New Logo, New Law? And, Eduwonk Buries The Lede*

That there, friends, is the new No Child Left Behind logo, seen here in public for the first time and to be publicly released on Monday. It was leaked on exclusive to Eduwonk by a high ranking administration official…But, don’t be fooled, the logo is not the only change coming on NCLB. The Administration is dead serious about trying to get to an NCLB reauthorization deal. Do the odds look better? A lot of issues, but stay tuned.

But what’s interesting about the reauthorization timetable question is that while former Bushie Mike Petrilli says he’s sort of given up on NCLB, his solutions are surely not very appetizing for most of the hate-NCLB coalition*…national standards and more choice is where he’s driving…that’s worth noting because while the NCLB-foes approach this situation as a choice between NCLB or the pre-NCLB status quo, all the foot-dragging means they might look back before long on NCLB with some nostalgia from their place in a Petrillian dystopia…

Meanwhile, the Department of Education has also finished a year-long redesign of their Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) website. It’s a variety of materials for teachers and the most popular federal K-12 resource on the web. It’s relevant to NCLB because while the federal government can’t get into curriculum, the feds can offer some help to teachers through strategies like this. And, it’s a Clinton-era education initiative that hasn’t gotten the axe!

*And yes, in case you live in an educave and haven’t heard, the NEA is embracing national standards via this new Dodd bill (pdf). But, don’t forget, Dodd also has an eviscerate NCLB’s accountability provisions bill floating around and there are a lot of folks who suddenly see national standards as a good way to kick the accountability can down the road a bit more… “sure, we’re for tough accountability, just as soon as we got some world class national standards in place…” Anyway, methinks that the standards bill Senator Kennedy is introducing is a more likely play and makes more sense right now, too…and unless this comes from the bottom up (pdf), it’s going to bottom out.

Update: As I was saying, the public school establishment should think twice about the wisdom of the tear down NCLB strategy…

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