Barack Obama on the issues 13

Do you support the No Child Left Behind program? Why or why not?

The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act is the right one -- ensuring that all children can meet high standards -- but the law has significant flaws that need to be addressed. However, unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Department of Education, and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support among many people who care deeply about our schools and our students. The shortcomings of NCLB, however, shouldn't end the conversation. They should be the start of a conversation about how we can do better. One of the greatest troubles of No Child Left Behind is that we have spent too much time preparing students for tests that do not provide any valuable, timely feedback on how to improve a student's learning. We need tests and measurements, but we should ensure that they are useful to improve student learning. As president, I will support the creation of testing models that will: provide educators and students with timely feedback about how to improve student performance instead of arriving with too little too late; measure readiness for college and success in an information-age workplace by testing reading comprehension, writing skills, and other critical thinking skills; and indicate whether individual students are actually making progress toward reaching high standards. Good teachers with the tools to do their jobs should not have to teach to the test. They should be able to teach a rich curriculum.