The report from the Commission on No Child Left Behind is in. The 230-page bipartisan report calls not only for renewal of NCLB, but also for significant expansion of the Act. “You’re never going to hit a home run unless you swing for the fences,” said Tommy G. Thompson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration, and co-chair along with former Georgia Gov. Roy E. Barnes. Some highlights of the report:

• All high-school students proficient in reading and math by 2014
• Three science-mandated tests between grades 3 and 12
• Teacher evaluations based on how their students perform
• National Standards

Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, voiced hopes that mandated history tests will follow science.

As I have mentioned before, the intention of No Child Left Behind and the goal of every child being educated is a noble cause. However, we might not want to tell teachers they must coach in such a way that every student is swinging for the fence to hit a homerun. Teachers want their students to get around the bases and know there are many ways to score a run. Good teachers know what works best in their classrooms and for their students’ differentiated needs. If teachers are required to teach the same things the same way to every child, every child will not make it around the bases.

The profession of elementary school teacher has traditionally been female dominated, and it has become even more female dominated the last few years. In Iowa, 20 years ago, 37% of public school teachers were male, and today, that number is just 27%, according to a recent article in The Des Moines Register. The number of male teachers is just currently 21% nationally, a 40-year low, the National Education Association reports. These numbers raise two questions. First, why is the gender gap getting larger? And secondly, is the lack of male teachers necessarily a bad thing?

The reason more men do not teach is that the pay is low and teachers do not get the respect they deserve, says the author of the news article. No doubt higher pay would lead to higher prestige, for the women and the men educating our children. And the lack of respect has hit a new low, with teachers often being the sole source of blame for a school’s failure, especially when it comes to low test scores. Teachers do play a critical role in test scores. But, it’s easy to forget that educating children and raising test scores requires more than dedicated teachers. It also takes an involved community of parents, family, friends, principals, specialists, tutors, etc.

As far as whether or not we’d be better off as a society if more men were in the classroom, here’s my take in a nutshell: Many children grow up in single-parent households and lack the presence of good male role models. Male teachers can and should be positive influences in the lives of these children.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce that “policies that boost our national investment in education and training can help reduce inequality while expanding economic opportunity.” However, Bernanke did not give any specific suggestions on how to boost our educational investment, stating that educational solutions are best left up to politicians.

Kudos to Bernanke for drawing the parallel between education and equality. Leaders cannot do enough to stress the importance of learning in today’s world. But we need to be careful about leaving educational solutions solely in the hands of policymakers. Solutions on how to educate our children might be best originating from parents and educators.

Amelia Middle School in Ohio is taking action to put an end to bullying not through school staff intervention, but through a program that empowers students who witness bullying to do something about it. The school has also developed policies and rules against bullying and a system for reporting and recording incidents of bullying. It creates a heightened awareness of bullying and promotes shared responsibility to stop bullying when it is observed. Weekly classroom sessions are held to discuss issues associated with bullying, and bullying hot spots on campus have been identified. A kick-off rally for the student body was held during which members of school staff and students acted out scenes that demonstrated bullying.

Research findings show that bullying first begins in elementary schools, subsides during middle school, and reemerges in the ninth grade.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Amelia Middle School’s anti-bully program is based on a method promoted in the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program that was developed in Norway. The method has proven to be effective in many schools. Amelia is the first school in the Cincinnati area to implement the program. Bullying is so debilitating to children that I applaud whatever can be done to heighten student awareness of its negative effects and empower them to take positive action to prevent it.