As we continue to go forward with no ESEA re-authorization to replace No Child Left Behind and as states continue to make the news for their gripes with Common Core, Bellwether Education has a new plan to bring more bi-partisan support to education reform. They call it “Pacts Americana.”
This project and report re-envisions federal education accountability in a way that balances state autonomy with national interests.
In the paper, Bellwether traces the evolution of federal accountability and argues that states choosing to receive federal education dollars must be held accountable for their results. To bridge the gap between NCLB’s heavy-handed, one-size-fits-all approach and current inclinations to overcorrect against it, they propose a new federal-state relationship that we call “performance compacts.”
Under the compact approach, the federal government would hold states accountable for student outcomes while leaving the details (content standards, assessments, curricula, interventions, and more) to the discretion of each state. Bellwether believes such a system could offer a new, bipartisan path forward on federal K-12 policy, striking a balance among the urgency to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students, the practicality of preserving state autonomy, and the need to hold states accountable for results.
For more information, please visit: http://bellwethereducation.org/publication/Pacts-Americana
