Change is coming to the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

This from the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Experts urge more flexibility, funding

With Barack Obama heading to the White House and dozens of additional Democrats elected to Congress, President Bush's signature education bill almost certainly will face profound revisions, experts across the country say...

...The law requires every public school student to be proficient in math and reading by 2014. But educators have criticized the act for its one-size-fits-all reforms and its labeling of any school that falls short of perfection in six years as failing.

Already overdue for reauthorization, the 2002 law likely will be revised in the House Education and Labor Committee, chaired by Rep. George Miller, D-[CA].

“No Child Left Behind law is in need of significant and fundamental improvements,” Miller said in a statement released last week. “I look forward to working with the next administration to make the law more fair, more flexible and better funded.”

For many educators, change can't come soon enough.

“It's a good law in that it made us focus on what we should have been doing all along: student achievement, attendance, math and reading scores and other things,” San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Terry Grier said. “But it was so punitive from Day One.” ...