Opinion
Federal Opinion

Dissecting The NCLB Hearing

By Alexander Russo — March 14, 2007 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Below are some more responses to the NCLB hearing, both first-hand (delicious!) and via the papers (more ideological).

Who cares what anyone else has to say, though -- we want to know what jumped out at you, or seemed interesting or strange or funny about who spoke, what they said, how the members responded, or who was in the audience?

From Brustein & Manasevit:

“Although HELP Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and a few other senators attended, the hearing seemed more of a House event with a few guests from the other side of the Capitol. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), the ranking member on the HELP Committee, was not even present at the hearing, though he did submit written statements for the record. Notably absent were Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT), two presidential hopefuls on the HELP Committee. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), another committee member with presidential aspirations, attended the hearing, but remained uncharacteristically silent and did not stay for the entire hearing...no specific reauthorization legislation was discussed at the hearing...That regulars in the education community, such as Weaver and Casserly, were chosen as panelists suggests that committee members were only interested in hearing opinions and suggestions that have already been discussed multiple times....no new proposals were discussed, no specific legislation was mentioned, and no timeline was set for completion of the reauthorization process...The enthusiasm for the bicameral hearing quickly dissipated, leaving anyone who expected this to help ensure a 2007 reauthorization with a distinct feeling of disappointment. 2009 remains the most likely date for final reauthorization.”

NCLB Paranoia Kevin Carey
Matt Yglesias has a smart post about how some people are too quick to succumb to paranoid interpretation of NCLB--that the 100 percent proficient target is a conspiracy to destroy public education.

Parallels Between NCLB and Bush’s Iraq Policy Nick Burbules
[Kevin Drum] What an infuriating article on the No Child Left Behind Act in the Washington Post tonight. The question is whether NCLB’s requirement of 100% proficiency by 2014 is achievable, and the answer, as almost everyone in the article acknowledges, is no.

NCLB “just like a communist country”? Sherman Dorn
My concern with the debate as portrayed in the Post story is that it’s all black-and-white rhetoric...Nowhere is the hard work of deciding what we should expect from students.

Related Tags:

The opinions expressed in This Week In Education are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.