Schools waiting for new way to evaluate their efforts

Washington's failure to address No Child Left Behind's shortcomings has forced Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's hand.

Too many school districts clearly won't meet the law's requirement that all students score at proficient levels in math and reading by 2014. So, Duncan has told the Department of Education to grant waivers to states showing progress.

It's the right move, but unfortunate because the 2014 deadline was the main feature of NCLB. Since its passage in 2001, schools have been ordered every year to determine the number of students graded proficient on standardized math and reading tests and use those values to rate schools as passing or failing.

Repeated failure to meet the federal goals could mean state takeover or closure of a school. Given the likelihood that many schools will fail, it makes sense for states to apply for the waivers.

NLCB has received valid criticism for its overreliance on standardized tests, which encourages cheating, does not properly prepare students for college, and leads to even good schools being labeled failures. Requiring all students to score at the proficient level is also widely seen as unrealistic. According to the Center on Education Policy, about 30,000 of the nation's 100,000 schools have failed to meet the goal.

House education committee Chairman John Kline (R., Minn.) balked at Duncan's executive decision to grant waivers. He said that Duncan cannot singlehandedly override the law and that doing so might make it difficult for Congress to rewrite it.

Kline may be right that lawmakers will have difficulty revamping NCLB, but don't blame Duncan. Redoing NCLB was on President Obama's agenda before he was elected in 2008, but it still has not happened.

Among the White House's stated goals are dropping the 2014 deadline, adopting standards more focused on college preparation, and shifting from testing proficiency to monitoring individual students' academic growth.

Unfortunately, making any changes in NCLB has been difficult in the current political climate. Just look at the weeks of arguing over taxes and spending in the discussion about raising the federal debt ceiling, a typically uncontroversial procedure. That debate has refueled the political blame game.

If a divided Congress could barely come to an agreement about allowing the country to pay its bills, how can it be expected to address the fundamental flaws of this far-reaching education law?

Duncan is right to buy more time for schools, rather than let the issue become hijacked in today's political atmosphere. Too many schools are on the wrong side of the law's binary pass-fail grading system.

NCLB has merit, but it needs to be updated. The waivers are a good start, but they're only a Band-Aid. Waivers are not the cure needed to abandon schools' overreliance on standardized testing and lack of emphasis on improving teacher effectiveness. But only Congress can make the substantial changes needed. Its members need to smarten up and get their act together.