As much as I wanted to delve into book 2 in the Game of Thrones series (A Clash of Kings), I reluctantly set it aside to focus on my required reading. My education policy analysis course is evaluating the No Child Left Behind initiative, which I was surprised to discover is another rehashed version of Johnson’s education efforts during the “war on poverty” era. It would seem that one President to the next seldom offers wholly new ideas; they just tweak previous ones and give them new names.

(You can find the book on Amazon here, though I must admit that when I did a search for “Collision Course,” a couple of novels with saucy covers showed up in the listing that looked far more interesting than a diatribe on federal education policy!)

It is helpful to learn about NCLB and its impact during the Bush administration and onward, because it puts into perspective the discussions at the federal and state levels about how to handle expectations of performance and juggle the budget, in the process. I do hope that we will touch on education policy beyond K-12, though, because my personal interest is largely in higher ed.