30 Organizations Tell Congress to Amend NCLB So It Will Promote Changes that Improve Student Achievement

The National Education Association, the Children's Defense Fund, and the NAACP are among the 90 organizations calling on Congress to make major changes in the “No Child Left Behind” Act to “shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement.” The Joint Statement follows:

Joint Organizational Statement on 'No Child Left Behind' Act
(Submitted to Congress on Oct. 21, 2004)

The undersigned education, civil rights, children’s, disability, and citizens’ organizations are committed to the No Child Left Behind Act’s objectives of strong academic achievement for all children and closing the achievement gap. We believe that the federal government has a critical role to play in attaining these goals. We endorse the use of an accountability system that helps ensure all children, including children of color, from low-income families, with disabilities, and of limited English proficiency, are prepared to be successful, participating members of our democracy.

While we all have different positions on various aspects of the law, based on concerns raised during the implementation of NCLB, we believe the following significant, constructive corrections are among those necessary to make the Act fair and effective. Among these concerns are: over-emphasizing standardized testing, narrowing curriculum and instruction to focus on test preparation rather than richer academic learning; over-identifying schools in need of improvement; using sanctions that do not help improve schools; inappropriately excluding low-scoring children in order to boost test results; and inadequate funding. 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 systemic changes that improve student achievement.

Recommended Changes in NCLB

Progress Measurement

1. Replace the law's arbitrary proficiency targets with ambitious achievement targets based on rates of success actually achieved by the most effective public schools.

2. Allow states to measure progress by using students’ growth in achievement as well as their performance in relation to pre-determined levels of academic proficiency.

3. Ensure that states and school districts regularly report to the government and the public their progress in implementing systemic changes to enhance educator, family, and community capacity to improve student learning.

4. Provide a comprehensive picture of students' and schools' performance by moving from an overwhelming reliance on standardized tests to using multiple indicators of student achievement in addition to these tests.

5. Fund research and development of more effective accountability systems that better meet the goal of high academic achievement for all children

Assessments

6. Help states develop assessment systems that include district and school-based measures in order to provide better, more timely information about student learning.

7. Strengthen enforcement of NCLB provisions requiring that assessments must:

Be aligned with state content and achievement standards;
Be used for purposes for which they are valid and reliable;
Be consistent with nationally recognized professional and technical standards;
Be of adequate technical quality for each purpose required under the Act;
Provide multiple, up-to-date measures of student performance including measures that assess higher order thinking skills and understanding; and
Provide useful diagnostic information to improve teaching and learning.

8. Decrease the testing burden on states, schools and districts by allowing states to assess students annually in selected grades in elementary, middle schools, and high schools.

Building Capacity

9. Ensure changes in teacher and administrator preparation and continuing professional development that research evidence and experience indicate improve educational quality and student achievement.

10. Enhance state and local capacity to effectively implement the comprehensive changes required to increase the knowledge and skills of administrators, teachers, families, and communities to support high student achievement.

Sanctions

11. Ensure that improvement plans are allowed sufficient time to take hold before applying sanctions; sanctions should not be applied if they undermine existing effective reform efforts.

12. Replace sanctions that do not have a consistent record of success with interventions that enable schools to make changes that result in improved student achievement.

Funding

13. Raise authorized levels of NCLB funding to cover a substantial percentage of the costs that states and districts will incur to carry out these recommendations, and fully fund the law at those levels without reducing expenditures for other education programs.

14. Fully fund Title I to ensure that 100 percent of eligible children are served.

We, the undersigned, will work for the adoption of these recommendations as central structural changes needed to NCLB at the same time that we advance our individual organization’s proposals.

1. Advancement Project
2. American Association of School Administrators
3. American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA)
4. American Association of University Women
5. American Counseling Association
6. American Dance Therapy Association
7. American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA)
8. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
9. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
10. Annenberg Institute for School Reform
11. Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
12. ASPIRA
13. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
14. Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
15. Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO)
16. Big Picture Company
17. Center for Community Change
18. Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking
19. Center for Parent Leadership
20. Children's Defense Fund
21. Citizens for Effective Schools
22. Coalition of Essential Schools
23. Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
24. Communities for Quality Education
25. Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
26. Council for Exceptional Children
27. Council for Hispanic Ministries of the United Church of Christ
28. Council for Learning Disabilities
29. Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform
30. Disciples Home Missions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
31. Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (DLD/CEC)
32. Education Action!
33. FairTest: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing
34. Forum for Education and Democracy
35. General Board of Church and Society, The United Methodist Church
36. Hmong National Development
37. International Reading Association
38. International Technology Education Association
39. Japanese American Citizens League
40. Learning Disabilities Association of America
41. League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
42. Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice of the United Church of Christ
43. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
44. NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF)
45. National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education (NAAPAE)
46. National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE)
47. National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian
and Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA)
48. National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities
49. National Alliance of Black School Educators
50. National Association of Pupil Services Administrators
51. National Association of School Psychologists
52. National Association of Social Workers
53. National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
54. National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE)
55. National Conference of Black Mayors
56. National Council for the Social Studies
57. National Council of Churches
58. National Council of Jewish Women
59. National Council of Teachers of English
60. National Down Syndrome Congress
61. National Education Association
62. National Federation of Filipino American Associations
63. National Indian Education Association
64. National Indian School Board Association
65. National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
66. National Mental Health Association
67. National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA
68. National Reading Conference
69. National Rural Education Association
70. National School Boards Association
71. National Urban League
72. Native Hawaiian Education Association
73. People for the American Way
74. Presbyterian Church (USA)
75. Rural School and Community Trust
76. Service Employees International Union
77. School Social Work Association of America
78. Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
79. Social Action Committee of the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations
80 . Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
81. Stand for Children
82. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
83. The Children's Aid Society
84. United Black Christians of the United Church of Christ
85. United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
86. Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church
87. Women of Reform Judaism

(List of 87 signers updated 8/2/06)

October 28, 2004