Re: NCLB Reauthorization Stalls

[MONICALUCIDO@comcast.net]

Thanks for the article, George.

Joe Lucido
EPATA
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: 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 
>