Supers Rally Against NCLB

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

  DISTRICT LEADERS RALLY FOR CHANGES
  Philadelphia Inquirer -- March 2, 2004
by Connie Langland and Kellie Patrick

In a rare show of unity, more than 100 school superintendents from 14 
Pennsylvania counties gathered in Norristown yesterday to show their 
distaste for the federal education law No Child Left Behind and to 
suggest fixes.

The superintendents said that the federal rules were costing hundreds of 
thousands of dollars to implement in each district and that the money 
could be put to better use helping struggling students.

"I don't think No Child Left Behind tells us anything we didn't know 
before," said Joseph O'Brien, superintendent of the Springfield district 
in Delaware County, noting that research shows that disabled students 
and poor students generally don't do as well as their wealthier and 
nondisabled peers.

In the Abington district in Montgomery County, Superintendent Amy Sichel 
said, the focus on testing is detracting from other student interests, 
including extracurricular activities and elective classes. "The emphasis 
is on reading, writing, math at the expense of other education goals," 
she said.

Their unity may be new, but the problems the superintendents articulated 
were largely the same ones they have aired individually since the law 
took effect in 2002: That it unfairly requires the testing of students 
with learning disabilities or with limited understanding of English.

And, they stressed that the law fails to provide the funding necessary 
to put new, essential programs in place.

A spokeswoman for Paul Vallas, the Philadelphia district's chief 
executive officer, said the event had not been brought to his attention.

O'Brien said the law stands in direct conflict with federal rules 
requiring special accommodations for students with disabilities, 
including multiple kinds of assessments to make sure the student is 
making progress. Now, he said, "special-education students are forced to 
take a test on which they cannot be successful."

In a petition signed yesterday, the superintendents entreated 
Pennsylvania's elected federal officials to push for changes in the law 
to exempt special-education students from taking mandated tests, to 
delay testing of students with limited English, and to fully fund both 
No Child Left Behind and the federal special-education law.

Backed by their school boards, 138 superintendents from 14 counties 
endorsed the petition. Their numbers represent more than one-fourth of 
the 500 districts in Pennsylvania, and their schools enroll more than 
one-third of the 1.8 million students in the state.

All of the superintendents in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery 
Counties signaled their support.

"To get 138 superintendents to agree on anything is a miracle," said 
Quakertown Community Superintendent Jim Scanlon, referring to the 
signatures on the petition.

Several of the superintendents who spoke, including O'Brien and Sichel, 
noted that students in their districts have little trouble meeting the 
No Child Left Behind requirements. But, they said, sooner or later their 
schools, too, would be tagged as failures because the federal goal is to 
have 100 percent of the students performing on grade level - proficiency 
on state assessments - by 2014.

Superintendents from the Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery County 
districts were the first to unite, Scanlon said. As word got out, 
superintendents from other counties wanted to join the effort.

Scanlon acknowledged that the U.S. Department of Education has recently 
loosened testing rules for special-education and immigrant populations, 
but he insisted that students in those groups still are being handled 
unfairly.

Yesterday, U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige told a forum of teachers 
in Washington that his staff "has been working with every state and 
virtually every school district to ease any pain in transition. Funds 
can be shifted to meet local needs. As we go forward with the 
implementation of this two-year-old law, we will continue to realign 
policies to ensure that the goals and objectives of No Child Left Behind 
are complementary to the practical implications in the classroom."

He added: "We are willing to listen and work together with the states on 
a number of issues."

At the Norristown event, the superintendents won the backing of James R. 
Weaver, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, a 
teachers' union.

"In its current version, the law is destined for failure, will hinder 
quality education for children, and will cause public schools to be 
unfairly perceived as failures," Weaver said.

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