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Education Bill Faces Reauthorization Tweaks
by Danielle Belopotosky
It has been four years since the Bush administration's landmark education reform law was rolled out to more than 93,000 schools across the nation.
But national test scores show only slight progress has been made toward improving student achievement. In addition, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has issued nine rulings since 2004 to make the law more flexible, but teachers, school administrators and states are calling for more.
The No Child Left Behind Act which impacts nearly 50 million public school students this year expanded the federal government's oversight over state and local education and tied federal funding to student achievement. It requires school districts to annually test students in core subject areas, and report data on student achievement, drop-out rates, and free school lunch programs.
The goal is simple: every child must read and do math at grade level beginning in the third grade. Schools must demonstrate improvement by meeting achievement goals through annual testing requirements, or risk losing funding.
Confidence From The Top
"The system is working," President Bush told students and educators at North Glen Elementary School in Glen Burnie, Md., on Jan. 9.
Results of the 2005 National Assessment of Education Progress, better known as the nation's report card, were released in December. The biennial assessment tests a sample of students in math and reading. Scores are tallied to get a national average.
In 2005, fourth graders performed well, posting the best scores ever in both subjects. In math, some 80 percent of students scored at or above the "basic" level, which means they have learned the fundamental concepts for that grade. Of those above the floor level, 36 percent of students were considered "proficient" while 5 percent were categorized as "advanced." Perhaps more significant is that between 2003 and 2005, 3 percent of fourth graders moved from the "below basic" category to the basic.
"It seems that increasing percentages of students are developing the math foundation they need in elementary and middle school to participate in high school math and science courses," John Stevens, reporting and dissemination committee chair on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the test, said in a statement when the results were released in October.
Greater improvements were made in black and Hispanic populations over that two-year period, which saw a 6 percent and 4 percent increase, respectively, in students moving out of the below basic level.
But by the time students reach grade eight, national performance flattens out. Only 1 percent of students were able dig out of the below basic level from 2003 to 2005. Again, black and Hispanic student achievement increased higher than the national average at 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
"However, the educational system is not making similar progress in literacy," Stevens added.
National reading scores for eighth graders slipped 1 percent since 2003, and slid 2 percentage points from 2002, when the law was enacted. At the same time, 26 percent of students fell below the basic reading level.
In addition to the requirement of schools to participate in the biennial NAEP report card, the law requires schools to annually test student achievement in math and reading. While testing for reading has been underway since 2002, schools this year must begin reporting annually to the Education Secretary math scores against achievement standards set by the department. The data is used to determine progress, and ultimately, funding.
Data Management and the Law
The 670-page statute refers to data management more than 200 times. Under the law, schools are required to report data on student achievement to the Education Secretary's office. The agency and the schools are required to analyze that data in an effort to "improve classroom procedure and student learning." The act also directs the Education Secretary to use the data determine federal allocations.
Since the law was enacted, there has been a growing recognition at the district and state level for how data management can be used beyond accountability, said Irene Spero, vice president of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).
CoSN launched a Web site in February 2003 aimed at helping educators use data more effectively in response to the challenges posed by the federal law and the national education technology plan, which was released last January. The site includes an online self-assessment tool for schools. Some 1,200 schools districts have taken the assessment and the site receives about 37,000 hits per month, Spero said.
What the self-assessments show is that schools are doing a good job of collecting and reporting the data to the federal government, she said. But schools still struggle with how to take the "real time data and make it useful" for targeted interventions or personalized school learning, she added.
Tweaking Reform
But as Congress begins to gear up for re-authorization of the law in 2007, some groups are calling for additional changes to the statute.
The American Federation of Teachers launched a new Web site, Let'sGetItRight.org, which is dedicated solely to No Child Left Behind. The centerpiece of the site is a blog, where two AFT staffers will discuss issues surrounding the law. It is part of a grassroots campaign to engage the public and policymakers about some of the problems it sees with the law.
While the law has made a difference, "oppressive elements" of the law need to be tweaked, Alex Wohl, AFT's public affairs director said. "We don't want to water down the law, but we need to address some of the problems."
AFT is pushing for changes in four key areas, including the 100 percent accountability formula the Education department uses to measure annual progress. The current formula "does not give credit for progress and over-identifies schools as failing," according to a posting on the AFT's Web site. Furthermore, they argue schools are not given a sufficient amount of time to improve once identified as low performing.
The group also urged the federal government to provide better resources for teachers and specialists in low-performing schools. AFT said Congress should provide the funding that was authorized. Between 2002 and 2005, there was a $27 billion gap "between what Congress promised and what Congress provided," according to AFT's Web site.
In a letter sent to Congress in January, the National Education Association wrote "overall, the law's emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systematic changes that improve student achievement."
The NEA also recommended changes to how progress is measured, to decrease the testing burden on states, grant schools more time to enforce improvement plans before applying sanctions and to fully fund the requirements of the law.
Change to the education reform law requires congressional action, but President Bush said he would "fight any attempt" to roll back the accountability standards contained in the measure.
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