NCLB: Act II

The debate over NCLB's future remains dormant. The pages of the current issue of Education Week reflect the lack of action.

The top story is on the expansion of the U.S. Department of Education's growth model pilot project ('Growth' Pilot Now Open to All States). (See blog items here and here.) All states may not be ready to join the pilot now, but Scott R. Palmer, a Washington attorney who advocates for states, suggests they're moving toward being ready to do so in the next few years.

In Federal File, I note that advocates of high school reform are heartened by the variety of proposals to improve secondary schools. But they don't want to wait until NCLB is reauthorized for them become law (Advocates Putting Lens on High School in NCLB Renewal).

In the commentary section, Joseph A. Aguerrebere Jr., Paul D. Houston, and Gerald N. Tirozzi argue that NCLB should endorse an effort to create professional standards defining the skills of an effective principal (Toward the 'Highly Qualified' Principal). Congress should avoid the mistakes of the current law's "highly qualified teacher" rules, which give states the power to write their own definitions. The next NCLB should finance a process to set national standards for an effective principal, the authors argue.

That's all folks. This has been the shortest roundup of NCLB news in the short history of this feature. We'll have a larger menu of NCLB news for the final issue of 2007, I promise.