How do NCLB and the Spellings Commission affect change in the use of educational technology?

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established Federal standards for states, districts, and schools with the goal of improving performance and increasing accountability. The Spellings Commission was formed in 2005 to examine the post-secondary education system and develop a national strategy for improvement. The commission also looked at high school preparation for post-secondary education.

Both are Federal attempts to fix state and local problems. Both look for more accountability from states, districts, and schools. The problem with accountability is that there must be some metric by which to gauge the level of success or failure. Enter standardized testing and teaching to standards. Firm, government-imposed standards and stiff penalties for not meeting or exceeding those standards is creating a need to find ways to use technology to make teaching to the standards more effective. Therefore, much of the available money for educational technology is going toward tools that will help process students and tests. Resources that could be invested in technologies that would help students make connections and authenticate the learning experience are instead spent ramping up the factory assembly line. Legislators and their commissions are genuinely trying to raise the bar fro education. But as we've been reading in Friedman's The World Is Flat, today's student needs to be adaptable and creative--two skills that are not on any standardized test.