Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chair of the Senate Education Committee, and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) said on Monday that they are working on legislation to correct the issues that exist with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.
“During the last several weeks, we have been working together to build the base for legislation to fix the problems with No Child Left Behind,” the duo said in a joint statement released by the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “We are making significant progress in our negotiations. We are aiming to consider and markup legislation to fix the law during the week of April 13th.”
The NCLB Act, in place since its passing in 2001, was essentially a reauthorization of the previous policies of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The legislation also included provisions for Title I, the government’s flagship aid program for disadvantaged students.
At its core, NCLB emphasizes standards-based education reform based on the idea that setting very high standards and creating measurable test goals would improve both student and teacher performances over time.
While some successes have been realized, NLCB has been criticized over the years for a number of reasons. In many cases, otherwise successful students were forced to repeat grades or delay graduation because of their inability to meet certain criteria on standardized tests. There have also been negative impacts on disabled and lower income students.