So the good news is that with the signing of the Every Student Succeeds Act today, No Child Left Behind finally joins eraser chalk in the dustbin of History, but like whiteboards, the aroma of dry-erase markers has its own side effects. In this rare bit of bipartisanship or “political posturing”, to have written legislation that signifies a compromise with a less-than-optimal outcome will help the continuing slide of national education.
The problem is that there will be more state-level bureaucracies with their own levels of pedgogical stupidity and agendas (think union-busting RW district fiefdoms breeding more rogue, venture capitalist charter schools and revisionist textbooks). More money for school uniforms and bullet-proof convertible whiteboards.
So while there is no central, national Super-zombie, the virus-riddled Id of NCLB will be with the US educational system for decades to come until better Zombieland rules can be formulated for pedagogy. Teacher education will continue to slide having lost another avenue of federal support even if for bad metrics. Think of the Chipolte neurovirus getting a school cafeteria automat contract for Brains(sic). Rick Perry gets closer to counting “three” cabinet level departments to eliminate.
This is the next step of the neoliberals’ drive to move toward that libertarian version of deregulated, disintegrated warlordism in education that will come as the Khan Academy builds its first brick and mortar school building. The 50-Finland hope for educational quality will move toward a 50-Somalia one and the market clearing rate for knowledge as a commodity approaches zero.
The most conspicuous manifestation of that bipartisan give-and-take is what’s being highlighted by news outlets and pundits across the country: Schools will still be held accountable for student performance, but states can determine the nuances of how that will take place. They’ll have to use “college-and-career ready” standards and intervene when those expectations aren’t met, but states will get to design their own standards and intervention protocol.
They’ll still be required to administer annual testing in certain grades, ensure at least 95 percent of students participate, and disaggregate data based on students’ race, income, and disability status, but they can use other factors on top of testing to assess student performance, and the details of how the testing happens and how the scores are interpreted are up to states.
“If anything, this bill really takes the air out of the political footballs that have been Common Core and overtesting.”
