Robin SmithMany declare little difference exists between policies of the right and left. Yet taking time to examine a key contrast in the area of educational policy quickly dispels this notion.
In April, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., worked with the members of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to pass the Every Child Achieves Act, which would modify the No Child Left Behind law. At its most basic, the Achieve Act gives the decision-making power over improving student achievement to local education districts and states.
The rewritten NCLB affects Tennessee and other states in three major ways.
First, it affirms that states decide what academic standards they will adopt, without interference from Washington. The federal government may not mandate or incentivize states to adopt or maintain any particular set of standards, including Common Core.
Second, the revised law ends the federal test-based accountability system of No Child Left Behind, restoring to states the responsibility for determining how to use federally required tests for accountability purposes.