I was reading an e-mails from a kindergarten list serve the other day when I came across a post:
Who actually wrote NCLB? My Republican friends insist it was Ted Kennedy.I would appreciate information on this if anyone has it.
And the answer:
As I understand it, Kennedy was instrumental in the writing. The present different perspectives from the NEA and the AFT is due to this. AFT says that it was their contribution that made NCLB 'mas o menos'acceptable.
And another:
As far as I know it was Mrs. Spellings herself under the guidance of Mr. Paige. Rod Paige is the former SI of Houston's school district which was credited with the "Texas' miracle". His success was (supposedly) so great that that justified that not only Mr. Paige became Secretary of Education but his improvement system would be turned into the basis for NCLB.
There is a lot of misinformation out there. This article should clear it up some. One thing it does leave out is the influence of the corporate education establishment lead by the Business Roundtable and their many think tanks and money bags such as the Broad Foundation.
Near as I can figure out Kennedy signed up because he saw a chance to get more money to educate just those kids that NCLB is supposed to help, minorities and low socio economic kids. So the act is a compromise and what we get is the corporate agenda of test, test and more test, and along with that come punishments for those that don't make AYP and the door is opened for vouchers and privatization. (Remember private schools don't have to measure up to NCLB.) And let us not forget the testing companies and private tutoring outfits that stand to make big bucks from this.
This is the history and my personal take on it.
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