City Leaders Back Stronger Accountability

Washington

In the debate over the future of the No Child Left Behind Act, many educators say the federal government should ease the law’s accountability requirements by setting achievable goals and imposing reasonable sanctions on schools that don’t meet them.

But urban leaders—whose schools are most likely to struggle to reach the law’s current goals and most apt to face such sanctions—are urging Congress to be more aggressive in holding their schools accountable in the future.

“I think you should make it harder for people like me because it’s not about me, it’s about my kids,” Joel I. Klein, the chancellor of the New York City public schools, told the House Education and Labor Committee...