Campaign to get NCLB 'right' rolls into 2006
Union takes its case to Capitol Hill insiders and the
public at large

Recent meetings with key policymakers and engagement at all union levels helped set the tone for the AFT’s campaign to fix critical problems tied to the No Child Left Behind Act.

In late September, members of the union’s NCLB task force met with key staff members of the education committee in the Senate. It was the second such meeting in three months; the task force met with House staffers in June. Both sessions yielded an opportunity for union leaders to engage Capitol Hill staff in a frank dialogue about AFT members’ concerns regarding NCLB, and to explore potential fixes to the law which comes up for reauthorization in 2007. At both sessions, congressional staffers stressed the key role that AFT can play in helping get NCLB right by providing concrete examples from the front lines about where the law is working and where it isn’t.

Several of the staffers also made it clear that many of the AFT’s concerns about NCLB-—the need for a fair and accurate measure of school progress, testing burdens, accountability issues tied to supplemental service providers, and sensible implementation of "highly qualified" educator provisions, to name a few—were priority issues for lawmakers as well.

"Our hope is that today’s discussion will be the first of many conversations with your offices and will ultimately yield common ground," AFT executive vice president and task force chair Antonia Cortese told the Capitol Hill participants at the September meeting.

The AFT campaign also has taken its concerns about NCLB and its case for sensible and constructive school improvement beyond the Beltway.

The union launched the "NCLB: Let’s Get It Right" campaign in late spring of 2005. Print ads were placed in several influential publications and radio ads aired in 27 media markets—making the NCLB campaign the largest single media campaign in AFT history.

Efforts to fix NCLB also drew strength from another new initiative, the AFT’s Activists for Congressional Education (ACE) program, which encourages AFT members to visit their congressional representatives in their home district office. This type of "back home" meeting often makes lawmakers sit up and pay attention when important votes are cast. NCLB was a major topic of discussion at virtually all of the ACE meetings. By mid-2006 more than 250 ACE meetings are expected, engaging lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Other activities include:

• A membership survey on NCLB. In October, the union released the results of a major survey exploring members’ attitudes on NCLB-related issues such as testing, accountability and working conditions (see story this page).

• AFT staff conducted interviews and made site visits to New York City; Toledo, Ohio; and Rochester, N.Y.—three districts where union-run supplemental educational services (SES) programs are up and running. The interviews and visits tied to this project formed the basis of "The AFT Guide to Supplemental Educational Services," a publication to help local unions understand SES and analyze whether becoming an SES provider makes sense for them.

Already these and other efforts have helped produce results, although much more will be needed to get NCLB right.

The U.S. Education Department, at the AFT’s urging, has moved the deadline for paraprofessionals to meet their qualification requirements under NCLB from the middle to the end of the 2005-06 school year. The department also has revisited and amended its position that districts identified as "in need of improvement" are prohibited from providing supplemental services.

And in late October, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced that states will not be stripped of NCLB funding if all of their teachers have not met the "highly qualified teacher" requirement, as long as a good faith effort is under way to move in that direction.

Cortese called the Spellings announcement a step in the right direction—but the AFT leader urged Spellings to tackle the more fundamental problems faced by teachers seeking highly qualified status without adequate support or training, as well as NCLB’s impact on hard-to-staff schools.

Members back NCLB but want law changes
Survey shows support for standards, disapproval of emphasis on testing

While most AFT members support the No Child Left Behind Act’s emphasis on high standards, many of them want to see major changes in the federal education law. That’s one of the findings of an AFT poll, "Teachers at the Frontline of Reform," that asked classroom teachers for their views on NCLB.

Conducted last May by Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies, the survey found solid backing for the law’s focus on accountability and standards. The poll showed that support for standards and accountability is particularly strong among teachers who work in high-needs schools. Sixty-three percent of these educators say that the academic achievement of students in their school has improved over the past two years.

Those surveyed disapproved, however, of what they see as the one-size-fits-all approach of NCLB, and of the federal government’s failure to fully fund the law.

Members were also asked about the focus on testing spawned by NCLB and its effect on teaching and learning. Eighty-three percent agreed with the statement that "there is too much testing." An almost equal number (87 percent) said "testing has pushed other important subjects and activities out of the curriculum." And a majority of the respondents (59 percent) believed the emphasis on testing is "dumbing down" the curriculum.

