Go peek at the Federal Department of Education website--try to find the NCLB logo. Try to find the words "No Child Left Behind."

Then try to find any changes beyond that.

I do think the name 'No Child Left Behind' is absolutely toxic;
I think we have to start over.

Arne Duncan in USA Today, May 5
I'm so naive--I thought he meant start over with NCLB.

What to do, what to do? How do we maintain a Spellingesque reality? How do we convince people that the NCLB is still good for them?

It's been an interesting month. A major study demonstrated that charter schools do not, in fact, outperform public schools, Texas tells the feds to kiss its yellow rose and refuses to follow "voluntary" national standards, and Duncan revises his Listening and Learning tour to avoid the wrath of D.C.

What to do, what to do?

Rebrand!

It worked for Phillip Morris. Remember them? They're now Altria Group. And they still sell cigarettes.

So Mr. Duncan got incented enough to erase No Child Left Behind. The logos are off the website, and off the letterheads. The new name is....um...the new name...guys, where'd you put it?

OK, no new name yet.

A month ago, Mr. Duncan had a plan:

He said he would like to hold a contest for school kids to come up with a new name.

Arne Duncan, again in USA Today, May 5

This is like asking Anne Boleyn to name the sword that severed her neck.

So, Mr. Duncan, you like basketball analogies, let me explain it to you nice and slow. My New Jersey Nets went 17-65 about 20 years ago. They were, indeed, "absolutely toxic." How can you fix a team like that?

Do you think changing the uniforms would have made a lick's worth of difference?

(Maybe Duncan is right after all--the Nets change to a new uniform in 1990-91, and their record did, in fact, improve to 26-56.)

Go read Schools Matter, the best website I've found that keeps the spotlight on the unfolding disaster Formerly Known as NCLB.







And Section 1905 of the No Child Left Behind Act?

The Federal gummint shall not "mandate, direct, or control a state, local educational agency, or school's specific instructional content, academic achievement standards and assessments, curriculum or program of instruction."

The logo is public, the photo of the old Nets uniform is not--it looks like NBAHOOPS by the logo.