The End of NCLB?

It looks like the No Child Left Behind act may be getting gutted.

The secretary of education has announced that he intends to start handing out waivers, exempting many schools from meeting the unrealistic standards set forth by the act.

However, I'm not entirely sure how this plan is going to play out.

Melody Barnes, director of President Obama’s White House Domestic Policy Council, emphasized that, while all states would be able to apply for waivers regarding NCLB’s accountability, only those seen as instituting “ambitious school improvement initiatives” — such as their own testing and accountability programs — would be granted them.

So... a state can make up their own tests and standards of accountability and get off of having any federal oversight?

This sounds like it could be abused greatly.

Also, the article says that they'll be looking for states to "improve teacher effectiveness and evaluation systems based on student test scores and other measures". So once again, they're laying all the blame at the feet of teachers. Another absurd proposition that completely misses the true problems we face in education.

I'll have to keep an eye on this one.