Latest ESEA Change Welcome But Law Remains Flawed, Weaver Says

The Bush administration's latest change to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is a welcome one, but many of law's "fundamental problems" remain unresolved, NEA President Reg Weaver said.

The latest change applies to the federal education law's requirement that 95% of a school's total students and 95% of each subgroup of students pass the test used in determining "adequate yearly progress."

U.S. Education Secretary Paige said states now can average participation rates over a three-year period. In addition, students who are unable to take the test during the testing and make-up windows because of a unique, significant medical emergency will not count against the school’s participation rate.

Under the new policy, a state may use data from the previous one or two years to average the participation rate data for a school and/or subgroup, as needed. If this two- or three-year average meets or exceeds 95%, the school will still meet the AYP requirement.

Thousands of schools have already been labeled as failing or in need of improvement because one or two students failed to show up on testing day.

The newly announced policy revisions bring the number of changes accepted by the Department of Education to four.

The department had already unveiled new regulations that will allow states and local school districts some flexibility to more realistically assess certain special education students with disabilities and students with limited English abilities.

Those changes were followed by another that gives rural teachers more time to meet the law's requirements to be "highly qualified" and somewhat eases the requirement for certain science teachers.

All four are among the changes NEA has been long advocating since enactment of the sweeping federal legislation. But these changes are still merely tweaking the law, while leaving many of the fundamental problems unresolved, Weaver said.

The ESEA – which the Bush administration calls the "No Child Left Behind" law – relies on just two tests to judge students and schools, and it makes judgments by comparing the students in a classroom one year with a different set of students in the classroom the previous year, he said.

"We do not think this is productive, thus we support the recommendations of the 14 state superintendents who called for changes in the law that would allow a 'growth model,' recognizing the progress students make from where they have begun.

"The law still forces schools to spend money on more paperwork and bureaucracy at a time when they are having to cut funding for what improves student achievement, such as class size, teacher quality, up-to-date books and materials aligned with the new standards," Weaver said. "We also support additional federal resources to implement school improvement efforts, focused on where students and schools are struggling.

"In addition, while the recent changes in participation rates and the new standards for assessing students with disabilities and English language learners will help some, thousands of schools have already been deemed 'low performing' under the Department of Education's prior policies. In fairness, those schools that failed to demonstrate Adequate Yearly Progress should be re-evaluated under the new rules," Weaver said.

"We hope this is just the beginning of a more open and responsive dialogue with the Department of Education. NEA will continue to work with the Department of Education, federal, state, and local policymakers, as well as parents and the general public, to help make public schools great for every child."

Resource Page on ESEA

Posted March 31, 2004