President Obamas proposed overhaul of No Child Left Behind is long overdue. Over the past decade the regimes rigid metrics & penalties transformed schools into testing factories. Unfortunately the White House proposal -- which replaces NCLBs legal sticks with new legal carrots -- wont come close to fixing Americas schools says Philip K. Howard chair of legal reform Common Good.
According to Howard:
- A 2004 study of the rules in one New York City school by Common Good found that the daily decisions made by teachers and principals are dictated by thousands of regulations.
- Over 60 steps and legal considerations are required to suspend a disruptive student.
- Manuals of 200 pages describe the rights of students.
Looking at daily choices as a matter of legal rights polarizes people says Howard:
- One effect is paralysis -- educators will do almost anything to avoid yet another legal argument.
- Another effect is bureaucracy growing at warp speed as educators write rules to validate the legality of ordinary choices.
- In the end fairness disappears when rules replace common sense as in the recent suspension in Michigan of a 6-year-old for pointing his finger like a gun mandated under zero tolerance rules.
Charter schools on the other hand liberate teachers and principals from rules and regulations and hold them accountable for results.
Howard believes this guiding principle -- replacing legal dictates with individual responsibility -- is the key to turning around Americas public schools.
Source: Philip K. Howard Why Freer Schools Are Better Schools Wall Street Journal March 25 2010.
