Dec. 04--The era of intense federal pressure to improve schools is ending with a whimper.
A bill to replace the tattered law known as No Child Left Behind sailed through the House this week and is expected to do the same in the Senate. President Barack Obama says he'll sign it.
We're not celebrating.
Under No Child, which took effect in 2002, the federal government set strict goals for academic achievement as measured by standardized tests. States that fell short faced consequences, including the loss of federal education dollars.
Under the proposed Every Student Succeeds Act, annual standardized statewide tests will still be required. Those tests will break out results among students by race, income and special needs.
But NCLB's feet-to-the-fire federal accountability system is largely extinguished. The U.S. education secretary loses most of his or her power to push educational reform onto states.
Instead, state and local officials will set academic goals and decide if schools are making acceptable progress.
What if children don't learn?
States would be required to create plans to intervene in schools that rank in the bottom 5 percent statewide, or in schools that graduate fewer than two-thirds of students. The states would determine actions to improve schools, and set goals and deadlines for progress. Washington's enforcer role would be diluted to near zero.
The feds also will abandon efforts to reward districts and states for evaluating teachers in part on student academic growth. Cue wrongheaded efforts in Springfield and other statehouses to repeal strong teacher evaluation laws.
In the past few years, a furious backlash against NCLB built among educators, parents and politicians of both parties. Democrats and their teachers union allies detested teacher evaluations tied partly to student test scores. Republicans rose against what they claimed was federal overreach in schools. Parents complained their kids are overtested.
Proponents of Every Student Succeeds argue that states are better positioned to drive student achievement and that local officials have more at stake than Washington bureaucrats do. But we remember the feckless days before No Child and its strict accountability standards. States, including Illinois, often did little to fix schools and ensure that children learn. Poor and minority students were often left behind, the achievement gap grew, and no one was held accountable.
The failures of so many states and schools prompted No Child Left Behind in the first place.
Illinois and other states passed major education reforms in recent years, many spurred by No Child and the Obama administration's Race to the Top law. This state passed tough standards for teacher evaluations based on student growth, embraced the Common Core and the related PARCC test and made it easier to fire poorly performing educators.
Much of that was done because of federal incentives -- and threats. The White House says this bill "rejects the overuse of standardized tests and one-size-fits-all mandates on our schools, ensures that our education system will prepare every child to graduate from high school ready for college and careers ..."
Sure, that sounds good. But our question remains:
When the federal pressure comes off, what happens if children don't learn? Will Illinois educators and lawmakers step up, or will they look the other way?
