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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Obama rewriting Bush's No Child Left
Behind law <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>By Dorie Turner, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tulsa</st1:place></st1:City>
World and The Oklahoman 3/14/2010
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>ATLANTA — President Barack Obama is promising parents and their
children that with his administration's help they will have better teachers in
improved schools so U.S. students can make up for academic ground lost against
youngsters in other countries. A plan to overhaul the 2002 education law
championed by President George W. Bush was unveiled by the Obama administration
Saturday in hopes of replacing a system that in the past decade has tagged more
than a third of schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of academic
standards among states. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>"Unless we take action — unless we step up — there are
countless children who will never realize their full talent and
potential," Obama said Saturday. In the proposed dismantling of the No
Child Left Behind law, education officials would move away from punishing
schools that don't meet benchmarks and focus on rewarding schools for progress,
particularly with poor and minority students. Obama intends to send a rewrite
of the law to Congress on Monday. The proposed changes call for states to adopt
standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than
grade-level proficiency — the focus of the current law. The blueprint
also would allow states to use subjects other than reading and math as part of
their measurements for meeting federal goals, pleasing many education groups
that said No Child Left Behind encouraged teachers not to focus on history,
art, science, social studies and other important subjects. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>And, for the first time in 45 years, the White House is proposing a $4
billion increase in federal education spending, most of which would go to
increase the competition among states for grant money and move away from
formula-based funding. The blueprint goes before the House Education and Labor
Committee on Wednesday as Obama pushes Congress to reauthorize the education
law this year, a time-consuming task that some observers say will be difficult.
Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., praised Obama's plan. "This
blueprint lays the right markers to help us reset the bar for our students and
the nation," Miller said in a prepared statement. Education Secretary Arne
Duncan briefed a handful of governors, lawmakers and education groups on the
plan Friday, including Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican. "The
governor is very supportive of the direction the secretary is going," said
Perdue's spokesman Chris Schrimpf. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>A few other highlights from the blueprint: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>•By 2020, all high school graduates would need to be ready for
college or the workplace. That's a shift from the current law, which calls for
all students to be performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>•Give more rewards — money and flexibility — to
high-poverty schools that are seeing big gains in student achievement and use
them as a model for other schools in low-income neighborhoods that struggle
with performance.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>•Punish the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools using
aggressive measures, such as having the state take over federal funding for
poor students, replacing the principal and half the teaching staff or closing
the school altogether.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>•<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Duncan</st1:place></st1:City>
has said the name No Child Left Behind will be dropped because it is associated
with a harsh law that punishes schools for not reaching benchmarks even if
they've made big gains. He said the administration will work with Congress to
come up with a new name. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of
School Administrators, said he is pleased with the plan. "We're delighted
over that," he said. "We have not been a fan of No Child Left Behind."
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=4 face="Monotype Corsiva"><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"'>Linda Mason, Ed.D.</span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Coordinator for Grant Writing and External Funding</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Oklahoma</span></font></st1:PlaceName><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceType></span></font></st1:place><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> Regents for Higher
Education</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>655 Research
Parkway, Suite 200</span></font></st1:address></st1:Street><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Oklahoma City</span></font></st1:City><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>, <st1:State
w:st="on">OK</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">73104</st1:PostalCode></span></font></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>405-225-9486</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a href="mailto:lmason@osrhe.edu">lmason@osrhe.edu</a></span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>IP: 164.58.250.178</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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