Diane Ravitch’s Huffington Post entry last Sunday is both a solid description of what NCLB requires for accountability and a sharp criticism. The money quote:
In the future, the federal government should do only what the federal government can competently do. Its historic role has been three-fold: one, to collect and disseminate information about the condition and progress of education in these United States; two, to write checks help schools educate specific groups of students, especially those who are poor and have disabilities; and three, to enforce civil rights laws.
The comments tend to agree with Ravitch but with more extreme rhetoric.