Kudos to Ed Week’s Karla Scoon Reid for catching the story that has thus far eluded her allegedly more savvy national colleagues at the big media outlets: there is not unanimity among various Civil Rights groups on No Child Left Behind:
[CCCR head Bill Taylor], a veteran desegregation lawyer and longtime activist, characterized the split within the civil rights community as harmful to achieving the law’s goals.
“It’s a war on the whole idea of reform. [Harvard Civil Rights Project’s] Gary [Orfield] wasn’t opposed to sanctions when it came to dealing with segregated schools,” he said. “When public officials are not carrying out their duties, you sanction them.”
Note the tone from the NEA…polling shows this is not great PR for them and they’re trying to “re-frame” the issue, as they say…and behind the scenes…there is a wedge already…
Very rich vein for follow-up on this might be following the money…not going to jump to any claims of causation but there sure is a uncanny correlation…also, big political implications, too, going forward…
Also in Ed Week Fordham Chieftain-in-waiting Mike Petrilli discusses No Child’s teacher quality provisions, provides some inside dope, channels Commodore Roza, and offers some ideas for policy reforms.
Update: Several readers write to point out that NYT’s Staples also wrote on this issue. Fair enough, but Reid’s take is more granular and this is still very under-reported regardless considering the stakes.