More details on the survey here: http://www.preknow.org/advocate/opinion/nationalpoll.cfm

You raise a thought experiment. What is the bang for the buck for early childhood as opposed to test driven accountability? I can’t conceive of an advocate of NCLB-type accountability who would claim that it would result in seven dollars of savings or proficency gains for every dollar spent.

The only real argument for making test-driven accountability a key to NCLB is a political argument. A dollar invested in accountability is necessary for getting seven dollars (or whatever) of new investments. That may be right, but there are plenty of ways of skinning the accountability cat. Any of us could compile a long list of accountability measues that are more effective and that would be equally effective as a political argument. Just off the top of my head, I just completed the CEP’s new study of school restructuring in Ohio issue last week. Already we can spend 5% of Title One on restructuring, and that is the ultimate accountability. But we don’t have the money, the knowledge, or the talent to restructure very many schools. Why not fund a major school restructuring program a as new and REAL push for of accountability.

If we could just look at these issues with a open mind, as opposed to needing to continue to support 90s reforms, anything that came out of a new approach would have much much more potential than trying to patch up the inherently flawed NCLB system. I admit that I’m something of a newcomer to all of this, but as I look deeprer into the educational and political evidence, the only reason that I can see of why progressives would “stay the course” on NCLB-type accountability, is an assumption that we have to stay the course.