After a New York Times op-ed by former Department of Education (ED) official Michael J. Petrilli misrepresented teacher unions and glossed over serious flaws in the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB), AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese set the record straight in a letter to the editor. The Times cut Cortese's original letter because of space limitations. The full text follows:

In his column “School Reform Moves to the Suburbs” (7/11/05), Michael Petrilli was absolutely correct to raise concerns that recent waivers granted by the Department of Education under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) are undermining accountability in nonurban schools.  An important provision of the law requires states to hold schools accountable not only for their average achievement, but also for the achievement of student subgroups, such as low-income students and minorities.  By allowing states not to “count” subgroups in many schools—mainly suburban ones—the department is contradicting the rhetoric of “leave no child behind.”

Any efforts to measure student achievement must be done in a fair and accurate manner.  Unfortunately, at the center of NCLB’s accountability system—and at the heart of states’ and schools’ frustration with the law—is the complex, deeply flawed and frequently misunderstood “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) measure.  AYP is supposed to hold schools accountable for making academic progress. But in reality, AYP does not measure progress.  It does not even measure the same students over time. And it doesn’t recognize that many schools enroll students who were behind even before they started school.  As a result, many schools are perceived as failures when their students are actually making real academic gains.  To preserve the legitimacy of accountability, AYP needs to be fixed.

Finally, Mr. Petrilli is simply dead wrong to suggest that teachers unions are opposed to raising student achievement. Long before NCLB was enacted, the American Federation of Teachers and its members fought for the fundamental principles of higher standards and accountability. In fact, it is precisely because of our dedication to student achievement that we have launched our national “NCLB: Let’s Get It Right” campaign. Although NCLB holds promise, flaws in the law—such as AYP—are undercutting its original intent.  We are committed to making constructive changes to the law and to securing adequate funding for it.  We invite all those who are concerned about strengthening public education to join this effort.