Outline to Blueprint for Reform

In the Blueprint for Reform, President Obama addresses the modifications he would like to make in his reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which in its latest incarnation is also known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). There are six main areas that are the focus in this reform: a complete education, literacy, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, well-rounded education, college pathways and accelerated learning, and activities to strengthen a complete education.

            When speaking of a complete education the Obama administration is asking for the states to raise their standards and is even pushing the use of common core standards among states by providing those that do adopt the common core standards with funding. Other goals include fewer students needing remediation when entering their college education. This administration seeks to have students who graduate high school ready to start their college education.

            The Obama administration is keen on improving the nation’s literacy programs and ensuring that all students are receiving highest quality literacy instruction possible. The same is true of the administration’s push to improve schools’ STEM programs, as well as providing more funding for these programs.

            College pathways and accelerated learning in this context refers to allowing high school students opportunities to do college work and for elementary and middle school students, providing opportunities to participate in gifted and talented programs.

When comparing the Blueprint to Reform to No Child Left Behind, several main differences emerge. First is how the state standards are determined. Under NCLB, the states were required to develop their own standards, but there were no requirements for how rigorous these standards needed to be. The Blueprint to Reform is urging states to work together to develop common standards and for those states that do not elect to do so to work with their public university systems to make sure that the standards will ensure students will be ready for college when they graduate high school. The hope is the program should help lower the rate of students needing remediation when entering into college classes.

Another difference is how student progress will be measured. Under NCLB, states are allowed to choose their testing instrument; therefore, there is a lot of variability among states. The Obama Administration is offering to provide states that adopt common standards a formula to develop an assessment based on core standards and is offering funding in an effort to create consistency among the states. 

The Obama Administration aims to address a major criticism to NCLB, which is accountability for student performance. Under the Blueprint for Reform, the lowest performing five percent of schools in the state will be put under a “challenge” status. Schools that are placed under the challenge status will be mandated to utilize one of four possible turnaround models that have been established by the Administration.

A major criticism of Obama’s Blueprint for Reform is that it provides a lot of big language and talk, but it lacks a true plan to achieve the goals that are set. It is conceptually pleasing but without proper research, direction, and implementation the question remains if it actually is going to work.