more No Child Left Behind issues

A bipartisan task force created by the National Conference of State Legislatures issued its report on NCLB Wednesday. Task force co-chair Steve Saland, a Republican state senator from New York, says the law has allowed the federal government to stifle innovations in the states. "We believe the federal government's role has become excessively intrusive in the day-to-day operations of public education," Saland said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. "States that were once pioneers are now captives of a one-size-fits-all educational accountability system."

The task force makes four key recommendations:

(1) Remove obstacles that stifle state innovations;

(2) Fully fund NCLB and provide states with the financial flexibility they need to meet its goals;

(3) Remove the "one-size fits all method" for measuring student performance and replace it with "more sophisticated and accurate systems" that measure the growth of individual students; and

(4) Recognize that some schools have it harder than others, and that there are differences between schools in rural, urban and suburban areas...