pupil attendance, graduation rates, learning climate and closing the achievement gap between poor and affluent students. (Via: NY Times)

However some educators are still very disappointed with this reform. Rick Ayers, a former Berkeley High teacher and current University of San Francisco professor, is “shocked that Obama’s administration has adopted so many of the accepted so many of the assumptions of the Bush regime.” Ayers explained [that the Bush Administration's framing] was about a lot of standard testing, punishing schools that aren’t doing well and creating way to break teachers unions.”

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has help initiate “The Race to the Top” a way to reward high performing schools. But Ayers doesn’t think Duncan has changed much. According to Ayers, “The Race to the Top still has a sound of competition. It’s about schools competing with each other, teachers competing with each other. Teachers may get bonuses if their students test well, it’s treating student like ways to make money.”

While the reform states that they will be focusing on closing the achievement gap, Ayers questions how officials will measure closing the achievement gap with test scores. He adds, “Standardized tests makes students dumber- because it prepares them for short answer quizzes like a jeopardy game instead of critical thinking.”

These changes are still just a proposal. It is not clear what will be accepted and enacted into law. But Ayers says there is some hope, with people like Obama’s Education Advisor during the election because she challenges the ways assessment and testing are set up.

Obama seems to be trying to reform- fix- all of the problems of the last eight years. There’s health care reform, student loan reform, education reform just to mention some of the big ones. But education reform needs a new structure, a new system to measure student’s performance, a way to help low performing schools, and more. This needs more than just a new coat of paint.