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The vast majority of school district superintendents in Wisconsin believe the federal government’s so-called No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law must be overhauled to protect the state’s great public schools, according to a new survey.
The survey – conducted by WEAC and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators (WASDA) – found that most superintendents believe the law’s stated long-range goals are unobtainable and most sanctions provided by the law hurt schools without helping them.
“The men and women who work in and for Wisconsin’s great schools – teachers, paraprofessionals, superintendents and administrators – are the ones who know whether or not the government’s education policies are working,” WEAC President Stan Johnson said. “This survey shows that the No Child law is not working.”
A full 83% of superintendents believe NCLB is not helping to improve educational quality for poor and minority students in their districts even though that is the stated purpose of the law. Throughout the WEAC/WASDA survey, superintendents responded that the law fails in its most fundamental precepts:
Superintendents were asked about 11 sanctions that can be imposed on schools that do not meet “adequate yearly progress” (AYP), and only three were identified as measures that might improve educational quality. The remaining eight sanctions were viewed as purely punitive.
Also, 80% of superintendents do not believe their districts will meet the AYP goal of all students scoring proficient or advanced by 2013. This corresponds with a 2005 study by Arizona State University that 85% of the state’s schools would not meet this standard and would, therefore, face escalating sanctions and eventual closure.
“School superintendents have been working under the burden of this law for five years now,” WASDA Executive Director Miles Turner said. “And what they now know is this is a plan in which failure was inevitable.”
An overwhelming majority of superintendents favor drastic changes in the law:
The results of the survey, conducted in fall 2006, are based on responses from 63% of the state’s 426 school superintendents.
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Posted February 28, 2007