| By Bob Weaver
Ever since the No Child Left Behind law was passed, many educators and parents have worried that a maniacal focus on test results would cause schools to confuse test performance for real, quality education.
Most agree the need for tests and standards, but there are growing concerns that the one size fits all of NCLB is not the answer.
Many educators believe NCLB comes down to teaching to the test, and that it is becoming the single metric to evaluate outcome.
Most all educators agree that changes need to be made in NCLB, but there is a growing controversy over what.
There are frequent complaints that NCLB has never been adequately funded.
West Virginia's outcomes in reading and math appear to be among the worst in the USA.
It now seems WV's Department of Education is changing the rules, which will allow about 80% of the state's schools to meet the NCLB requirements.
West Virginia is among a growing number of states that are "tailoring the standards."
Reporter Scott Finn called it "No School Left Behind," with 100 of 125 "flunking" schools to be adjusted to meet criteria.
About 40% of the nation's schools have not been called to task for not meeting NCLB standards.
In many ways, NCLB further removes education from communities, much like state education officials make the rules that controls most local school board decisions.
Linda Martin of Challenge WV, longtime watcher of how education actually filters down to rural communities, has said "The solutions have often become the problems."
"You could make a list of trendy reforms in my lifetime that obviously led to students being poorly educated," she said.
The current 'globalized education' promoted by State Superintendent Steve Paine has a good ring, but it could join the trendy list.
The political power of educators may be the real enemy, protecting a system that doesn't work, which caused the rise of NCLB," Martin said.
Many states want out of NCLB, while others oppose measures to tie test scores to teacher's salaries.
NCLB overhaul may be slowed during the presidential race, but reform is coming. | 
