The president's proposal to extend NCLB to high school may face rough sledding. Education Week runs through the various high school reform schemes being bandied about, including small schools, a common college-readiness curriculum, increased participation in AP and IB courses, and experimentation with the format of high schools. (Chester Finn ran Gadfly readers through this exercise several weeks ago; see "The blind men and the high school.") Author Lynn Olson notes that "while most educators and policy makers agree that all students - whether bound for the workplace or college - need a common core of high-level skills, that consensus falls apart when it comes to the specifics." To date, the Bush administration has provided few specifics about its proposal and Congress may not be an easy sell. Time magazine reports that Representative George Miller, ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee, won't back the high school initiative until further funding for NCLB is made available. No surprise there, but the proposal is having trouble on the President's side of the aisle, too. Representative Mike Pence, head of the conservative Republican Study Committee, opposes the plan and adds that NCLB is "one of the things we need to undo from the first Bush term." Even administration stalwarts such as Representative John Boehner and Senator Lamar Alexander have hinted at doubts.
"Calls for revamping high school intensify," by Lynn Olson, Education Week, January 26, 2005
"No . . . teenager left behind?" by Perry Bacon, Jr., Time, January 24, 2005