NCLB Reauthorization, the Post-Mortem

Stan Karp at Rethinking Schools (via ZNet)has a thought-provoking piece on our brave new world of a renewed, not reauthorized NCLB. Among his predictions: 

• Thousands more schools will be sanctioned for failing to make adequate yearly progress. The number identified for the law’s more drastic sanctions, including “restructuring” and closure, will far exceed the capacity to respond effectively.
• A host of unproven “interventions” for schools deemed “in need of improvement” will sow chaos, feed privatization schemes, and further erode support for public education.
• Parents will continue to be pitted against teachers in a politicized “blame game” for school and student “failure” that is wrongly defined and inadequately addressed.
• Tens of millions of dollars in public funds will be siphoned off by publishers of standardized tests and curriculum materials, private educational management firms, and barely regulated supplemental educational service providers

The federal education law is just the latest “regressive legislative and regulatory policy framework” aided and abetted by both Democrats and Republicans, Karp writes, concluding that “the train wreck that is NCLB can’t be avoided if the parties in power remain on the same track.”

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