What to Do With No Child Left Behind?

Why the Law Will Need More Than a Name Change

By Richard D. Kahlenberg

Following the election, a new president and Congress will need to sit down and figure out what to do with President Bush’s signature piece of domestic legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act. The first order of business will be to come up with a new name. U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., an architect of the legislation, has quipped that the NCLB brand has become so toxic that simply changing the name would pick up 100 votes for the legislation.

But then comes the hard work: fixing a law that has grown unpopular not only with those who have opposed standards, testing, and accountability all along, but also with supporters of standards-based reform who recognize that NCLB has taken the idea off track.

Originally, standards-based reform was driven by the idea that there was a big hole at the center of American education: a lack of agreement on what skills and knowledge students should master. Expectations varied widely between schools, and there was little outside pressure for anyone in the system—students, teachers, or...