 Editor: Michael Stagliano, PhD
Recently, the media trumpeted the news of area public schools failing
to meet the federal goals of the No Child Left Behind Act or more
commonly referred to as NCLB. Here's a brief tutorial for those not
familiar with NCLB. NCLB was the 2001 brainchild of education czars in
the Bush administration. It is a reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act. The legislation aims to insure that our
nation’s public school children, in tested grades 3-8 (Illinois) meet
annual targets for student performance and to become literate and
competent in reading and math and at one grade level in high school.
Every child must meet predetermined state and federal goals in reading
and mathematics, science and social studies on a yearly basis. Making
the grade yearly is referred to as AYP or average yearly progress. And
every two years the achievement bar is raised a few notches.
Eventually, by 2014 all U.S. school children will be 100% academically
proficient in tested subjects, especially in reading and math and
presumably ready to function in our global society.NCLB
goals are lofty, debatable yet put starch into accountability for
public schools and are one measure of how well taxpayer dollars are
being spent by school districts. However, federal dollars are withheld
from school districts that fail to meet minimum state test scores in a
timely manner. That's a big deal since federal dollars make up from
hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars of local school education
fund operating budgets. Federal
moneys come with strings attached. Most federal dollars are used to
educate economically disadvantaged students, students with
disabilities, those from racial and ethnic minorities, limited English
proficient students and to overcome the mitigating circumstances of
poverty. Historically, these subgroups (minimum of 45 for Illinois
students) require more specialized and expensive educational and
non-educational intervention than other school children. Currently,
Illinois and other states are negotiating with the federal government
to change subground number size. Not all schools qualify for federal
assistance. However, to insure compliance with the NCLB Act, federal
dollars dispensed must be met with assurances that schools are putting
these dollars to good use: educating these subgroup populations on par
with their peers. All other
students not falling into subgroups must also meet the predetermined
level of achievement on state administered tests. In Illinois those
tests are the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests (ISAT) at the 3-8
levels and the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE) administered once
in high school. Other states have similar tests and not all states have
the same score that determines minimum standards of achievement. So
comparing how Illinois school children rank with school children in
other states is like comparing apples to oranges. | Consequences
for not achieving AYP are huge. A school or school district can fail
AYP in a number of ways, 37 ways to be exact! Some of the more common
ways (Illinois only) are: not having at least 95% of school children
tested on day of testing, one or more subgroups of students not making
at least minimal progress on cut-off scores, and a school district not
testing a subgroup because of conflicts in the student's Individual
Educational Plan (IEP) vs. NCLB legislation. In other words, if the IEP
indicates the state tests are inappropriate for the student, the
student is not tested, which has consequences as mentioned above. Consequences
for failing to achieve AYP two years in a row are: poor press reviews,
allowing students to transfer to other higher performing public schools
in the district or outside the district, loss of federal dollars and
these schools must offer free tutoring. If schools continue (six years)
to not meet AYP they may be subject to state oversight, ultimately
resulting in dismissal of administration and staff. At
least half the schools in the nation are meeting the challenges of the
NCLB Act. Depending on how one interprets their schools' success paints
a picture to the public of the glass being half empty or half full.
This writer's advice to school leaders and lawmakers is to not take
lightly the NCLB Act. Despite its best intentions, timelines and
shortcomings, it is here to stay. School leaders are advised to work
with the Illinois State Board of Education to petition the federal
government to allow latitude or waivers for schools or school districts
to have more time to meet the requirements of the Act. Accountability
is good, if at times it is misplaced or ill conceived. The federal
government has shown a willingness to negotiate with individual states
to relax accountability provisions of NCLB. Whether the public will
understand how schools stack up year-to-year, only time will tell.
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