NCLB Still Alive in the Senate (2/22/2008)

The clock continues to run on the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). When the Senate returns to work next week, it will have about three weeks, until the next recess on March 17, to introduce language on the critical pistons of the law: Title I, Part A and Title II, Part A. That is not a hard deadline, but a self-imposed target set by the staff in the Senate education committee. Last year, the Senate released many parts of its bill for public discussion, but the committee did not release those critical sections due to their complexity and, more important, the rancorous political atmosphere that followed the release of the House Discussion Draft. Most expect the Senate language on accountability to be considerably more flexible than was the House draft.

According to Roberto Rodriguez, Education Adviser to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP), Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), the Committee will try to craft language that grants local educational agencies and state educational agencies more authority to use other indicators of academic success beyond the current status model and growth models. Likewise, Rodriguez reports that the subsequent interventions of section 1116 will also incorporate greater differentiation. While the details are currently scarce, the full picture of the reauthorization debate will be more clear in the coming weeks.

Author: DAD