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In an article in The National Review, Michael J. Petrilli, former associate assistant deputy secretary in the Bush administration's Department of Education and co-author of "No Child Left Behind: A Primer," writes that he's "gradually and reluctantly come to the conclusion that NCLB as enacted is fundamentally flawed and probably beyond repair."

A self-professed "True Believer" in the law during his years in the Bush administration, Petrilli now concedes problems that he had foreseen — that the "highly qualified teacher" mandate was a "huge overreach," and that requiring all states to reach proficiency by 2014 but allowing them to define proficiency would spur a "race to the bottom." But he also admits other problems that took him longer to recognize. These include the conversion of schools into "test-prep factories," and the fact that school-choice laws are meaningless when there are too few good schools for parents to choose. Petrilli says he remains a supporter of the ideas underlying the law, but no longer believes in "the machinery of the law itself." "The way forward," he writes, "starts with a more realistic assessment of what the federal government can reasonably hope to achieve in education," and includes weighted student funding and nationalization of standards.

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Exchange has packaged seven of its most popular curriculum resources into a single Curriculum Tool Kit and is offering the entire set at a 33% discount. The following curriculum resources can be purchased in this Tool Kit or separately on the Exchange web site:

• Beginnings Workshops Book #4 - Curriculum: Brain Research, Math, Science
• Beginnings Workshops Book #5 - Curriculum: Art, Music, Movement, Drama
• Hearing Everyone’s Voice
• More Than Numbers: Mathematical Thinking in the Early Years
• Exchange Articles Collection #3 — Children with Differing Abilities
• Out of the Box Training Kit (printed version): Recognizing the Essentials of Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum

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