Posts published on March 15, 2010

Obama’s NCLB Proposal Features College Readiness

  NCLB is essentially a program for grades 2-10, and never had a postsecondary orientation. President Bush tried to change this in 2007, but Congress ignored him. Now Obama proposes to make college readiness part of the core of NCLB. Presumably, this will work through the common core standards, and other incentives. His proposal makes me wonder how postsecondary education will participate in the NCLB reauthorization. Colleges had little input when NCLB was passed, and tend to ignore these kind of k-12 political battles. This would be a mistake, and we need to recreate NCLB as a k-16 initiative. For example, California”s only high school test for NCLB compliance is an exit exam with standards set at the grade6-8 level.