When it comes to whether or not to keep the law, only 2 percent of those polled want to keep NCLB as it is. Sixty-seven percent would like to see the law changed.

Shakeup in Chicago supplemental services
Private SES provider cited for ethics rules violation by state officials

On Sept. 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) would be allowed to provide tutoring and other supplemental educational services (SES) under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), even though Chicago is classified as a district in need of improvement under the law.

The policy change was a victory for public educators and city officials who long have battled an earlier Education Department mandate that Chicago, and other districts that fail to meet adequate yearly progress, must provide tutoring through vendors outside the public schools if they wish to use federal NCLB funding.

Now it seems that the September policy shift not only was well-reasoned but also well-timed. The largest SES provider in Chicago recently was disqualified from offering tutoring services at five schools for what the Illinois State Board of Education called a violation of state ethics rules.

New York-based Newton Learning, a division of Edison Schools, was barred from five elementary schools in the city for what a state investigation described as aggressive student recruiting by paying bounties to individuals who steered tutoring business to Newton. Newton is one of several for-profit vendors vying for a piece of the nearly $60 million in federal funds earmarked for tutoring services at Chicago public schools. "One CPS employee admitted to switching students’ choices on enrollment forms to Newton and calling parents to advise them to switch to Newton," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The news generated outrage in the district, which at one point reached into its own pocket to provide cost-effective tutoring under certified staff rather than shutting down these services in the face of a private-vendors-only federal mandate. The CPS program costs about $400 per student for 80 hours of assistance through certified staff, compared with as much as $1,600 charged by private tutors who may not have certification.

"This program is set up to provide poor, struggling kids with tutoring services that are greatly needed," Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan said in a statement following the state board action. "To find out that private companies are using overly aggressive methods to recruit kids is extremely disappointing and something we’re not going to tolerate."

The state board’s action only affects five elementary schools. Newton has signed up about 17,000 of the 60,000 students eligible for tutoring in Chicago, the company reports. Newton has agreed not to appeal the state probe.

Math score: 56 percent; 'Mario' score: 790
SES providers offer video game players, IPODs to gin up business

You might think that the supplemental educational services (SES) provision under the No Child Left Behind Act is all about helping struggling students reach higher academic levels. But in cities such as Toledo, Ohio, some of the taxpayer-funded assistance seems more likely to generate higher scores on video games than higher scores in math and reading.

Sony Playstation IIs, Apple IPOD music players, refurbished computers, and a few months of free Internet service are some of the freebees that private supplemental service vendors have been offering to get students in their doors. Federal funding for supplemental services has sparked a gold-rush mentality in the city’s public schools. In October, in addition to the school district’s in-house SES program, there were 105 SES providers approved to do business in the district—companies from as far away as Georgia—and the number probably won’t shrink anytime soon, says Denise Johnson, a reading specialist who works with the district-run supplemental educational service program.

"I went in to pick up a carry-out pizza the other night, and I saw a stack of ‘Free Tutoring’ leaflets on the counter," she says. "People have figured out there is a lot of money to be made."

Whether or not a new Playstation will pay off in terms of higher student achievemement is frankly a mystery to Johnson. And it probably will remain a mystery for quite some time—oversight of all the providers except for the school district program has been delegated to the district’s tiny and overwhelmed Title I office. Rather than bog down in hard questions over the programs offered by more than 100 vendors, the path of least resistence has been to let the firms roll out their wares in the community and let the chips fall where they may.

The school district’s program, on the other hand, remains very much under the accountability microscope. Since it can’t evaluate itself, state rules require Toledo’s SES program to be independently assessed. An external team of educators comes in regularly to interview staff, conduct on-site visits with SES providers, review attendence and test scores, and meet with parents. The district has fared well under this rigorous process, thanks in large measure to a program that relies on the AFT’s educational research and dissemination (ER&D) strategies, along with well-prepared, well-qualified and well-supported teachers.

The district-run program remains the largest in Toledo. But there’s little doubt that things like free computers and Internet access have been a real draw for students and parents alike, and have helped some for-profits capture a significant number of SES dollars. And the additional overhead that these giveaways add to the cost of doing business means little when your program is staffed by recent college graduates with little or no teaching experience.