STOP THE PRESSES!  This cover story in yesterday's NY Times is the first major story I've seen about what the Obama administration is planning vis-à-vis the renewal of NCLB – and I REALLY like what I'm hearing.  The most important and exciting element is the idea that vast amounts of federal money, rather than being handed out according to a formula, would instead be linked to RttT-like conditions and reforms.  If implemented, this would be HUGE – look at all the change RttT has driven in a few short months, and imagine what would happen if this effectively became permanent?!?!?!

 

the White House wants to change federal financing formulas so that a portion of the money is awarded based on academic progress, rather than by formulas that apportion money to districts according to their numbers of students, especially poor students. The well-worn formulas for distributing tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have, for decades, been a mainstay of the annual budgeting process in the nation's 14,000 school districts…

 

… a new accountability system would divide schools into more categories, offering recognition to those that are succeeding and providing large new amounts of money to help improve or close failing schools…

The administration has already made its mark on education through Race to the Top, a federal grant program in which 40 states are competing for $4 billion in education money included in last year's federal stimulus bill. In his State of the Union address, Mr. Obama hailed the results so far of that competition, which has persuaded states from Rhode Island to California to make changes in their education laws. States that prohibit the use of test scores in teacher evaluations, for example, are not eligible for the funds. The competition has also encouraged states to open the door to more charter schools, which receive public money but are run by independent groups.

Now the administration hopes to apply similar conditions to the distribution of the billions of dollars that the Department of Education hands out to states and districts as part of its annual budget.

"They want to recast the law so that it is as close to Race to the Top as they can get it, making the money conditional on districts' taking action to improve schools," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, who attended a recent meeting at which administration officials outlined their plans in broad strokes. "Right now most federal money goes out in formulas, so schools know how much they'll get, and then use it to provide services for poor children. The department thinks that's become too much of an entitlement. They want to upend that scheme by making states and districts pledge to take actions the administration considers reform, before they get the money."

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Obama to Seek Sweeping Change in 'No Child' Law

By SAM DILLON

Published: January 31, 2010

www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/education/01child.html

The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush's signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law's 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.