The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Obama to Congress: rewrite No Child Left Behind by fall

President Obama exhorts Congress to rework the Bush-era No Child Left Behind education reforms before the start of the next school year. It will be a tough task politically, experts say.

President Obama continued his string of speeches on education reform Monday with a renewed call to fix No Child Left Behind.

In a speech at Kenmore Middle School in Virginia, Mr. Obama highlighted problems with the current law, passed in 2002 under President Bush, and called on Congress to reform it by reauthorizing the act – officially called the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – before the start of the next school year.

“Instead of labeling schools a failure one day and then throwing up our hands and walking away from them, we need to refocus on the schools that need the most help,” Obama said in his speech.

RELATED: No Child Left Behind overhaul: five key things that would change

NCLB is not without it successes, such as shining a light on the achievement gap between students of different races and backgrounds, Obama said. But he added that the law needs changes, which include: rewarding schools for success, improving standards and assessments, getting the best teachers ...

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