Education Dept. Proposes Changes
to 'No Child Left Behind' Regulations
Modifications Provide Some Needed Flexibility in Implementing Law
More special-education students in some states could be allowed to take alternate, non-grade level state tests, under proposed changes to the so-called "No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act" outlined Thursday by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.
"A step in the right direction," said National Education Association (NEA) President Reg Weaver in a statement. But he called on the department to apply the changes in a fair and even-handed manner to states and school districts, and urged Spellings to make them retroactive.
The modified standards would be a more appropriate way to assess students who don't have significant cognitive disabilities, but have fallen "into the gap," said NEA's Patti Ralabate, a specialist in students with special needs, who attended the presentation in Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Currently, school districts are allowed to test just 1 percent of all students -- or those with the greatest learning disabilities -- at their instructional level, rather than their grade level. On Thursday, Spellings said an additional 2 percent also could be held to alternate standards.
She also said the Department would provide $14 million for immediate support to identify and assess students with disabilities.
Under NCLB, school districts can meet AYP (or adequate yearly progress) targets only if students in four subgroups, including students with special needs, show steady improvement each year on standardized tests.
Although the law has come under intense fire the last two years, with more than half of the country's state legislatures adopting resolutions critical of it, and thousands of teachers and parents clamoring for both reform and relief, Spellings maintained that its course was steady.
The changes announced yesterday are natural, Spellings said, as the Department continues to work with teachers and state departments on refinements. She thanked a number of groups for their cooperation, including Learning First, of which the National Education Association is a founding member.
"We've learned a lot in the three years since the law was signed," Spellings said. "As any Mom can tell you, it's amazing how much is learned in the first three years of life… the law has successfully come through the terrible 2's… and now it's entering preschool, where we, the adoptive parents, continue to lay the foundation for the years ahead."
But the presentation left many questions unanswered. While Spellings told the audience, which consisted mostly of state education chiefs, that some of them would earn the increased flexibility, she didn't specify exactly how they could do so.
In general, states would have to show academic improvement, including increased graduation rates and success with all third-graders. They also would have to embrace all aspects of NCLB, including aggressively helping non-teachers to get certified and telling parents of their transfer and private tutorial options. In addition, states would be favored if they exceeded the law's requirements, such as testing students in more than one year of high school.
More specific details are expected to be available this summer in the proposed regulation. But, at first glance, the changes are welcomed by teachers who have been begging for a more reasonable approach.
"We applaud the Department's efforts to make common sense improvements in the law that will make it somewhat more flexible," Weaver said.
While praising the department, Weaver said the NEA would continue to push for more reform. The Secretary and Congress, he said, should consider more than just test scores when measuring student and school progress.
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April 2005
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