No Child Left Behind

The law works like this:
Children take standardized federal tests. If they do well overall, their school is rewarded. If they do not do well overall. Their school's staff is punished (fired, suspended) or their school is closed.

Pros:
Many schools for many years have consistently failed to graduate kids with any measure of adequate knowledge. Kids graduated unable to read, write or perform simple math. This was happening across America and it is disgusting. Standardized testing with real consequences holds a staff accountable to a minimum level of education. If kids can't do at least this much, not only are you not going to graduate them, but we're going to punish you.

Cons:
Many schools have completely tailored their education to match these exams. In some cases, this has limited what kids can learn prior to leaving high school.

Simply firing teachers and closing schools, especially in areas where it was extremely difficult to find teachers before is propagating an already bad problem. After you fire the teachers and close the school, where do these kids go now for an education?

Reality:
I am perfectly content with my daughters PE class and economics class being eliminated in favor of more math, english, and science. A lot of these 'poor kids who aren't getting a well rounded education' weren't getting a well rounded education before either. They were being passed forward in schools they didn't care and weren't held accountable. These are the schools that are being punished.

A lot of teachers, especially in the teachers union, are militantly opposed to standardized testing. Despite their honest reasons for being against it, the reality is, sometimes we must all make sacrifices to account for the inadequacies of some.

Can the testing be improved? Definitely. And it should be expanded. This is a first step - more will follow if this program is to succeed. Following the European and Asian models, the standardized testing could be used, later, to determine scholarship eligibility.

Now, if only Bush would follow through on his promises to keep it funded...