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Portland, OR -- Today, Congressman David Wu announced new legislation that will help Oregon schools as they continue to struggle with meeting the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Congressman Wu's legislation, the No Child Left Behind Improvement and Flexibility Act, works to improve the law by incorporating flexibility to help Oregon schools implement these reforms while maintaining the Act's strong standards and accountability provisions.
"While the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which I supported, enacted many good reforms to improve accountability, parental involvement, and teacher quality, the law is being implemented in a manner that is inflexible and unhelpful to students, teachers, and administrators," said Congressman Wu. "Many states and school districts continue to struggle to implement these new requirements. In order to meet the intent of the law--to improve education for our children--we need to build in some flexibility for our communities."
Since the President signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law, education stakeholders nationwide have continued to voice their concerns about the difficulties they face in implementing the reforms. During this time, Congressman Wu has visited schools and met with administrators, teachers and parents to receive feedback on the opportunities and challenges created by NCLB. Congressman Wu drafted his legislation based on the collective experience of the Oregon education community to improve NCLB and better support our schools as they work towards meeting strong accountability standards.
"Congressman Wu has consistently fought to make our schools the best that they can be. I appreciate his continued efforts to help Oregon have a more successful implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act," said Susan Castillo, State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
High on the list of concerns is how NCLB assesses school performance through the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) provisions. Currently, AYP imposes a rigid model by which schools are to demonstrate proficiency and progress, a public policy equivalent to giving students only A's or F's. Among other things, Congressman Wu's legislation fully assesses a school's performance by acknowledging all progress made as the school works towards meeting the federal mandates.
In regards to teacher quality, Congressman Wu's legislation applies the same definition of 'highly qualified' to both elementary and secondary teachers and allows for portability across schools and districts. Further, his bill recognizes the unique circumstances of special education teachers and rural schools by allowing for increased flexibility in meeting the 'highly qualified' teacher requirements.
Below is a summary highlighting the provisions of Congressman Wu's legislation.
NCLB IMPROVEMENT AND FLEXIBILITY ACT
1. NCLB Improvement and Flexibility Act -- Assessments and Adequate Yearly Progress
Improves the NCLB's standard on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) by allowing for a continuous growth model that allows schools to demonstrate they are making "continuous and substantial academic improvement" for all students.
Clarifies the law to state that a school fails to make AYP only if it fails to meet the measurable annual objective in the same subject for two consecutive years (current law only states fails to meet AYP for two consecutive years).
Acknowledging that year-to-year test results, by their nature, are not stable, NCLB allows states to average test data for up to three years for purposes of measuring AYP. The No Child Left Behind Improvement and Flexibility Act expands on this by allowing for additional approaches that are equally effective.
Allows for multiple up-to-date measures of student academic achievement, including measures that assess higher-order thinking skills and understanding, to be considered when determining AYP.
2. NCLB Improvement and Flexibility Act -- Teacher Quality
Recognizing the unique circumstances of special education teachers, the No Child Left Behind Improvement and Flexibility Act allows those teachers who have obtained a degree in special education and full state certification, or passed the state teacher licensing examination as a special education teacher, to be considered "highly qualified".
Under NCLB, secondary teachers who hold Masters degrees and advanced certification or credentialing are considered "highly qualified." The No Child Left Behind Improvement and Flexibility Act expands this definition to Elementary teachers as well.
Allows for the portability of "Highly Qualified" Status
3. NCLB Improvement and Flexibility Act -- Special Education Students
Provides consistency with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). In many cases, NCLB conflicts with the requirements and standards of IDEA. The No Child Left Behind Improvement and Flexibility Act addresses this inconsistency by stating that the requirements of NCLB in no way supercede the requirements of IDEA.
4. NCLB Improvement and Flexibility Act -- Rural Schools
Acknowledges the challenges of Rural Schools. Due to their size and geographic isolation, rural schools oftentimes face a difficult challenge in meeting the highly qualified teacher requirements of NCLB, since it is unlikely for them to have a separate fully certified and licensed biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science teacher. The No Child Left Behind Improvement and Flexibility Act give rural schools additional flexibility in meeting the highly qualified teacher requirements. It also gives them flexibility when dealing with the new requirements of school choice since such alternatives may be impractical due to the distance between rural schools.
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