AFT members give Congress an earful at union's NCLB town hall meetings
Lawmakers eager for frontline feedmack as law heads to reauthorization

In big groups and small, online and in person, AFT members have been meeting regularly with members of Congress in a full-court press to educate lawmakers about what needs to be addressed—and corrected—as the No Child Left Behind Act heads for reauthorization.

AFT members pulled no punches when they gathered at the Illinois Federation of Teachers offices in suburban Chicago in late June to tell congressional representatives how NCLB is playing out in classrooms across their state. Organized by the Illinois Federation of Teachers in cooperation with the AFT, the meeting was one of a series of union-sponsored events across several states aimed at giving Congress the unvarnished truth about NCLB and its effect on the classroom.

Funding alone will not give the law the fix it needs, AFT members stressed in their meeting with Reps. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) and Judy Biggert (R-Ill.). The two members of the House education committee listened intently to members’ concerns and left carrying pages of notes detailing the obstacles endured not only by teachers, paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel but also by students and families under the current version of the law.

One AFT member, a music teacher, spoke of how instruments in her classroom now gather dust because the school has prioritized NCLB test-prep instruction over music instruction. Other teachers spoke of how testing concerns had robbed time from award-winning social studies programs in their schools or taken a full eight weeks of instruction from their academic calendars. Several members also expressed deep concern that some groups are calling for NCLB’s flawed test system to be used for the evaluation of teachers, something it was never designed for. And, when it comes NCLB language dealing with hard-to-staff schools, many educators in the audience said Congress has not paid enough attention to incentives that attract educators to challenging assignments—beginning with safe, orderly schools with strong and constructive building leadership.

Both Hare and Biggert thanked teachers and PSRPs for their time and crucial input into the reauthorization process. “The best testimony has been from teachers,” said Hare. “The intent [behind NCLB] has been good … but nobody has come up to say, ‘Phil, can you keep this the same? It’s been marvelous.’ ”

Biggert said the feedback from this meeting and other roundtables means a great deal. “NCLB is such an important issue, and we’ve got to get it right,” she told town hall attendees. Biggert, who has negotiated school collective-bargaining agreements at the district level, signaled that these union-district contracts have been constructive vehicles for school improvement—and should remain so in any reauthorized NCLB. “The district and union working together is absolutely critical,” she said.

Many of the themes in Chicago were revisited a few weeks later, when participants at the union’s QuEST Conference in Washington, D.C., gathered for an NCLB town hall of their own. AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese moderated the discussion, and she commended all the frontline educators who are working hard to convey their NCLB views to Congress. “You can’t create [solutions] in a vacuum and expect them to work,” Cortese stressed, adding, “We’re going to need a lot of support from the ground” to ensure that Congress heeds the AFT’s plan to get the law right—a plan forged and informed by the feedback of thousands of educators and members. There are many areas where progress can be made in the law’s upcoming reauthorization, Cortese said, and interest in many AFT-backed measures is building on Capitol Hill: changing the NCLB accountability formula to give schools credit for growth, creating longer-term, nonpunitive interventions for schools that need them, and adopting a new “learning environment index” that can identify inadequate facilities and other conditions that hamper students’ opportunities to achieve and learn.

Of particular interest at the town hall session were the AFT’s efforts to push for a new NCLB law that does not rob students of their right to a rich curriculum or steal learning opportunities by promoting unnecessary, duplicative testing.

The AFT’s recommendations drew solid support from a broad audience of education stakeholders who gathered for the July town hall meeting. From a Florida school board member who inquired about opportunities to work in coalition with the AFT to a Hartford, Conn., parent, who urged every AFT member to carry the union’s message out into the community through one-on-one discussions, the AFT plan to get the law right drew applause and plaudits.

The law should be fair and focus on children
NCLB reauthorization could take place in early September

This issue of American Teacher includes what ultimately could be one of the most important pieces of professional correspondence that AFT educators will send in their careers. It’s the enclosed post cards to Congress—a message urging lawmakers to get the No Child Left Behind Act right, at this key moment when the law is up for reauthorization.

There is no doubt that thousands of AFT members will make sending in the post cards one of their first acts of the new school year—and for good reason. Calls for a speedy renewal of NCLB are gathering steam on Capitol Hill, and union members want their voices heard on Capitol Hill.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), one of the chief architects of NCLB and chair of the House education committee, recently told reporters that reauthorization of the law could take place as early as September. Miller also left no doubt that voices from the field are helping shape key decisions. “Throughout our schools and communities, the American people have a very strong sense that the No Child Left Behind Act is not fair. That it is not flexible. And that it is not funded. And they are not wrong,” Miller told reporters at a Washington, D.C., press conference July 30. He went on to say, “America needs and must have an education law that treats schools and children fairly, that provides educators and administrators with the flexibility they need to meet high standards and that delivers to schools the resources they need.”

Miller listed several key areas where changes should be considered in NCLB. The California Democrat called for measurements of school performance “that give credit to states and schools for the progress that their students make over time” and a new law that “helps ensure that all students in all schools have access to a broad, rich curriculum.”

Miller stressed the need for a law requiring that assessments “be fully aligned” with state standards—a point the AFT can take particular credit for helping to move to the top of the national debate.  The next version of NCLB also should “drive improvements in the quality and appropriateness of the tests used for accountability,” Miller said. “This is especially important for English language learners and students with disabilities.”

And, when it comes to extra help for students in schools that don’t meet performance benchmarks, Miller said it’s time to recognize that “we’re spending a lot of money, but don’t know what we’re getting” from tutoring companies and other vendors and groups that provide these services.

“I can tell you now that there are no votes in the U.S. House of Representatives for continuing the No Child Left Behind Act without making serious changes to it,” Miller stressed.

Miller’s perspective is a result of the hard work of thousands of AFT members to communicate our concerns to their lawmakers, says AFT department of legislation director Tor Cowan. In NCLB town hall meetings, or as members of the union’s Activists for Congressional Education (ACE) committees, thousands of members nationwide have taken their NCLB message personally to their elected leaders in Congress. Tens of thousands more have become AFT e-Activists and registered their thoughts, opinions and concerns with Capitol Hill lawmakers.

“We believe that Chairman Miller’s recent statements are a reflection that Congress is interested in making serious changes to the law and not just tinkering with it by making a few cosmetic changes,” Cowan notes. “Our members have done an outstanding job in starting the conversation about the real changes that are needed in this reauthorization if the law is to live up to its promise,” Cowan says.

Grass-roots AFT voices are needed now more than ever, Cowan explains, because some NCLB changes being considered could be devastating for public schools. For example, some groups and lawmakers are urging Congress to simply gut NCLB, the latest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. They would replace it with state block grants—a move that would jeopardize targeted federal assistance through Title I. Also disturbing are calls for Congress to institute NCLB mandates that could promote flawed merit-pay schemes. And others are calling for a new package of “highly qualified teacher” provisions that would offer nothing more than untested new hoops for teachers to jump through.

“The thoughts and opinions of AFT’s frontline carry considerable weight on Capitol Hill—sending in the enclosed post cards will make a difference as we reach a very critical point in this legislative process,” Cowan says. “Now is the time to turn up the volume and make sure that Congress continues to heed the lessons from your classrooms.”