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Next on the agenda for the Obama administration is to make changes to the No Child Left Behind education law and correct the flaws. However this would result in a weakening of the statute. The administration’s goal of enhancing the standard of state education will also be undermined by this.

Certain ideas put forth by the White House are really potent and good such as the suggestion to push for more number of charter schools. This will help in operating outside the bargaining agreements that are collective and also focus on the needs of students in a specific manner.

Influencing teacher pay and measuring the effectiveness of instructors will be done on the basis of student test scores. Understandably, these reforms are vehemently opposed by the teacher’s union. Kudos to the Obama administration for dealing with the National Education Association in a firm manner and placing children’s interests ahead of everything else.

Apart from these powerful and strategic proposals, there are certain other proposals that baffle us. The administration is working on eliminating the NCLB requirement that students must be equipped and highly proficient in math and reading by the year 2014.

The administration wants to replace this with the goal of making all students ready for college by the year 2020, which is equally unrealistic. However, compared to getting every child to read and do math in the next three years, getting all of them ready for college education six years later is a better goal with greater chances.

The accountability of NCLB is completely eliminated in parts of the proposals. Students who are poor studying in schools that are persistently failing cannot transfer to another school and cannot benefit from private tutoring either. The administration must no cut out the only law that provides a platform for private competition.

It is a positive sign to see the administration maintaining the annual reading and math tests in grades three to eight. Schools can no longer hide gaps in achievements as their results will be disaggregated by the school districts. Assessments however will tend to become more subjective and less rigorous.

Another factor that is worrying is that one of the provisions in the NCLB namely the “adequate yearly progress” which uses the scores in reading and math to assess student progress in districts is being axed.

As of now, schools that are not performing to standards face severe Federal penalties. By making policy flexible, Obama administration is giving a free hand to school districts and states to decide on the need and time to work positively on their failing schools.

One thing is very clear. The Obama administration is happy with Bush’s NCLB program. There seems to be very minor alterations and opposition just to satisfy core supporters who would not have anything to do with a Bush initiated reform. The goal is to set really high standards by challenging failure. If revising NCLB is going to water this down, then it is better that the government does nothing at all about it.