PROFILE
FROM Randi Weingarten
Are American Children Being Left Behind After All? The Bush Administration established No Child Left Behind — a federal law designed to raise student achievement in America's public schools. The Obama Administration followed up with the competitive program, Race to the Top . Have the resulting pressures on educators — and children — cost more than they're worth? In Atlanta, administrators and teachers have been sentenced to prison for falsifying the results of federal mandated standardized testing. In New York, thousands of public school parents are telling their kids to opt out of taking federally mandated tests. And, in Washington, there's a rare, bipartisan effort to re-write No Child Left Behind. We hear about a growing consensus that education reform needs reform.
Can Obama's Education Chief Save the Nation's Schools? Democrats are sharply divided between school "reformers" and so-called "traditionalists." They circulated competing manifestos during the presidential campaign: one side wants charter schools, merit pay and accountability for teachers; the other says don't blame teachers for failing schools, provide flexibility and better resources. Barack Obama has chosen an education secretary who has endorsed both sides. Will that mean gridlock or will Chicago's Arne Duncan finally overcome the "tired… debates" that have stalled real education reform? What about " No Child Left Behind ?"
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