Exciting Education Reform Proposal
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
        In what I have found to be the most exciting reform proposal for public education that I have seen, President Obama has proposed a complete reform of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program in A Blueprint for Reform, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/).  As President Obama described the Blueprint, "Instead of labeling failures, we will reward success.  Instead of a single snapshot, we will recognize progress and growth."
 
        One of the main criticisms of the federal NCLB program has been the single snapshot of the performance of children in a school with emphasis on failing the school if all children are not making adequate annual progress.  Numerous states including Virginia had asked for exceptions to NCLB for English as a second language and for children with disabilities.  The notion that all children make the same progress at the same rate is unrealistic. 
 
        Anyone with a sibling or with two or more children or with the most minimal observation of children around them realizes that all children are unique in interests, abilities, talents, character traits, experiences, and motivation.  Even with all these differences children have been expected in the public schools to perform at the same level and at the same rate.
 
        This factory approach of trying to turn unique children into the same widgets has set unrealistic goals for schools and has branded many of the schools as failures.  The industrial factory approach has led to the standards movement (one size fits all) and to the federal No Child Left Behind (all children must move along at the same rate).
 
        A goal of President Obama's plan is to ensure that all students leave school college or career ready.  Current school standards often do not reflect the knowledge and skills needed for success after high school, either in further education or in a job.  The Blueprint offers the challenge that "we must reward the success of schools that are making significant progress, ask for dramatic change in the lowest-performing schools, and address persistent gaps in student academic achievement and graduation rates."
 
        With the leadership President Obama is providing in so many areas, his success in accomplishing the goals of A Blueprint for Reform could have the most lasting, long-term, positive effect on our children and on our nation of any of his reforms.