NCLB Fifth Anniversary -- January 8, 2007

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

NEXT ROUND BEGINS FOR NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
   Christian Science Monitor -- January 8, 2007
               by Amanda Paulson

When President Bush signed the landmark No Child Left Behind Act five 
years ago Monday, he conducted a three-state road show, touted its 
bipartisan roots, and promised it would put US schools "on a new path of 
reform, and a new path of results."

In the five years since, critics and admirers of the bill tend to agree 
about the reform part, but say they're still waiting for results.

Achievement levels are creeping up toward the 2014 deadline when all 
public school children are supposed to be "proficient" at math and 
reading, and the racial and economic achievement gaps have narrowed 
slightly in a few cases, but not at all in others.

Yet even the act's harshest critics admit it has changed the 
conversation about education in America, and has focused attention on 
poor-achieving groups of students who had been overlooked.

This year, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is getting particular attention: 
It's not just the five-year anniversary, but the year the act expires 
and must be voted on again by Congress - an opportunity many are hoping 
will be used to revise the law - either a lot or a little - to make it 
more effective.

"I'm actually even more hopeful about this second iteration of this law 
than I was about the first," says Michael Casserly, executive director 
of the Council of the Great City Schools. "In general, I think the law 
has been more helpful than not. For a piece of legislation that really 
changed the conversation from universal access to universal proficiency, 
I wouldn't necessarily expect to get that paradigm shift right the first 
time around."

   A national reform

In its five years, the law has affected nearly every elementary and high 
school in the country.

Testing is now conducted every year from Grades 3 through 8, and 
students' performance is measured against that of the rest of their 
state and is broken down by race and income level. If any of those 
groups fails to make the "adequate yearly progress" two years in a row, 
the school is placed on an "in need of improvement" list. Schools on the 
list that receive federal funds are then subject to mounting sanctions 
and extra services.

And that's just the most visible change. The ultimate goal is to have 
every child meeting standards by 2014.

For now, though, the results are less clear. Scores on the National 
Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), called the nation's report 
card, have climbed slowly in reading and math for some groups, but the 
number of students who are "proficient" is still discouraging.

Just 41 percent of all white fourth graders meet the standard in 
reading, for instance. For both reading and math, only 13 percent of all 
black fourth graders are "proficient." Teachers complain of the stigma 
of being a failing school, and principals worry about the myriad ways 
they could end up on a watch list.

The Department of Education emphasizes the long-term NAEP trends, noting 
that more progress in the reading scores of 9-year-olds was made between 
1999 and 2004 than in the previous 28 years combined. But in general, 
even supporters say they're happier with the conversation the law has 
jumpstarted than with the results.

"It's been more effective at capturing attention and getting the 
rhetorical attention than in actually prompting people to go after the 
hard stuff they're going to need to go after to actually close these 
gaps," says Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, which focuses 
on closing achievement gaps for poor and minority students. She credits 
NCLB with some improvement in the achievement gap, but would like to see 
teacher quality standards better enforced.

   A push to help those at the bottom

One change that seems likely to get traction is a shift toward a 
"growth" model of assessing schools, in which schools with students who 
come in far below grade level get credit for helping them make big 
strides, even if they still fall short of proficiency - so long as, the 
Department of Education emphasizes, they do get students to a proficient 
level eventually. The department has already approved pilot programs in 
five states, and wants Congress to include such a model in NCLB.

Still, some critics want far more sweeping changes. A coalition called 
the Forum on Educational Accountability now has more than 100 groups - 
including the NAACP and the National Education Association - which have 
signed a list of 14 requested changes to the law. They include lowering 
the current proficiency targets, providing more assistance to failing 
schools, getting rid of sanctions with less record of improvement, and 
encouraging testing designed to measure higher thinking skills and 
performance throughout the year.

"The goal [of NCLB] is reasonable - the structure and way it's been 
implemented have been a disaster," says Monty Neill, director of 
FairTest and chairman of the forum.

He says some sanctions, such as allowing students to attend another 
school, aren't working, and that the testing and annual progress 
requirements have caused many schools to narrow their curriculum and 
"teach to the test" in the months preceding it.

"We'd be better off putting money into the teachers, teaching them how 
to be better assessors, and building in methods for spot checking and 
getting feedback," Mr. Neill says.

   Slim chance for change in 2007

While the conversation is heated, the likelihood that NLCB will be 
reauthorized this year may be small. An informal poll of Washington 
insiders conducted by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation 
found that none believed it is likely this year, and most thought it 
would be put off until after the 2008 presidential election.

Michael Petrilli, vice president for national programs and policy of the 
foundation and an early supporter of NCLB, admits that by this point, 
he's convinced that the federal government simply can't accomplish what 
it wants. He'd keep the goals of NCLB, but put the federal government's 
effort into setting strong national standards - instead of the widely 
varying state standards that currently exist - and have the states and 
districts figure out on their own how to get students to meet those 
standards.

"What we've learned more than anything else is that the federal 
government isn't well-equipped to force school districts to do things 
they don't want to do," Mr. Petrilli says.

The Department of Education, meanwhile, asks critics to be patient.

"We're in such a different place" than we were five years ago, says 
Kerri Briggs, acting assistant secretary for policy. "Education reform 
is not necessarily speedy work. It's tough stuff and requires putting in 
new assessments, creating data systems, rethinking curriculum, new 
professional development for teachers.... We have a lot of heavy lifting 
left to do."

    http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0108/p01s01-uspo.html