Ravitch: No Child Left Behind needs radical overhaul

Those who staunchly defend the federal No Child Left Behind act generally label opponents as left-wing, NEA-types who are trying to protect the status quo in public education.
Diane Ravitch does not fit into those categories. In fact, she worked for the first President Bush in the Department of Education, and in her an op-ed piece in today's New York Times suggests that the law needs a radical overhaul and that more power should go to states and local school districts:

The obvious solution is to reverse roles. Washington should supply unbiased information about student academic performance to states and local districts. It should then be the responsibility of states and local districts to improve performance.

Congress should also drop the absurd goal of achieving universal proficiency by 2014. Given that no nation, no state and no school district has ever reached 100 percent math and reading proficiency for all grades, it is certain that the goal cannot be met. Perpetuating this unrealistic ideal, however, guarantees that increasing numbers of schools will “fail” as the magic year 2014 gets closer.

Unless we set realistic goals for our schools and adopt realistic means of achieving them, we run the risk of seriously damaging public education and leaving almost all children behind.