No Child Left Behind….How would you change it?

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings recently announced new proposed regulations to the NCLB act. Speaking from Detroit, Michigan, on April 22, 2008 Secretary Spellings outlined some of the new regulations proposed to help strengthen and clarify the act authorized by President Bush in 2002. Some proposed regulations include:

Uniform methods to calculate graduation rates Currently states use their own methods, many of which are based on unreliable data and often lead to overestimates. With the new regulation, all schools will use the same formulas to calculate how many students graduate from high school and how many drop out.

Proper and timely notification to parents of their public school choice and supplemental education options The regulation will ensure states make information regarding free tutoring; its availability and efficacy, are made available to the public. Schools failing to demonstrate proper notification to parents risk the ability to spend federal funds.

States will also be required to publicize vacancies in high performing schools at least 14 days prior to the start of school. This ensures that students allowed to transfer to the higher performing school can make the switch in a timely manner.

Federal review of state policy regarding assessments There is a call to review state policies regarding the exclusion of test scores of students in racial groups that are deemed too small to be statistically significant. These policies may set aside too many students test scores.

For a complete summary of all proposed regulations to the NCLB act go to, www.ed.gov. After reviewing the proposed regulations, do you think they are enough? How you change NCLB if you could?