Valas Testified in Favor of NCLB

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

Paul Valas, who presided over the totally fake "Chicago Miracle,"  urges 
the extension of such fraudulent practices nationally.  What a surprise 
. ..  !


         "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAUDED"
CHIEF EXEC. OF PHILLY'S SCHOOLS TESTIFIES IN SUPPORT OF CONTROVERSIAL LAW
         Philadelphia Inquirer -- March 5, 2004
             by Susan Snyder and Walter F. Naedele


Philadelphia School District head Paul Vallas yesterday told a U.S. 
Senate panel that he supports the federal No Child Left Behind law, 
legislation that has been maligned by other school administrators in the 
state.

Vallas told the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health 
and Human Services, and Education that the law rightly aims to close the 
achievement gap between majority and minority groups, and sets high 
expectations for all students.

But the regulations covering special-education students and 
limited-English-proficiency students should be modified, and federal 
funding for the law should be increased, he said.

"Sure, it's not perfect," Vallas said after his testimony. But "we've 
been crying for a larger role from the federal government in education. 
Now we've got it. Let's make it work."

Vallas was one of seven Pennsylvania education officials and community 
activists called to Washington to testify before the committee, chaired 
by Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Several others, including James R. Scanlon, superintendent of the 
Quakertown Community School District in Bucks County, and James R. 
Weaver, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, 
criticized the law.

Specter said yesterday that he invited the Pennsylvania contingent after 
learning of Monday's meeting at Norristown High School, where 138 
Pennsylvania superintendents complained about the law. The 
administrators concluded that the law - which costs hundreds of 
thousands of dollars to implement - places too much priority on testing 
and sets unrealistic goals.

The administrators called for better funding and asked that 
special-education students be exempt from taking the mandated tests and 
that testing of students with limited English skills be delayed.

The criticism in Pennsylvania is not unusual. The law has elicited a 
groundswell of protest in some states and has become a flash point for 
candidates in the Democratic primaries.

U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige went before the Senate panel 
yesterday to discuss the law, and Specter said he wanted Paige to hear 
the criticisms of the Pennsylvania superintendents as well as the views 
of Vallas, who heads the state's largest school district, with 200,000 
students.

After hearing the testimony, Specter said the law needed modifications. 
Special-education and limited-English students should not be held to the 
same standards, he said: "We need more flexibility."

Among the others testifying were Marie Slobojan, director of 
instruction, staff development and planning for the Tredyffrin/Easttown 
School District in Chester County; C. Dolores Tucker, president of the 
Philadelphia Martin Luther King Jr. Association for Non-Violent Change 
and chair of the National Congress of Black Women; Melissa Jamula, 
superintendent of the Reading School District; and Samuel Evans, a 
Philadelphia civil-rights activist and founder of the American 
Foundation for Negro Affairs.

The hearing comes as the subcommittee considers the proposed 2004-05 
budget funding for No Child Left Behind. The Bush administration has 
asked for a 1.9 percent, or $463 million, increase in funding for the 
act, increasing the total appropriation to $24.7 billion.

Specter said he thought the increase was reasonable.

Scanlon, the Quakertown superintendent, called the law "destructive."

"It disregards the amount of time, funding and resources [needed] to 
meet the requirements in the law," he told the senators.

He said he was speaking for the superintendents who met in Norristown. 
They represent more than a fourth of the 500 districts in the state, 
with more than a third of the state's 1.8 million students.

Vallas disagreed. "I don't mind testing," he said, "as long as that test 
is testing children on state-required standards."

Vallas said Philadelphia had strived to meet the law's requirements. It 
has expanded school-choice options, added more rigorous high school 
courses, instituted after-school and summer-school programs for 
struggling students, and tried to recruit highly qualified teachers.

"I support the objectives of the act," he said, "the existence of the 
act, and the accountability that the act brings to all of us."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/8109451.htm