With the passing of the fifth anniversary of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the National School Boards Association and other national civil rights, education, disability advocacy, and other organizations are pushing for an overhaul in the legislation. NJSBA strongly supports the effort.

NSBA signed onto a joint statement that urges lawmakers in Washington, D.C. to change NCLB’s emphasis “from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement.”

Pledge NCLB reform is a cornerstone of NSBA’s “Pledge to America’s School Children” campaign.

President Bush signed NCLB into law Jan. 8, 2002. He met with lawmakers on Jan. 8 in a bipartisan private meeting to push for the renewal of NCLB, but was noncommittal on their request for more money to help schools meet the law’s requirements, according to an e-School News story.

Up for Review Congress is scheduled to reevaluate and reauthorize NCLB this year.

Fourteen changes to NCLB proposed by NSBA and other groups include:

• Replace overreliance on standardized tests with the use of multiple achievement measures to provide a more comprehensive picture of student and school performance.

• Substitute arbitrary proficiency targets with ambitious achievement targets based on rates of success in the most effective public schools.

• Authorize interventions that enable schools to make changes that result in improved student achievement instead of sanctions that do not have a consistent record of success.

• Enhance the knowledge and skills that teachers, administrators and families need to support student achievement and improve state and district capacity to assist them.

• Increase NCLB funding to cover a substantial percentage of the costs that states and districts will incur to carry out these recommendations.

The Children’s Defense Fund, NAACP, National Education Association, and the National Parent-Teacher Association are among the organizations that signed onto the statement recommending changes.