Lawmakers: Change No Child Left Behind

President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind education law is headed for fundamental changes as Congress rewrites it this year, including a likely softening of do-or-die deadlines.School administrators long have complained about the annual deadlines, which punish schools that do not make adequate progress toward having all children perform at their grade levels.School officials also have rebelled at requirements that students with limited English ability or with learning disabilities perform as well as their grade-level peers.Now, those complaints are being taken up by lawmakers spanning the political spectrum.Key Democrats who control the federal purse strings are demanding changes. Moderate Republicans say the law must be more flexible. On Thursday, they were joined by dozens of GOP conservatives who want an even more radical overhaul.Lawmakers say a major flaw is that schools that miss achievement targets by a little are treated the same way as schools that miss those goals by a lot. Schools then are labeled as needing improvement and face the same penalties."We can't have one-size-fits-all," Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Michigan, said Thursday. He led a group of House and Senate lawmakers in introducing legislation that would let states opt out of No Child Left Behind requirements without losing federal education money.Currently, any state that does not adhere to the requirements of the $23 billion program cannot get the federal dollars that come with it. The requirements include annual testing in math and reading in grades three through eight, and once in high school. The tests must show steady yearly progress toward a goal of getting students working on grade level by the year 2014.House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri is supporting the conservatives' bill, even though he voted for the law in 2001."The overriding intrusion in No Child Left Behind is too large to deal with unless you fundamentally change the legislation," Blunt said.A former education secretary, GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said, "That's a visceral reaction to too much federal involvement in local schools."Alexander is not backing Hoekstra and Blunt in their effort but said their concerns must be taken into account when the law is rewritten.Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has testified on Capitol Hill this week, hearing from Republicans and Democrats who want changes.Rep. James Walsh, a senior member of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees education spending, wants the law loosened for schools that are failing due to the performance of immigrant students who do not speak English fluently.The government exempts students who are just learning English for less than a year from taking reading tests. After that time, those students have to be tested and schools are held accountable for their scores."We've gotta find a better way to test the progress of these kids," said Walsh, R-New York, who expressed the popular view that a year is not long enough.When groups of children, such as those learning English or special education students, fail to meet the law's achievement goals, entire schools can be labeled as failing and could face consequences such as having to fire their staffs -- which lawmakers say is unfair.Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota, also on the committee that oversees education spending, told Spellings she was upset that some states have lowered the requirements for what students must be able to do on reading and math tests to avoid the law's penalties. That creates a situation where some states look like they are performing well when they may not be."We look like we're doing a poor job when compared to states that set the bar low," McCollum said.The issue has led some lawmakers to call for national educational standards to be included in the law when it is rewritten.Spellings heard criticism from Wisconsin Democratic Rep. David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees education spending. Both said they were upset about the law's $1 billion reading program called Reading First.An Education Department inspector general's investigation found that people in charge of running the program and reviewing grants had conflicts of interest and steered money toward certain publishers of reading curricula.Spellings expressed concern that the program might be in jeopardy, saying, "I hope we don't throw the baby out with the bath water."Rep. George Miller, D-California, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, who lead the committees in charge of rewriting the education law, have indicated they support the reading program but intend to make changes to it.

Share and share alike under new Labor education policy

PUBLIC and private schools would share facilities such as science laboratories and sports fields under a federal Labor government.

The Leader of the Opposition, Kevin Rudd, said yesterday he would set aside $62.5 million to run 25 pilot programs in rapidly growing areas.

"Whether public, private, independent, religious or secular, all schools need a library, all schools benefit from having playing fields and ovals, as well as access to science and language laboratories and up-to-date information technology and computer equipment," Labor's latest education policy discussion paper says.

The Minister for Education, Julie Bishop, dismissed the announcement as nothing new, saying it was similar to a part of the Opposition's policy under former leader Mark Latham. Mr Rudd was earlier keen to stress his break with the so-called hit list schools policy, another feature of the Latham leadership, which wanted to give more government funding to public schools rather than private schools.

But Mr Rudd was coy about the details of how schools would all be assessed on the same basis for their funding.

Although he has promised that both private and public schools would be treated equally, Mr Rudd did not elaborate on the funding model that would be used.

Ms Bishop said it was difficult to see how more money would be available for schools.

"Kevin Rudd has merely repeated last year's pledge by former Labor leader Kim Beazley that no Catholic or independent school will be worse off. However, he has not committed to maintaining the current rate of increases to schools," she said.

