No Child Left Behind is left behind during election

The Century Foundation held a panel discussion on a new book, Improving No Child Left Behind, at the National Press Club. The panelists all agreed that since the financial crisis, education has become a secondary issue in the current election cycle. Nonetheless, they said that the next President will have to deal with improving and changing No Child Left Behind once he takes office.

Their discussion covered many topics, but a central focus was to change the standards system within NCLB and create more incentives for schools to improve their performance.

The current test-based system don’t test thinking skills or greater knowledge, said Lauren Resnick, a panelist and one of the co-authors. She further stated that there aren’t incentives for low-performance schools to do anything but teach to the test. We need a system with more carrots and less sticks, said Resnick.