AFT Calls for Changes in No Child Left Behind Act

Flaws in NCLB’s Requirements, Implementation and Funding Are Keeping
Promised Benefits from Reaching the Nation’s Public School Children

Washington, D.C. — Delegates representing the more than 1.3 million members of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) today approved a resolution calling for changes in the substance, implementation and funding of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The resolution, which becomes AFT policy, states that the U.S. Department of Education’s "inept and opportunistic implementation" of NCLB has "undermined the goals it was charged with supporting and has instead provided opponents of public schools a blunt instrument of attack."

"The No Child Left Behind Act is one of the most consequential laws affecting public education in at least a generation," said AFT president Edward J. McElroy. "Without significant changes to the law, its promise will not be reached and its effects could be disastrous."

The resolution reaffirms the AFT’s longtime support of high standards and accountability, and of the underlying goals of NCLB, but it also identifies and raises serious concerns about parts of the law that need to be amended.

Chief among the AFT’s concerns is the adequate yearly progress (AYP) formula for assessing school improvement from year to year. The AFT has long criticized AYP for failing to give schools sufficient credit for improvement in student achievement. Further, as the resolution states, the AYP formula is "neither research-based nor scientifically reliable and valid … and consequently misidentifies schools as ‘in need of improvement’ and results in the inappropriate application of sanctions."

The AFT strongly supports a key provision of NCLB—the disaggregation of achievement data so that light can be shed on the needs of children who require additional help. However, the AFT is concerned that the AYP benchmark may disproportionately penalize schools serving large numbers of disadvantaged students, including English language learners and students with disabilities. Recent research by the Council of the Great City Schools and others shows that the rate of academic progress by students in many urban schools outpaces that of other students in their states, even though in some cases the urban students’ overall achievement may be lower and they may not meet AYP targets.

"No matter how much progress a school makes with its students, AYP only gives credit for exactly hitting an arbitrary target," said AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese. "Since AYP doesn’t factor in how far behind academically most disadvantaged children are before they even start school, many schools—especially urban schools—are being punished despite making great improvements and helping to close achievement gaps."

Unproven Interventions, Uneven Playing Field

The AFT resolution also criticizes the law’s "narrow set of school improvement interventions that are not research-based and may be punitive rather than helpful to schools and the children they serve." As the law’s sanctions escalate, schools are required to direct already limited classroom resources (in the form of Title I funds) toward often unproven interventions such as public school choice and supplemental educational services.

The resolution raises concerns about NCLB’s provisions for "highly qualified teachers." The U.S. Department of Education has not addressed the issue of what happens to teachers who do not meet NCLB’s definition of "highly qualified" by the 2005-06 school year—as the law requires—in states that have failed to develop the objective standard of evaluation required by NCLB.

The AFT is concerned that NCLB does not hold charter schools and supplemental service providers to the same quality standards required of public schools and public school teachers. Supplemental service providers are not required to employ "highly qualified teachers," and charter school teachers are not even required to be certified, unless their state requires certification. Further, the Department of Education has issued guidance stating that supplemental service providers under the law are not required to follow all federal nondiscrimination laws.

An additional problem is that although all paraprofessionals must meet the law’s requirements by 2006, many states have delayed putting in place the state or local assessment option for meeting the requirements, and few states or districts have allocated resources for paraprofessionals to get the training they need to meet the law’s requirements.

Moving Forward

"The good intentions of this law have been eclipsed by its many shortcomings," said McElroy. "We will continue to advance the goals that won so many initial supporters of NCLB, but we will not stand by as opponents of public education use NCLB’s questionable lists of schools that—purportedly—did not make the grade to undermine public education."

The resolution calls for the AFT to lobby Congress to "address the defects in this law that harm children and the schools they attend and to fully fund the amended NCLB." The policy further states that the AFT will "support candidates who are committed to making the necessary changes and securing full funding" for the law.

The AFT also will help state and local affiliates respond to the law’s shortcomings, communicate with elected officials and others about the law’s strengths and weaknesses, navigate its requirements to mitigate its punitive effects, and negotiate effective interventions and corrective actions.

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