Federal News in Brief

NCLB Rewrite Would Expand Core-Subject Definition

By Catherine Gewertz — April 14, 2015 1 min read
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The U.S. Senate draft of the rewritten No Child Left Behind Act adds writing, music, computer science, technology, and physical education to the list of disciplines it defines as “core academic subjects.”

That shift, buried deep in the 601-page Every Child Achieves Act, released last week, appears to be a response to the years-old debate about the NCLB law’s curriculum-narrowing effect.

Critics of the testing regimen that the NCLB law created will likely argue that expanding the list of core academic subjects is unlikely to have a broadening effect on the curriculum, since only English/language arts, math, and science must be tested.

A version of this article appeared in the April 15, 2015 edition of Education Week as NCLB Rewrite Would Expand Core-Subject Definition

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