Educators await Obama's mark on No Child Left Behind

This from the Washington Post:

Eight years after President George W. Bush signed the bill that branded an era of school reform, the education world is wondering when President Obama will seek to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law.

Obama officials, who for months have been on a "listening and learning" tour, are expected to propose a framework for the successor to a law that is two years overdue for reauthorization. Time is growing short if Obama aims for action before midterm elections, which could weaken Democratic majorities in Congress.

As the anniversary of the law's enactment passed quietly Friday, an occasion Bush marked throughout his presidency as a domestic policy milestone, the regimen of standardized testing and school accountability remains intact.

Every year from grades three to eight, and at least once in high school, students must take reading and math exams. Every year, public schools are rated on the progress they make toward the law's goal of universal proficiency by 2014. And every year, states label more schools as falling short and impose sanctions on them, including shakeups and shutdowns.

"In many ways, [No Child Left Behind] is a compact disc in an iPod world," Bob Wise, president of the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education, said in a statement. "It's still around, but it is in desperate need of an upgrade." ...