If you, as I do, worry about the quality of public education, hang out with public school teachers or have a child in school, you’ve probably given a thought to the federal “No Child Left Behind Act” an odd, ground-breaking statute which resulted from an alliance between President Bush and Senator Kennedy. (text, regulations & USDOE guidence here .) It’s brought vast increases in standardized testing to our nation’s schools, caused vast uproar among educators, parents and other “stakeholders” (standardized test vendors, prep course crammers and textbook publishers).

It’s up for renewal and /or major modification. One of my education heroes, Jonathan Kozol, on booktour with Letters to A Young Teacher, reports he has spent time talking with Democratic Senators about proposed revisions and says he thinks the renewed statute may more properly focus educational efforts away from standardized testing as the sole benchmark of student and school success. (Kozol was on WNYC last week – hear him here .

Wednesday, August 29, 2007, Rep George Miller (D.Calif), House education chair, floated the first Congressional proposals for revision of No Child Left Behind. The Education Week story is here (free registration required, sorry), the Washington Post story here and, for those committed to tough reading, the 11-page outline of proposed changes is here The NCLB views of the National Education Association (NEA) are here and the American Federation of Teachers' (AFT) here . As I read it, at least, the NEA views, at least, are reflected the Rep. Miller's proposed outline

The issues are hard to understand especially if, like me, you’ve not been in the middle of the debate these last five years. A possible place to start might be this this smart post by Sherman Dorn as well as UFT President Randi Weingarten’s Eduwonk Posts last week especially this one on Data Driven Accountability (which UFT Blogger Steve Perez linked to Daily Gotham here. Want even more? Maisie at Edwize collects anti-NCLB links here

I will try to tease these issues out more as the debate unfolds. Stay tuned, as the shape of public education may be improving.

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