Education Reform

As Chief Executive Officer of Chicago Public Schools during the years from 2001 to 2009, Arne Duncan enacted major changes. Now, Duncan has taken the national stage as President Obama’s Education Secretary.

Education policy experts agree that the best way to understand how American public education may change under Duncan’s guidance is to look at Duncan’s performance as CEO of the Chicago public education system. A recent New Yorker profile of Duncan highlighted the many reforms that Duncan championed during his tenure as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, which included:

• “The turnaround” and shutting down under-performing schools – The New Yorker article describes the turnaround as Duncan’s “signature move” as Chicago Schools’ CEO. Duncan’s “turnarounds” in Chicago involved shutting down schools that had persistent records of low performance on measures such as standardized test scores and high school graduation rates. The students whose schools were shut down would often be transferred to newly opened charter schools.

• Opening new charter schools – Opening new charter schools was another of Duncan’s most significant undertakings as CEO of Chicago schools. The program that he championed, called Renaissance 2010, consisted of a network of charter, contract, and performance schools opened in the wake of the closures of low-performing schools.

• Using data to track student performance – As the Chicago schools CEO, Duncan pushed for public schools to collect more data on student and teacher performance and to use the data to guide decision-making.
• Drawing on resources outside the education community

Based upon requirements mandated by both the federal government and the state government, public schools are obligated to report their student body’s progress and test results each school year. As the United States Department of Education asserts, “All states and schools will have challenging and clear standards of achievement and accountability for all children, and effective strategies for reaching those standards.”

In light of recent national educational guidelines and standardized testing mandates, individual states have started to implement their own sets of learning and development standards. With every state providing schools and educators with educational goals and benchmarks, many parents and leaders are concerned about their local schools’ progress and achievement. With regulations shifting in various subject areas in states nationwide, leaders want to know: are the schools succeeding?

Student Progress and Reports

While each school has its progress records, the national average statistics show that public school students struggle to meet the established standards. According to Education Portal, the most recent NAEP test results show that approximately 1/3 of American fourth-grade students are below proficiency in reading, math, science, and American history.

Adding to this deficit, when comparing our schools to others worldwide, our eighth-grade students earned a 19 out of 38 ranking in the comprehension areas of math and an 18 out of 38 in science. Similarly, U.S. twelfth-grade students were ranked 18^th out of 21 countries in

On the 12^th birthday of No Child Left Behind, many are still wondering what this federal law is and how it affects the education of their children today. While NCLB is now thick in the reform process, confusion continues over how to alter education policies for the best interest of the students they were designed to teach. The first step is to understand what No Child Left Behind is, why it was created, and how your child may continue to benefit from it. It will also discuss some potential controversies surrounding the legislation and the reasons why reform appears so hard to come by.

What Is No Child Left Behind?

No Child Left Behind was first introduced as House Resolution 1 during the 107th Congress in March of 2001. The No Child Left Behind Act aimed to ensure that all students, regardless of race or socioeconomic status, would have the opportunity for a solid education. President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in January of 2002.

Photo by Executive Office of the President of the United States, [Public domain], via Wikipedia Commons

No Child Left Behind is a bipartisan effort. The act passed with support from democrats and republicans alike and a bipartisan commission was created in 2006 to review No