Contact: Miguel Gonzalez (202) 822-7823

December 7, 2007

NEA President Reg Weaver Encouraged by Move Toward Better NCLB Accountability Model 

Weaver reminds Bush administration that children are more than standardized test scores

WASHINGTON —The U.S. Department of Education announced today that it is allowing more states to apply for a pilot program called a “growth model” to measure student progress under the accountability system of the federal No Child Left Behind law. Growth models are a more effective measure of student achievement than the existing adequate yearly progress system, which measures the percentage of students who score at the proficient level solely on the day of the test. The current "snapshot" model measures this year's third graders against future third graders, as opposed to measuring improvements in individual student learning.

Currently, nine states are participating in the NCLB growth model pilot program.

The following statement can be attributed to NEA President Reg Weaver:

“We are encouraged that the U.S. Department of Education is backing away from the existing one-day ‘snapshot’ accountability model and is moving toward providing more states with better tools to measure student progress. We believe that accountability systems should reward success and support educators to help students learn. And tracking individual student growth is more helpful than the current approach.

“Although this is promising news for educators who have been calling on the Bush administration to treat children as more than standardized test scores, we urge the administration to look beyond NCLB and AYP—and testing, labeling and punishing—and get serious about reducing class sizes, increasing the number of highly qualified teachers, and providing educators with the tools and resources to prepare children to succeed in the real world. Yet given President Bush’s recent veto of a bipartisan education spending bill, which left the neediest students without essential programs and services, we doubt that this administration is serious about supporting education."

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional organization, representing 3.2 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers.