The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), whose most recent version is called No Child Left Behind (NCLB), has now shaped federal public education policy for eleven years.  A year ago the National Research Council declared that NCLB’s test-and-punish system has “not increased student achievement enough to bring the United States close to the levels of the highest achieving countries,” and when states make passage of the federally required high school exam a requirement for high school graduation, it “decreases the rate of high school graduation without increasing achievement.” 

Although Congress is supposed to reauthorize the ESEA every five years, the 2002 NCLB version is now six years overdue to be rewritten.  Still Congress dithers.  The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee actually passed a bill out of committee in October of 2011, but while the proposed bill eliminated the onerous 2014 deadline that is projected to declare the majority of U.S. public schools failures, the Senate version continued to test students with multiple choice standardized tests and punish rather than helping the schools that struggle.  The House, many of whose members suggest they'd like to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education altogether, came up with its own plan that contrasted with the Senate's.

Both versions died at in December, 2012 with the end of the 112th Congress. The 113th Congress began its work in January, 2013.  We must be prepared to advocate for a significant overhaul when Congress finally decides it will grapple with the inequities in NCLB.

Haven't NCLB waivers solved the problems and made the reauthorization unnecessary? 

The U.S. Department of Education has been granting states unilateral waivers from the law’s most punitive consequences.  But the waivers are being given on a state by state basis, and they embody many of the same test-and-punish requirements that are closing and privatizing public schools in the poorest urban areas. To qualify, states must present accountability plans based on the Department’s own favorite punishments for schools unable quickly to raise scores, including merit pay for teachers based on test scores and other punitive turnaround plans including school closure and rapid expansion of charter schools.  

Thirty-four of the states had been granted waivers by the end of December 2012.

NEW March 1, 2013: Here are the UCC's 2013 succinct, updated talking points to help faithful advocates reflect on and speak to what needs to happen today in public school reform.