Roderick Paige, No Child Left Behind architect, dies

Rod Paige, the first African American U.S. education secretary, died Tuesday at the age of 92. Former President George W. Bush, who appointed Rod Paige, announced his death. Rod Paige was known for leading the implementation of the landmark No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, a signature education law of the George W. Bush administration. This law established universal testing standards and sanctioned schools that failed to meet benchmarks, modeled on Rod Paige's earlier work as superintendent of the Godley Independent School District. While some educators praised the law for standardizing expectations, others criticized its emphasis on testing. In 2015, under President Barack Obama, many provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act were pulled back, shrinking the United States — United States Department of Education's role in setting testing standards.