New NCLB rules: Half-measures put schools at risk

New policies governing the No Child Left Behind Act range from positive-but-tentative steps in the right direction to off-the-mark interpretations of the law, the AFT said in March. On balance, the Education Department has yet to address some fundamental problems in implementation of the law’s teacher quality provisions that at times contradict the intent of the law.

In mid March, the Education Department announced three changes in NCLB’s “highly qualified teacher” policies. First, the department extended by three years the amount of time teachers in rural areas (who teach more than one subject) will be given  to meet the benchmarks. Second, the department eased requirements governing states that opt to develop their own process for determining whether teachers are highly qualified, an avenue known as “high objective uniform state standards of evaluation,” or HOUSSE. Finally, the department said it will allow states that certify teachers in the general field of science to use those standards under NCLB rather than requiring teachers to show mastery in each subject area.

Rural teachers undoubtedly will welcome the much-needed time and flexibility the new provisions offer, but the department is wrong to overlook their urban and suburban colleagues, AFT secretary-treasurer Edward J. McElroy said. “The concerns of urban, middle school and special education teachers go largely unheeded.”

A HOUSSE divided

And the Education Department’s treatment of HOUSSE provisions—the best avenue for many experienced educators to show they are highly qualified under NCLB—simply ignores the fact that too many states are not providing this option for teachers. “We call on the department to require states to develop this route, as specified in the law, for teachers to meet the highly qualified teacher provisions,” said McElroy.

The AFT detailed these and other concerns in a March 17 letter to Education Department officials. The letter stressed that the new policies fail to recognize the immense, well-documented demands on urban school systems “that are experiencing difficulty recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers, particularly in high need areas like math, science, special and bilingual education.

And the department’s opinion that HOUSSE is optional reform is incorrect, the AFT charged. “The law clearly provides that states must offer the HOUSSE to teachers. The department’s continued failure to require states to comply with the law will deny many teachers the opportunity to show they are highly qualified.”

AYP adjustment

The Education Department also issued important adjustments earlier this year to the adequate yearly progress (AYP) process for measuring school achievement. The department provided additional flexibility to states when it comes to testing requirements dealing with limited English proficient (LEP) students and for school participation rates in exams tied to AYP.

The department advised states that they can make AYP determinations without including the reading/language arts assessment results for LEP students during their first year of enrollment in U.S. schools (math results for these students must be included in AYP determinations, however). Ninety-five percent of students must participate in school assessments tied to AYP, but new Education Department rules give states the option of averaging participation rates over a three-year-period.

“Like other interpretations the Department of Education has made of the law, this may provide less relief to urban districts and larger, more diverse schools than to rural areas and smaller schools, where one or two students could put schools under the 95 percent participation rate,” McElroy said, stressing that many of the recent changes fail to address “several fundamental flaws” the AFT has pointed to since its enactment. “None of the department’s recent changes does anything to enhance the validity of the adequate yearly progress measure, for example.”

Public concern growing over NCLB

The more the public learns about the No Child Left Behind Act, the more convinced they are that the legislation requires more funding and better implementation. That’s a key message behind the latest Public Education Network/Education Week survey of voter attitudes, which also finds education to be a high-priority issue that is beginning to work against President Bush.

“Learn. Vote. Act.: The Public’s Responsibility for Public Education,” released at an April 1 press conference in Washington, D.C., finds astounding support for candidates willing to press an education agenda that combines high standards for students with a strong investment in public education. The survey finds President Bush fails to get high marks on those counts: Just 45 percent of Americans say the president is doing an “excellent” or “good” job on education, while 52 percent rate him as “poor” or “just fair.” Other key findings include:

• Awareness of, and opposition to, NCLB is growing as concerns over implementation mount. Three-quarters of Americans know something about the law, up from 56 percent in 2003. Opposition has grown threefold in the past year, with 36 percent favoring the law and 28 percent opposing it. A majority (58 percent) don’t believe special education classes should have to meet the same standards as children in mainstream classes. A plurality (46 percent) don’t believe that limited English proficient students should be held to the same benchmarks as their peers, while 39 percent think that they should.
• Sixty percent of survey respondents believe that public schools don’t receive enough federal funding, and 59 percent say they would be willing to pay higher taxes to improve public education. Nearly 60 percent say they are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate who has education as a policy centerpiece, and voters deem education to be the nation’s second highest priority, behind jobs and the economy.
• The four biggest education budget priorities named by voters are early childhood programs, smaller classes, teacher pay and teacher training. More than 30 percent put early childhood education as their first or second choice among education programs that must be protected from cuts.

For politicians, the message behind the poll is clear, former U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley told reporters at the press conference. “Schools are only as good as our expectations for them and our collective investment in them.”

The full survey is available at www.edweek.com/.

New Mexico federation wins passage of paraprofessional bill

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill in March that will substantially boost salaries for educational assistants throughout the state. H.B. 304, pushed through in the final days of the legislative session after intense lobbying from the New Mexico Federation of Educational Employees (NMFEE), creates four levels of licensing for educational assistants (paraprofessionals) and appropriates $8.2 million to bring all 5,000 New Mexico paraprofessionals up to an annual minimum salary of $12,000 (many assistants in the state now earn less than $10,000 a year).

Above that minimum, the new law links higher salaries to meeting the professional standards outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act. Other minimum pay levels are set at $15,000 for employees who pass an assessment, $20,000 for those who have 48 college hours or a performance portfolio review, and $25,000 for assistants who earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree.

The new bill came after the state Legislature last year adopted higher salaries and a multitiered system for teachers. “We’re not asking for a handout,” said Kathy Chavez, president of the Albuquerque Educational Assistants Association. “We’re simply asking that qualified EAs get fairly compensated for their expertise, experience and valuable contribution to making public education work in New Mexico.”

Gov. Richardson, who signed H.B. 304 and other major education bills in a ceremony at Albuquerque High School, said, “Not only do we need to respond to help meet the needs of No Child Left Behind, we should recognize the valuable work of educational assistants and pay them accordingly. This bill starts that process.”