Blueprinting Away From NCLB

A Blueprint for Reform is touted as the Obama administration's ideas to reform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. During my last post, I brushed over No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which was the Bush administration's educational reform. While NCLB called for higher standards, its methods had dire impediments. Without directly saying so, A Blueprint for Reform is meant to fix the problems with NCLB. Blueprint addresses years of complaints, which began with teachers and administrators, moved onto students and parents, and eventually, the public. The Blueprint "builds on the significant reforms already made in response" to the Stimulus Bill (aka, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" and has four goals. This post will cover the first two goals and how Blueprint's goals will change the current legislation, NCLB.

Goal one: Improving teacher and principal effectiveness to ensure that every classroom has a great teacher and every school has a great leader.

- NCLB: "Effectiveness" in education is an important concept, and one that is difficult to measure. No clear teaching method works for all teachers, just as one leadership style does not work for all principals. Like other careers, educators can produce results without following the same formula. With NCLB, educators felt as if they herded students toward one test and not an education. Additionally, people outside the educational arena devalued research-proven and beneficial activities because they were not on a standardized test (art, music).

- Blueprint: Secretary Duncan said, "The plan proposes that evaluations be based on multiple measures, acknowledge successes, provide meaningful feedback, inform staff development and staffing decisions, offer teachers more responsibility, and compensate them more reasonably. " This sounds promising, as when schools did not meet NCLB standards, their punishment was decreased funding, which would result in fewer educators and less pay, along with increased government expectations.

Goal two: Providing information to families to help them evaluate and improve their children's schools, and to educators to help them improve their students' learning.

- NCLB: NCLB did require schools to report their highly qualified staff lists, which was a great opening for communication. However, parents questioned what NCLB forced schools to teach, but they did not know what to do about the situation. The government also gave schools strict formulas when they did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Too often, these formulas included forcing teachers into meetings and substitute teachers into classrooms (to teach the students the government thought were behind in their educations).

- Blueprint: "In the past, schools not making AYP were required to follow prescribed programs, but the Blueprint strategy is more fluid, offering school systems an array of local choices and control," stated Secretary Duncan. Urban and rural areas differ in their beliefs and methods. Blueprint's reform will not ignore improvements, no matter how small.

The first two goals focus on the human components of education: teachers, principals, students and families. NCLB ignored the human component of education with terrible results. These two goals do not solve all problems, they are an improvement.

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