NCLB Reauthorization Stalls

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

Education law's overhaul stalls in Congress
Proposals draw rancor amid calls for change.
By Halimah Abdullah - McClatchy Newspapers

Published Sunday, December 2, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/535803.html

WASHINGTON ? Five years after President Bush's 
signature education program became law, No Child 
Left Behind is at a crossroads.

Proposals that could drastically alter how 
children in the nation's public schools are 
educated have stalled for months in the Senate 
and House education committees. The wrangling 
over the law, which demands that every child be 
"proficient" ? working at grade level in reading 
and math ? by 2014, has grown so rancorous that 
Congress is unlikely to reauthorize or change the 
program this year. NCLB will renew automatically if Congress fails to act.

But as the 2008 political campaign intensifies, 
education changes are likely to be eclipsed by 
debates over the economy, health care and the 
Iraq war ? and by more partisan political posturing.

There's bipartisan agreement, however, that No 
Child Left Behind is due for an overhaul.

"All across the country, teachers, school 
administrators, school board members and parents 
are voicing their concerns with the law," said 
Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, chairman of the 
House Education and Labor Committee. "They don't 
think it makes sense to stay the course. They 
don't think it makes sense to preserve the status 
quo. They think the law needs significant improvements, and they are right."

Critics charge that NCLB takes a 
one-size-fits-all approach that ignores different 
education standards, challenges and practices among the states:

? Education experts criticize states' differing 
proficiency standards. Even if a teacher in 
Wisconsin ? which has a low proficiency standard, 
according to a recent study by the Thomas B. 
Fordham Institute, a Washington-based education 
organization ? helps his eighth-grade reading 
students meet state targets, they still might lag 
behind their peers from a state such as South 
Carolina, which has a higher standard, on national tests.

? Roughly 40 percent of schools that should have 
faced sanctions, such as a state takeover, for 
repeatedly failing to help poor students reach 
proficiency targets through the 2005-2006 school 
year avoided the law's toughest consequences, 
according to a Government Accountability Office report this year.

? Detractors say the law's heavy reliance on 
standardized testing doesn't fully gauge student 
progress. However, proposals to use additional 
achievement measures, such as graduation rates 
and scores in subjects such as history, have met 
staunch resistance from those who worry about lowered standards.

? Nearly everyone involved thinks that more must 
be done to close the so-called achievement gaps 
among racial and ethnic minorities, students with 
disabilities, students who speak limited English, 
poor children and their peers.

But proposals to expand the use of portfolios of 
student work to help gauge the progress of 
mentally challenged children and to implement 
portfolio use for those who speak little English 
have met skepticism from those who worry about 
attempts to hide poor student performance. 
Experts worry that some schools also have figured 
out ways to sidestep counting groups of 
low-performing students, thereby boosting overall test scores.

? By all accounts, NCLB's biggest success is the 
way the law highlights the performance of 
underachieving children and holds schools and 
districts accountable for every student's 
progress. But while some states and districts 
have ramped up attendance in math and reading 
programs to help all children succeed, education 
advocates worry that these efforts come at the 
expense of gifted children who ace standardized tests.

? Many states and lawmakers think the federal 
government reneged on promises of funding to meet 
the law's requirements and vow not to support any 
measure that doesn't guarantee adequate funding.

According to the U.S. census, the nation's school 
districts spend roughly $8,200 per student each 
year. But a study by the Education Trust, a 
nonprofit education advocacy group in Washington, 
D.C., found that on average the nation spends 
$900 less per child on students in poor districts 
than it does on students in more affluent districts.

? Teachers' unions are waging a high-profile 
battle against proposals to tie pay raises to 
improvement in students' test scores.

More than 60 House Republicans have co-sponsored 
a measure by Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., that 
would give states the right to opt out of NCLB. 
Many freshman members of Congress on both sides 
of the aisle promised during their campaigns to overhaul or get rid of the law.

Over the past few years, lawmakers in at least a 
dozen states have threatened to opt out of NCLB.

In the House draft of its NCLB reauthorization, 
revisions include changing how kids' math and 
reading test scores are counted; increasing the 
role of graduation rates and other measures of 
achievement in determining whether a school or 
district has made adequate yearly progress; 
eliminating funding gaps between rich and poor 
districts; giving children credit for making some 
progress even if they don't meet targets; and, 
possibly most controversially, tying students' 
test improvement to performance pay raises for teachers.

The Senate Education Committee's draft, portions 
of which were released last month, steered clear 
of thorny issues such as teacher pay and 
accountability, but addressed overhauling the 
nation's so-called "dropout factories," secondary 
schools with graduation rates of less than 60 percent.

However, proposals to tie teachers' pay raises 
and competitive grants to improvements in their 
students' test scores are what galvanized 
teachers' unions to turn up the pressure on Washington lawmakers.

"You don't turn dull and mediocre teachers into 
classroom wizards by holding a sword of terror 
over their heads," said Jonathan Kozol, a veteran 
educator, activist and author. "If you want to 
provide merit pay based on a broader range of 
success, then it might have some effect in 
attracting good teachers into these schools."

George Sheridan