Local administrators weigh in on No Child Left Behind repeal

Since its inception in 2001 during the Bush administration, the No Child Left Behind Act has drawn the ire of liberals and conservatives alike, who saw it as an impractical, unworkable boondoggle that gave the federal government too much control over education and set unrealistic goals for school districts across the country. In December, President Obama approved the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act that will effectively replace NCLB, and Grundy Center Superintendent Jerry Schutz and BCLUW and GMG Superintendent Ben Petty offered up their thoughts on the changes in a pair of recent interviews.
 
Some of the most controversial aspects of NCLB included the aim that 100 percent of students nationwide be proficient in reading and math by 2014 (not a single state achieved this), that those who did not meet the pre-established guidelines could be designated Districts in Need of Assistance (DINAs) or Schools in Need of Assistance (SINAs), that a single standardized test each year (in Iowa, the Iowa Assessments) had more or less become the sole benchmark for district performance and that it put teachers in competition with each other while forcing them to narrowly tailor their lesson plans toward the aforementioned tests.
 
 Most states eventually applied successfully for waivers that allowed them to craft their own accountability guidelines: Iowa, however, was not among them, and by 2014-2015, 311 school buildings and 40 districts in the state were considered in need of assistance according to the education department. 
 
Read more in this week's Grundy Register.