President Barack Obama's recent use of executive authority to revise the No Child Left Behind education law is one of several factors driving a trend toward using student test scores, classroom observation and potentially even input from students, among other measures, to determine just how effective educators are. A growing number of states are using these evaluations to decide critical issues such as pay, tenure, firings and the awarding of teaching licenses.
A half-mile-long raised dirt driveway splits 33 acres of zinfandel grapes from a field of pinot noir. But when ag teacher Ken Moncrief looks at the divider, he sees connections.
The audacity of President George W. Bush's landmark No Child Left Behind legislation exists in linking federal funding to school performance. Those who drafted the law expected it to be rewritten before its central demand that every child achieve ever came to pass.
