Education Secretary Arne Duncan looks on at left as President Barack Obama meets with students at Wright Middle School in Madison, Wis., Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. (AP)

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No Child Left Behind has had American education by the scruff of the neck for years now, with the tests and deadlines and failure tags and penalties that have had American schools both on their toes and in an uproar ever since it was made the law of the land under George W. Bush.

Now, the Obama administration is proposing its own answer to the Bush-era federal program.

The Obama plan would scrap the language and much of the guts of No Child Left Behind. And bring on its own blueprint.

Is it a fix? A surrender? An advance?

This hour, On Point: after No Child Left Behind.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Jonathan Kaufman, Pultizer Prize-winning reporter and education editor at Bloomberg News. He has been following the rollout of the new education blueprint and its reception by lawmakers and educators.

Charles Barone, director of federal policy at the advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform.  From 2001 and 2003, he served as Deputy Staff Director for the House Education and Labor Committee under Democratic Congressman George Miller of California, a principle player in the passage of No Child Left Behind.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform. She’s a critic of the Obama administration’s new education plan and an advocate for school choice.

Dr. Susan Gourley, superintendent of public shools in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Aug. 25, 2008.

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Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to link American teachers’ pay to American students’ performance. Teachers unions have always said no. They are still very wary of that straight equation.

But one big teachers union leader is signaling she’s ready to talk.

Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers. This month she said she’s ready to work with school districts to revamp teacher evaluation and to make student performance — test scores — part of that evaluation.

In the teaching world, that’s big.

This hour, On Point: Randi Weingarten, on sizing up America’s teachers.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington are:

Claudio Sanchez, education correspondent for NPR.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. She gave a speech to the National Press Club on January 12 that called for new “approaches for quality teaching and better schools.”

Charles Barone, director of federal policy at the advocacy group Democrats for Education Reform.  From 2001 and 2003, he served as Deputy Staff Director for the House Education and Labor Committee under Democratic Congressman George Miller of California.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Chicago, where he was chief of public schools, on Nov. 13, 2008. (AP)

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The U.S. secretary of education always has a big bully pulpit. President Barack Obama’s brand new secretary of education, Chicago’s Arne Duncan, has a big bully pulpit plus a huge pile of stimulus money — one hundred billion dollars — to shake up American education.

That’s historic. Today we’ll talk with the Secretary Duncan about his plans for America’s schools. About testing and charter schools, teachers unions and No Child Left Behind. About how he hopes to make American education competitive again.

This hour, On Point: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

You can join the conversation. What’s your question for Secretary Duncan, America’s education man of the hour?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Arne Duncan joins us from Washington. He was confirmed as Secretary of Education on Jan. 20, 2009. Prior to his appointment, he served for seven years as the chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools.

More links:

The New York Times has a good summary of the historic moment in which Secretary Duncan arrives. For a tough critique of President Obama and Secretary Duncan, see the Schools Matter blog. And The Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on the D.C. voucher controversy and how it frames big choices for the new administration.

Jay Mathews, education columnist for The Washington Post, offers an up-close account of school reform in his new book, “Work hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America.” He joined us last year for our ‘08 campaign hour on the education issue.

Computer class at Trinity Catholic Academy in Brockton, MA. (Photo:AP)

How to improve under-achieving schools in America’s poorest communities has vexed policy makers for generations. President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law insists on accountability. But critics charge it encourages teaching to the test at the expense of real learning.

The law still sparks a loud argument — but as one of our guests today writes in the current issue of Harper’s magazine, there’s debate that test-prep companies such as Kaplan are profiting handsomely from the federal mandate to test, and test, and test again.

Up next, On Point: Moving beyond the tyranny of the test to school reform that actually works.

-Anthony Brooks, guest host

Guests:

Jeremy Miller, a high school science teacher in Denver. His article “Tyranny of the Test: One year as a Kaplan coach in the public school” appears in the September issue of Harper’s.

Seppy Basili, senior vice president of Learning and Assessment at Kaplan, a $2 billion company that prepares students for standardized tests.

Sara Mead, senior research fellow in the Education Policy Program and Workforce and Family Program at the New America Foundation, where she also writes for the Early Ed Watch blog.

Jordan Meranus, partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy firm that makes investments in organizations serving K-12 public education.