Legal Clips, [January 2008]Special-education achievement and the cost of testing and tracking data were among the issues leaders raised at a round-table session this week in Olympia, Washington, with U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. She was joined at the roundtable by Gov. Chris Gregoire, state Superintendent Terry Bergeson, Olympia School District Superintendent Bill Lahmann and other invited guests. "I think one of the important things that school boards are struggling with is the investments that have to be put in place," said Ted Thomas, a Longview School District board member and president of the Washington State School Directors' Association. Roundtable members also praised some of the effects of the law, saying that it has increased school accountability and addressed the issue of reaching the groups students who have not historically achieved at grade level, such as some minority groups. Last year, amid criticisms of the law, members of Congress circulated several proposals that would have amended it, but none passed. Bergeson said after the roundtable that she, the governor and other state school superintendents have been lobbying Congress to address their concerns in the law, including the challenges in assessing special-education students and students who are learning to speak English. Another concern was that the law does not recognize schools that improve but haven't made "adequate yearly progress," she said. Congress' attempt to amend the law last year "added 1,100 pages to a 1,200-page law," she said. "And the things that we needed to be addressed were not even addressed."
Source: Olympian, 1/16/08, By Venice Buhain
[Editor’s Note: In a speech, below, delivered at the National Press Club on January 10, Secretary Spellings said, “Congress has had over a year to consider these reforms, but students and teachers need help now. So if Congress doesn't produce a strong bill quickly, I will move forward.” USA Today reports at the next link that the secretary plans to seek support from states to “use her executive authority to push through changes that have stalled in Congress.” Last week, the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in a decision summarized at the third link, revived a legal challenge to the federal failure to fund the act. Information on the Secretary’s recent announcement of a major administrative change concerning “growth models” is at the last link, which in turn links back to more information on the stalled “discussion draft” of NCLB to which Ms. Bergeson refers.]
Spellings remarks at National Press Club
USA Today, 1/10/08, By Greg Toppo
NSBA School Law pages on School Dist. of the City of Pontiac v. Spellings
NSBA School Law pages on “growth model” announcement