When President Bush signed his sweeping education law a year into his presidency, it set 2014 as the deadline by which schools were to close the test-score gaps between minority and white students that have persisted since standardized testing began.
Now, as Congress prepares to consider reauthorizing the law next year, researchers and a half-dozen recent studies, including three issued last week, are reporting little progress toward that goal.
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The findings pose a challenge not only for Mr. Bush but also for the Democratic lawmakers who joined him in negotiating the original law, known as No Child Left Behind, and who will control education policy in Congress next year.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Representative George Miller of California, who are expected to be the chairmen of the Senate and House education committees, will promote giving more resources to schools and researching strategies to improve minority performance, according to aides.
“Closing the achievement gap is at the heart of No Child Left Behind and must continue to be our focus in renewing the act next year,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement.
The suggestions for improvement in the article consist mainly of ensuring and rewarding quality teachers in minority schools, and extending early childhood education to more children.
Personally, I'm a strong supporter of Brown vs. Board of Ed -- which is to say, I don't believe that there should be any minority schools to begin with.
Unfortunately, integration doesn't appear to be on the table anymore. In which case, I do strongly agree with these suggestions. I would add, well trained, motivated administrators would be a boon to low-income schools as well.
It will be interesting to see how Democrats (and Senator Kennedy in particular) approach this problem through NLCB over the next few months.
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