“The bottom line is simple: Federal education reform efforts have not worked as hoped – that’s not a point I make lightly or joyfully. Yes, there have been some minor improvements in a few areas but we’re far from where we need to be. We need to be honest with ourselves,” she said during an event on Tuesday at the American Enterprise Institute, “Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned.”
“It said that schools had to meet ambitious goals or else. Lawmakers mandated that 100 percent of students attain proficiency by 2014. This approach would keep schools accountable and ultimately graduate more and better-educated students, they believed. Turns out, it didn’t. Indeed, as has been detailed today, NCLB did little to spark higher scores,” she added.
Devos said universal proficiency, which NCLB supporters “touted at the law’s passage, was not achieved.”
“As states and districts scrambled to avoid the law’s sanctions and maintain their federal funding, some resorted to focusing specifically on math and reading at the expense of other subjects; others simply inflated scores or lowered standards. The trend line remains troubling today,” she said.
DeVos: 'At the U.S. Department of Education, Common Core is Dead'
“It said that schools had to meet ambitious goals or else. Lawmakers mandated that 100 percent of students attain proficiency by 2014. This approach would keep schools accountable and ultimately graduate more and better-educated students, they believed. Turns out, it didn’t. Indeed, as has been detailed today, NCLB did little to spark higher scores,” she added.
Devos said universal proficiency, which NCLB supporters “touted at the law’s passage, was not achieved.”
“As states and districts scrambled to avoid the law’s sanctions and maintain their federal funding, some resorted to focusing specifically on math and reading at the expense of other subjects; others simply inflated scores or lowered standards. The trend line remains troubling today,” she said.
DeVos: 'At the U.S. Department of Education, Common Core is Dead'
