Proposal Would Ease NCLB Constraints

Proposal Would Ease NCLB Constraints

Proposed legislation to reauthorize No Child Left Behind could relieve many schools from being unfairly labeled as not making progress, and, at the same time, provide incentives to attract teachers and principals to struggling schools.

The National School Boards Association and other organizations testified Monday before Congress on a 435-page draft bill. The proposal is designed to provide flexibility with some of the more contentious provisions of the 5-year-old No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), while retaining its core tenets, such as requirements for “highly qualified” teachers and for student testing in grades 3 to 8 and high school.

“We are pleased that your draft reflects a paradigm shift away from the rigid punitive aspects and ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach we now have, and recognizes the need for greater flexibility and increased options for states and districts in the law’s implementation,” Michael A. Resnick, associate executive director of the National School Boards Association, said In testimony Monday before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor.

Flexible Definitions NCLB rates schools on the performance of various subgroups of students, such as limited-English proficient, special education, economically disadvantaged, as well as racial/ethic categories. The proposal, if adopted, would differentiate between schools where just one or two student groups did not meet testing goals and those schools where students in three or more subgroups failed to meet the benchmarks.

While NCLB only assesses students’ test scores in math and reading, the draft legislation would allow other indicators to be incorporated into a state’s measure of whether a school makes adequate yearly progress. These indicators could include graduation rates, ratios of students going on to college, Advanced Placement tests, or assessments in history, science or civics. And the bill would allow states to use “growth models” to measure individual student achievement over time, instead of comparing subgroups of students.

In addition, students who are not fluent in English could be tested in their native language for five years, under the proposed legislation. This provision would benefit states with a large immigrant population in their schools.

“However, we do have ample concerns,” Resnick told federal lawmakers. The draft “adds many new requirements, including significant process, data collection and reporting requirements for schools and districts,” he said.

Teacher Incentives Part of the legislative package to reauthorize NCLB would provide financial incentives to attract teachers to low-performing schools. The Teacher Excellence for All Children Act would offer bonuses of up to $12,500 for teachers—and up to $15,000 for principals—who transfer to high-poverty, low-achieving schools, and work there for four years.

“This reauthorization will shape the course of America’s public schools for another five or six years,” Resnick told legislators. “We must get it right.”