The Economic Policy Institute's Richard Rothstein, in a lecture this week at Amy Stuart Wells' Columbia University, complained that focusing too much attention on reading and math under the federal No Child Left Behind law will make kids better in reading and math, but at the detriment of other subject areas.

Rothstein, according to this news item from Teachers College, is now calling for schools to be held accountable for even more subject areas, including basic academic skills; critical thinking; social skills and work ethic; citizenship; physical health; emotional health; the arts and literature; and vocational education.

He is currently working on a report card to assess how well the nation's schools are faring in those and other areas.

"Holding schools accountable only for math and reading is an extreme position," Rothstein said.

He is scheduled to lecture again at Columbia on March 6, presumably to explain what the catch is - and if you've ever read Rothstein's work you know there is one. He says he stole his proposed subject areas from proposals advanced at various times by the likes of George Washington, John Adams (in the Massachusetts state constitution), Thomas Jefferson, Robert Dale Owen, Horace Mann, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, Milton Friedman, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Supreme Courts of West Virginia and New Jersey, and--as recently as 1991--the U.S. Department of Education.

You can watch a video of his lecture at the site above.

UPDATE: Eduwonk, I wish I knew how to quit you. For now I'll just link to your comments on this issue.