NEA Opens Campaign to Rewrite Federal Education Law

Orlando, Fla.

A majority of the 8,200 delegates gathered here for the National Education Association’s annual convention last week approved a plan to push for aggressive changes to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which is up for reauthorization next year.

The nation’s largest union, whose leaders have often complained they were prevented from taking part in the crafting of the country’s chief education law, approved the plan during the July 2-5 meeting that calls on NEA members to lobby Congress for revisions to bring the law more into line with the views of the 2.8 million-member union.

The changes proposed include establishing an accountability system that relies on far more than testing as the measure of success or failure. Instead, the union recommends designing a system based on multiple benchmarks, including teacher-designed classroom assessments, student portfolios, graduation and dropout statistics, and college-enrollment...