Public Voices Express Concerns About NCLB
Although No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is often described
as a product of bipartisan cooperation, voices outside
of the beltway were largely left out of its development.
With NCLB’s reauthorization pending, organizations
such as the Public Education Network (PEN) and groups
such as the Commission on No Child Left Behind are giving
the public an opportunity to speak out about the law
in the form of national public hearings.
PEN’s National Hearings
As a Washington DC advocacy group made up of individuals
and more than 80 local education funds in 34 states,
PEN seeks to “build public demand and mobilize
resources for quality public education for all children.”
The first round of PEN hearings on NCLB took place in
2004 and resulted in the publication, Open
to the Public: Speaking Out on “No Child Left
Behind.” The public still had more to
say. PEN recently released a
report summarizing the results of a second round
of public hearings taking place in nine states between
September 2005 and January 2006. Over 1500 people participated
in the 2005-2006 hearings and approximately 300 students,
parents, and community members gave testimony.
Public for Accountability, With Qualifications
The results of public feedback on NCLB indicate that
the public does support accountability for schools and
does believe that schools are the primary vehicle for
increasing student achievement. This is good news for
a law premised on accountability and increased academic
proficiency for all students. However, those statements
did come with qualifications that might speak to potential
changes to the law as it goes through the reauthorization
process. While accountability is generally perceived
positively, the public voiced concerns that the NCLB
accountability system is too narrow to accurately portray
how well a school is performing. Suggestions for improving
the system included adding more formative evaluation
dimensions to evaluations of school performance, using
tests for diagnostic rather than punitive purposes,
and using growth models rather than the current static
goal models.
In terms of student achievement, the public generally
does not expect schools to be successful without shared
responsibility across the community. This finding resonated
with a recent poll released by the Carnegie Corporation
of New York that found that 83 percent of Americans
said that community members and organizations should
share accountability for reforming or improving urban
public high schools and that an effective way to improve
struggling schools would be through school/community
partnerships. By labeling schools as “in need
of improvement,” often referred to as “failing,”
communities often turn to finger pointing rather than
rallying to uplift the school. One Ohio student said
that when a district or school is labeled as inadequate,
“it reflects on the community. Who wants to attend
a failing school? Better yet, what parent wants to live
in a community where the schools are failing?”
Assessment Concerns
The concerns expressed by the public in the PEN hearings
come in the wake of questions about the validity of
NCLB’s approach to testing. Associated Press exposed
the unforeseen consequences of increasing flexibility
for states in meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP)
requirements when it reported that millions of students
in key subgroups were not being included in AYP calculations.
Those subgroups include targeted racial/ethnic groups,
low-income students, children with disabilities, and
limited English proficient students (LEP). Earlier this
month, The Commission on NCLB held a hearing on related
issues.
On May 9, the Commission on NCLB held its second in
a series of hearings on NCLB, which informed the Commission
on issues relating to high quality assessments and reliable
data systems. The State of Connecticut, where this hearing
was held, is responsible for a lawsuit (CT vs. Spellings)
claiming that NCLB’s testing requirements, among
other components of NCLB, are hurting poor and minority
students and wasting state resources. Secretary Tommy
Thompson, Co-Chair of the Commission, stated that this
hearing provided “the Commission with the opportunity
to examine the issues here in Connecticut and enable
us to learn how to improve the quality and use of these
assessments.” Full testimony and other relevant
materials will be available on the hearings
section of the Commission’s web site shortly.
Additional Hearings and Events
Additional hearings, held by a variety of groups and
organizations, are expected to take place nationally
over the next year in hope of informing the 2007 reauthorization
of NCLB. The next Commission on NCLB hearing, “Holding
Schools Accountable for Student Achievement: Comparing
Models to Evaluate our Schools,” will take place
in Atlanta, Georgia on May 22. PEN also plans another
series of hearings in the Fall of 2006.
The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce,
chaired by Howard B (Buck) McKeon, also announced a
series of hearings to examine the implementation
and impact of NCLB. The first hearing, focused on reading
and math instruction and creative ways of incorporating
a wide variety of subjects into the classroom, will
take place on May 18. Additional hearing topics are
expected to include: the role of academic assessments,
calculation of AYP, and growth models, among other topics.
The upcoming Access conference, “Schools
for Our Future: Ensuring Quality Education for ALL Children,"
taking place on June 5-6, will also feature discussion
of these NCLB issues from the perspective of individuals
such as Amanda Broun, Senior Vice President at PEN;
David Shreve from the Education Standing Committee of
the National Council of State Legislators; and Reggie
Felton Director of Federal Relations for the National
School Boards Association. Access has also invited a
member of the professional staff of Representative Michael
Castle, Chair of the House Subcommittee on Education
Reform, to participate in this plenary session.
Prepared by Elisabeth Thurston, May 11, 2006
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