Aspen Institute's NCLB recommendations a nonstarter

The Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind proposal appears to be another “fundamentally flawed, ideology-driven, top-down” plan that won’t work, AFT president Edward J. McElroy says.

In February, Aspen Institute released its recommendations for the reauthorization of NCLB. Topping the list of AFT concerns is the commission’s recommendation to require every teacher to be deemed a “highly qualified effective teacher” (HQET) based on student test scores.

McElroy calls that proposal “a nonstarter” for the committees in Congress that will deal with NCLB reauthorization. “If we have learned anything in the years since NCLB was enacted, it is that teachers and paraprofessionals working in classrooms are the ones who know best what works and what does not,” McElroy says. “Our members have had five years of experience with NCLB, and they know now that the law’s school accountability mechanism, the ‘adequate yearly progress’ (AYP) formula, is not a useful tool in distinguishing between good schools and schools in need of help.”

An AFT review of the Aspen Institute’s recommendations noted that NCLB established the highly qualified teacher (HQT) requirements for the first time in 2002, and states are still working to meet these requirements. “This reform should have time to take root before any alterations are even considered. NCLB’s current HQT requirements should not be expanded when NCLB is reauthorized,” the AFT’s review emphasizes.

The AFT is troubled by several of the report’s other recommendations for NCLB as well, including its failure to call for more support for struggling schools and its lack of a comprehensive fix for AYP. McElroy also points out that the commission’s report is just one set of recommendations that will be considered as Congress begins the NCLB reauthorization process.

The AFT has developed its own set of recommendations for the reauthorization of NCLB, which resulted from town hall meetings with members and careful deliberations with the leaders of AFT locals. Those recommendations are available at www.aft.org/topics/nclb/downloads/LGIRrecommend.pdf.