Fair and Balanced

Don’t miss Michael Dobbs’ examination of No Child Left Behind in the Washington Post. Ignore the typically inflammatory headlines; the story itself is a refreshingly balanced look at the upside and challenges of improving literacy and math instruction. Though Dobbs fails to disentangle and validate whether cutbacks in art and other activities are the result of NCLB or state budget issues that are misleadingly blamed on NCLB, he does present the other side of the coin, as bluntly stated by one principal who remarks, “It hurts me to give up art, but it hurts me even more to have kids who can’t read.” Of course, good schools show that this is something of a false choice. But hey, it’s an article, not a book.