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February 24, 2005
FYI: NCSL on NCLBA task force of the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) released a report Wednesday of a 10-month study it did on the No Child Left Behind law. (Check out the full report (PDF) or executive summary.) The law comes up for re-authorization in 2007. Message to Congress: Why wait until then for needed important changes?
The defenders are out in force. Rep. John Boehner, (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Education Committee, told the Washington Post that critics "want the funding No Child Left Behind is providing, but they don't want to meet the high standards that come with it."
Not so, says Minnesota State Sen. Steve Kelley, (D), co-chair of the study task force, who points out that using only one yardstick to judge every school's effectiveness is not practical. "To say that only one measurement can be used to judge every school's effectiveness is not practical," he said. "Our recommendations continue to hold schools accountable, but provide for a more realistic measurement method to ensure that they do."
The report lists 43 specific recommendations, many of which sound familiar. The group calls the following its four top NCLB complaints:
* "Remove obstacles that stifle state innovations and undermine state programs that were proving to work before passage of the act. Federal waivers should be granted and publicized for innovative programs;
* "Fully fund the act and provide states the financial flexibility to meet its goals. The federal government funds less than 8 percent of the nation's education program, but the No Child Left Behind Act affects nearly all classroom activity. In addition, states ask for a Government Accountability Office review to determine the act's costs and whether it violates the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act;
* "Remove the one-size-fits-all method that measures student performance and encourage more sophisticated and accurate systems that gauge the growth of individual students and not just groups of students. States believe the 100-percent proficiency goal is not statistically achievable and that struggling schools need the opportunity to address problems before losing parts of their student populations;
* "Recognize that some schools face special challenges, including adequately teaching students with disabilities and English language learners. The law also needs to recognize the differences among rural, suburban and urban schools."
Here is UPI's version, and here is the New York Times' take.
Posted February 24, 2005 12:00 AM
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