NCLB Anniversary Overview

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

 NCLB IN SPOTLIGHT ON SIXTH ANNIVERSARY
BUSH DEFENDS FEDERAL EDUCATION LAW, WHILE CRITICS URGE REFORM
ESchoolNews -- January 8, 2008

On the sixth anniversary of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), 
which determines how schools must focus their resources to ensure that 
all students are meeting grade-level standards by 2014, proponents and 
critics of the law sparred over how effective it has been in raising 
student achievement--and what kind of changes should be made later this 
year, when Congress is scheduled to renew the measure.

President Bush defended the law during a Jan. 7 appearance at Horace 
Greeley Elementary School in Chicago, though he acknowledged that 
several changes ought to be made. If Congress doesn't reauthorize NCLB 
soon, Bush said, he'll make as many of these changes as he can on his own.

Bush also said that if Congress does renew the law but weakens it in the 
process, he'd "strongly oppose it and veto it."

"Students are achieving record success, with minority students, poor 
students, and students with disabilities reaching all-time highs in a 
number of areas," according to a White House press release on NCLB. "As 
a result, the achievement gap is beginning to close."

The White House statement cited gains in reading and math by fourth and 
eighth graders on the most recent National Assessment of Educational 
Progress, commonly called the Nation's Report Card, released this fall.

Although it's true that U.S. fourth-grade students posted the highest 
average reading scores in the history of the exam, eighth graders' 
reading scores were only one point higher than in 2005, said the 
Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE)--and nearly 70 percent of all 
eighth-grade students failed to reach proficiency.

AEE also noted that American 15-year-olds fell two places in 
international rankings on science and math, according to the results of 
the 2006 Program for International Student Assessments--and more than 
1.2 million students failed to graduate from high school in the United 
States last year alone.

"As it stands, NCLB currently does little to address the needs of the 
nation's middle and high schools, and until a bill is reauthorized that 
includes the interventions and supports that these schools and their 
students need, the educational system will continue to fail millions of 
American students each year," the organization said.

The Forum on Educational Accountability, which represents leaders of 
education, civil rights, civic, and labor groups, went even further in 
its criticism of the law.

"Since the signing of NCLB . . . reading scores on the National 
Assessment of Educational Progress have stagnated, and the rate of 
improvement in math has slowed," the group said. "The neediest children 
in our nation continue to receive an unequal and inadequate education. 
Incremental changes will not fix the law's structural flaws of 
unrealistic mandates, high-stakes testing, and punitive sanctions."

As an alternative to NCLB, the forum endorses an approach that would 
overhaul assessment to reduce testing and support multiple indicators of 
success, as well as fully funding the Title I provisions of the law.

NCLB requires schools to administer math and reading tests in grades 
three through eight, and once in high school. Schools that miss testing 
benchmarks face increasingly stiff sanctions. President Bush regards the 
law, which took effect in 2002, as one of the signature domestic 
achievements of his presidency, and he sees expanding NCLB as a key to 
his legacy.

Among those who favor amending the law, there is broad agreement that 
NCLB should be changed to encourage schools to measure individual 
student progress over time, instead of using snapshot comparisons of 
certain grade levels. There also is a consensus among those advocates 
that the law should be changed so schools that miss progress goals by a 
little don't face the same consequences as schools that miss them by a 
lot and that the law should be expanded to include greater 
accountability for high schools.

But deep divisions remain over some proposed changes, including merit 
pay for teachers and whether schools should be judged based on test 
scores in subjects other than reading and math, or on other measures of 
success (such as graduation rates).

Many educators and lawmakers who once supported NCLB now say the law has 
failed to live up to its promise. One of the law's lead original 
authors, Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, defended it, praising what he 
said are modest improvements that have been seen so far. But in an op-ed 
published in The Washington Post, Kennedy ticked off a series of needed 
reforms.

Most of all, Kennedy called it "disgraceful" that Bush--his former 
partner in passing the law--has failed to include adequate funding for 
school reform in his education budgets. "Struggling schools can do only 
so much on a tin-cup budget," Kennedy wrote.

"Clearly, I don't agree with that," responded Education Secretary 
Margaret Spellings, who traveled with Bush to Chicago. She said federal 
education funding is up about 46 percent since Bush took office.

Bush laid out what he said were some changes he would consider making 
administratively if lawmakers fail to act: ensuring "that a high school 
degree means something," increasing flexibility for states and school 
districts, providing extra help for struggling schools, and devising an 
accurate system for measuring high school dropout rates.

"I believe the country needs to build upon the successes" of the law, 
Bush said. "It's not worthwhile to guess when a child's future is at stake."

The U.S. Department of Education already has taken some steps to meet 
critics' concerns. Last month, Spellings granted new flexibility to 
states and school districts by allowing more states to adopt a "growth 
model" for measuring individual student achievement over time.

Horace Greeley Elementary School was chosen as the backdrop for Bush to 
commemorate the sixth anniversary of the law's signing, because the 
school reportedly has thrived under NCLB.

The school, where 70 percent of students are Hispanic and 92 percent are 
low-income, was named a Blue Ribbon School under the program in October, 
one of just 12 such public schools in the state and 239 across the 
country. Since 2005, 83 percent of Greeley students have met or exceeded 
state standards, compared with an average of 64 percent for the entire 
Chicago Public Schools system.

Even as Bush and Spellings were marking the law's anniversary, a federal 
appeals court on Jan. 7 revived a lawsuit challenging NCLB's funding.

The lawsuit argues that schools should not have to comply with 
requirements that aren't funded by the federal government. Plaintiffs 
include the Pontiac, Mich., school district and eight districts in Texas 
and Vermont, along with National Education Association (NEA) affiliates 
in several states.

Chief U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman in Detroit dismissed the 
lawsuit in November 2005, but a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. 
Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reversed Friedman's ruling in a 
2-1 decision.

The NEA, the nation's largest teachers union, is paying the cost of the 
appeal

Full story, including links to statements is online at 
http://www.eschoolnews.com