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As a mother and grandmother, I know one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is a quality education. It opens the door to a rich life, full of opportunity. This gift can’t be taken for granted and it’s one we must work hard to preserve and ensure is available to all of our kids.
In 2002 the federal government made a huge effort to improve the public education system by passing, on a bipartisan basis, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It was the biggest overhaul of federal involvement in public education in decades. The goal of NCLB was to improve education for all children by requiring higher standards for our kids and more accountability for results from our schools. The legislation relies on standardized testing in math and English language arts in grades 3-8 and 10, in effect grading our schools along with our children.
When NCLB was first passed, President Bush promised to fully fund the bill in order to help states and local schools meet these costly new requirements. Unfortunately, this promise was broken as funding for NCLB has fallen short by $55 billion, resulting in burdensome mandates for our states and local communities. Fortunately, one of the top priorities for the new Democratic-led Congress is to rectify that situation. Yet improving how NCLB works requires more than just increasing federal funding.
I’ve had my own ideas about how NCLB is working but I wanted to hear the views of the dedicated educators and concerned parents throughout the Central Coast. So I recently visited a wide variety of schools, some that are meeting all of the NCLB requirements as well as schools that are meeting very few. Interestingly, I heard several common recommendations for improving the law, regardless of the school’s status.
First, teachers and administrators assured me that they welcomed accountability, but said we need a better system of measuring “accountability.” They questioned the fairness and accuracy of the accountability system that NCLB currently provides. For example, under NCLB if a single class of fourth graders does not reach the math requirements, even while meeting the English requirements, the entire school is deemed to be failing.
Second, several parents and educators told me that more flexibility was needed in the law. They expressed concerns that NCLB’s “one size fits all” approach sets unrealistic requirements for student learning and provided an incomplete picture of the overall quality of education that a child obtained. Some noted that while their schools were currently meeting NCLB requirements, they were concerned they would soon slip into the much maligned “program improvement status,” the label applied to schools and school districts failing to meet proficiency requirements. Proficiency requirements steeply increase every year, eventually requiring schools to certify that 100% of students are grade level proficient by 2013.
Other school administrators said they were currently not meeting all proficiency requirements, yet questioned the “failure” label ascribed to their school. And almost everyone I heard from expressed concern that NCLB proficiency measurements do not accurately reflect students’ learning and achievements in the classroom. The law very narrowly focuses on students’ grade level proficiency in Math and English Language arts, as measured by one annual standardized test. But there is no effort to measure students’ academic progress. For example, a 6th grade special education student who brings his reading level up from a 3rd grade level to a 5th grade reading level over the course of one school year, is still deemed to be failing. No attention is paid to the student’s tremendous growth and progress over the year.
I share many of the concerns expressed by these parents and teachers. I believe we need to reevaluate NCLB’s accountability system, focusing more on growth models that measure improvement over time and reward students and schools for the progress they make. I would also like to see increased flexibility in the assessment process for special subsections of students tracked by NCLB such as English Language Learners and Special Education students. Students learn in many different ways and would benefit from alternative testing methods that better measure their academic success.
Clearly, we all want to ensure that all of our kids have access to an excellent education. And while states, local school districts and parents must lead the way, the federal government can and should lend a helping hand. Addressing the underlying weaknesses in NCLB and funding it appropriately is essential if we are to keep providing the priceless gift of a quality education to all our kids.
Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.
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