The American Federation of Teachers has launched a national campaign to focus attention on what it views as the shortcomings of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The articles are online at www.aft.org.
The education and advocacy campaign will include radio and print advertising and a coordinated mobilization of the Washington-based union’s 1.3 million members.
“We can’t wait for the 2007 reauthorization of this law to begin talking about how to fix it,” Edward J. McElroy, the president of AFT, said last week in a statement. “The problems with NCLB go far beyond its deplorable underfunding, and we are serious about getting NCLB right.”
The campaign’s first phase will focus on the law’s provision for adequate yearly progress, which the union says is incorrectly labeling schools that in fact are showing promising academic gains and threatening them with sanctions when they need additional support.
The spring issue of American Educator, the union’s magazine, contains articles on standards-based school reform, accountability, and the federal law and proposes ways to correct what guest authors see as its flaws.
