5/3/05 -- The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a highly prescriptive law that actually undermines some of the rigorous accountability systems that states have adopted, concluded a panel of state school boards association leaders at a Town Hall Meeting on NCLB at the Annual Conference.
NSBA has drafted proposed legislation that would fix some of the implementation problems with NCLB and address the lack of funding.
The law’s often-criticized approach to measuring school academic success is one issue that needs fixing, says Scott P. Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.
Measuring whether schools improve fourth-grade test scores from year to year, for example, does nothing to measure the real academic growth of students as they progress through a school.
“All of a sudden, we’re confusing parents,” he says. While state programs are recognizing schools for helping students make great strides forward in academics, these same schools are being labeled as in need of improvement because a student subgroup fails to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals.
The emphasis on test scores also is making it difficult for local school boards to provide a balanced education that includes athletics, the arts, and other non-core academic learning, says Michael D. Johnson, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Boards.
Yet state officials aren’t helping matters, panelists agreed. California allows parents to opt students out of some tests -- and parents at several high-achieving schools are doing that to ease the workload on their children. But that’s leaving some schools unable to meet test participation levels required to achieve AYP. “It is absurd,” Plotkin says.
Ideology -- or political caution -- also is discouraging state officials from taking advantage of the U.S. Department of Education’s stated willingness to grant states some flexibility in meeting NCLB mandates.
The North Carolina state board of education, for example, has been reluctant to revamp teacher certification rules that would allow boards to more easily hire certified teachers from other states, says Ed Dunlap, executive director of the North Carolina School Boards Association. That is making it hard to recruit out-of-state teachers to staff schools with the highly qualified teachers mandated by NCLB.
“Before the [recent state] election, word was circulating that certain powers would not be pleased with the board allowing teachers to come without taking [state-required tests] because it was ‘lowering standards,’” he says.
State lawmakers are seeking to overrule this decision, Dunlap says. Without some action, local school districts will have to rely on long-term substitute teachers -- who won’t count against a district in determining teacher quality -- rather than hiring fully credentialed teachers full time.
The panelists acknowledged that NCLB has some benefits. It has put more attention on student learning and the needs of low-achieving students. The law also has made local and state officials more conscious of the financial needs of schools.
“It’s your responsibility to articulate what’s happening in the schools and to communicate with [Congress and] state legislatures about the needs of your schools,” Dunlap says.