No Child Left Behind, the current acting education law that has been expired for the past eight years, could finally be re-authorized shortly after Thanksgiving as officials announced last week a compromise on the rewrite had been reached.

According to The Seventy-Four, policy makers are anticipated to convene later this week to "end their final product back for approval by the full House and Senate after Thanksgiving.”

"After endless false starts and 10 months of entrenched wrangling, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as it’s also known, has taken on a sense of urgency,” it said.

The Seventy-Four says that early reports indicate the rewrite has components in it to please both Republicans and Democrats, including limitations on the education secretary, a new preschool program and ways to hold states accountable for low-performing schools.

Though the “war of the words” between parties will likely occur after the final details have been etched out, both educators and legislators are optimistic that a NCLB rewrite is in the near future.

This optimism is a much different sentiment than was had just a few months prior after the NCLB rewrite’s biggest champions- Joe Boehner and Arne Duncan- concurrently resigned from their respective positions as Speaker of the House and education secretary.

Seeing as most states are currently being governed by a patchwork of waivers rather than a modern education law, a rewrite is welcomed by all in the field of education as soon as possible. 

The Hechinger Report speculated today on what the finalized rewrite might look like, saying its revisions will likely signal a "new era in education policy"

One of the bigger aspects of the new law, the Report said, is allowing states to create their own assessments and accountability systems for its schools, something it says will create both new possibilities and challenges.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

11/18/2015