Who’s been left behind? Education Reform on Reps’ Radar

This fall, Congress will vote to renew or reform education legislation known as No Child Left Behind. With elections up ahead, candidates are dissecting, criticizing, and talking about reforms. They all agree that No Child Left Behind is not working, and that something needs to change.

Some want merit-based pay for teachers, others want more early-childhood education, and still others want to scrap the program altogether -- they say its "one size fits all" approach has been disastrous because of all the variables involved in teaching and learning.

Philosophies of education

Each approach comes from different philosophies of teaching and learning, and much of the debate is about who is responsible for public education. Many feel that the purpose of public education is to create healthy, informed, critical-thinking citizens. Public education is the beginning of public life, where a child learns societal values.

Judging by recent reforms, the Bush administration and many members of Congress believe that the purpose of education is to teach basic skills. While no one argues that this is not a component of a good education, many believe that there is more to education than reading, writing, and arithmetic. What do you believe the purpose of public education to be?

What is No Child Left Behind?

In 2001, the Bush administration’s attempted to overhaul the education system with a program that tracks student progress through standardized testing and penalizes schools where students fail exams. Proponents of No Child Left Behind have the philosophy that education will improve if we have the same expectations and consequences for all students. Are they right? This philosophy is based on the belief that increased regulation will bring about equality. From this point of view, schools fall behind due to a lack of legal standards.

Performance-based pay

Some argue that teachers are not doing everything they can to help students learn and that performance-based pay will encourage teachers to work harder. But public school teachers and administrators claim that No Child Left Behind is unrealistic. They feel they don’t have the funding that they need from the federal government to reach such optimistic goals.

Some say that instead of performance-based pay, teachers should get higher salaries. By raising their salaries up to, say, an engineer’s wage, the profession will attract the best and brightest.

Both solutions are based on the assumption that teachers make or break education. Do you believe this to be true or are parents, teaching methods, and early childhood more important?

Early childhood education

During the Democratic debate in August 2007, many of the candidates said that early childhood education is the most important place to put education funding since the first years of life create a child's "sense of self" or identity.

Programs like Head Start aid children aged 5 and younger in healthy child development and school readiness by providing education; medical, dental and mental health services; nutrition information; and parent education. Early childhood education in Head Start programs showed that students entering kindergarten and first grade had higher IQ scores and fewer social/behavioral problems. Head Start kids were also more likely to pick up reading and writing quickly.

For more about what works in education, click here.

Education wants a place on the platform

Many Americans feel that education should come to the forefront of the next election. They cite high dropout rates as one reason for new reforms. Some feel that the reforms enacted by No Child Left Behind are sufficient, while others question the validity of standardization. Effective reform is likely to be based on a deep understanding of the purposes of public education.

Economists and politicians agree: Americans must be highly educated for the U.S. to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Better educated workers are more mobile and adaptable, learn new skills quickly, and are able to use a wider range of technologies and equipment.

Important questions

Since No Child Left Behind was enacted, schools have beefed up their reading and math programs, but limited budgets have forced them to cut in other areas. Many schools are cutting physical education, art, civics, history, and even some science classes.

School officials remind us that there is more to learning than reading and writing. For more about how children learn, click here.

And the debate over No Child Left Behind leads us to some important questions. What is the purpose of public education? Are proficient reading and math skills the key requirement for a thriving civic body?

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