"Labor is trying to hoodwink parents by imposing a freeze that will slowly strangle funding to Catholic and independent schools, rather than the sudden cuts of the hit-list policy."

The Australian Education Union said if Mr Rudd's funding model was based solely on need, the lion's share of funding would go to public schools.

Education policies 'should be simplified'

The government should limit the number of education policies under implementation at any one time, education workers have claimed.

According to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), ministers should remove an existing policy whenever they seek to implement a new one.

General secretary Dr John Dunford believes that ministers and civil servants should set out a framework for education policy rather than attempting to "describe every detail".

"The role of education policy is not to micromanage, but to create a climate in which leaders and teachers can thrive," he told attendees at the association's annual conference today.

"No policy should be introduced without a reality check on implementation. No policy should be introduced without examining its effect on other policies. And no policy should be introduced unless another one is removed," he told the conference.

Leaders are also concerned about the new 14-19 specialised diplomas, which the general secretary said were too complex and "an expensive option".

In order for them to be a success, the ASCL believes they must be offered by both maintained and independent schools and recognised by all universities.

The new diplomas are part of a massive overhaul of England's exam system, but education secretary Alan Johnson has warned the ASCL conference that the reform could go "horribly wrong" unless the diplomas are seen to have the same status as GSCEs and A-levels.

Chamber downgrades Maryland education

WASHINGTON - Maryland is falling down on the job when it comes to producing students ready to enter the work force, a new U.S. Chamber of Commerce study says, but the state countered that the grading system is unfair because Maryland doesn't even use a key test considered in the report.

And, the Maryland State Department of Education said, it is working on a program that should rectify the state's one "F" grade.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined the education reform effort last year, citing concerns that today's schoolchildren may not be able to fill the 35 million jobs the Department of Labor estimates will be available by 2012, and compete in the global economy.

"This is a matter of critical national urgency," said Thomas J. Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, at a news conference last week.

"For far too long, the business community has been willing to leave education to politicians and educators without comments, standing aside and contending themselves with offers of money and support and goodwill."

Despite decades of reform efforts and trillions of dollars, Mr. Donohue said, U.S. schools are not equipping the nation's children with skills and education they need.

At stake, he said, is the continued success and competitiveness of the American economy and the viability of the American dream.

The chamber's new Institute for a Competitive Workforce, as well as the Center for American Progress, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and other affiliates, assembled a team of experts last year.

The team spent a year analyzing and aggregating existing education data and used new measures, including evaluating the relationship between spending and student achievement, to grade education performance state-by-state and produce a nationwide business plan to restructure and improve the education system.

Graded on the study's nine new measures for educational effectiveness, Maryland received two As, for "postsecondary and workforce readiness" and teaching force quality and two Bs, for academic achievement by low-income and minority students and management and policy flexibility.

The state also received four Cs and an F.

The Cs came for academic achievement, "truth in advertising about student proficiency," "return on investment," and "rigor of standards."

"I don't know where they get that," said Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland State Board of Education, upon hearing some of the study's results.

Mr. Reinhard had not yet seen the study, but reacted when he heard it used National Assessment of Educational Progress tests as a source for three categories in which the state scored a C.

"We comply with 'No Child Left Behind.' They're entirely different tests," Mr. Reinhard said. "Maryland takes seriously the federal law, which tests students in grades three through eight and 10, as required."

NAEP tests, national tests on subjects ranging from reading to mathematics, are delivered to fourth- and eighth-grade students in select communities, Mr. Reinhard said.

Grades for "rigor of standards," the other category earning Maryland a C, were based on a formula that contemplates whether the state "aligned" its standards with college and workplace expectations and whether they adopted sufficiently rigorous exit exams.

Maryland is phasing in a high school graduation exam that will be required statewide in 2009, but it is not one of the eight states that fully aligned its standards with businesses and college expectations.

Mr. Reinhard said he was shocked at first to hear Maryland earned an F for "data quality." Maryland has been collecting and reporting data for 20 years, he said, and was one of first school systems to do so.

Then he learned grades were based on criteria, including whether a state uses a unique statewide student identifier, whether it can match student test scores from year to year, and whether it can match data on teachers with students' academic results, and other measures the study defined as benchmark metrics.

The state does not have such a system, but last year it decided to implement an identifier system, in which each public school student would be assigned a number and tracked throughout his or her education, Mr. Reinhard said. The program should roll out over the next few years.