Schools May Dump 'No Child Left Behind' Standards

News this week that heavy-handed federal education law could be expelled from some states gave local teachers some hope they could move away from standardized tests and dedicate that time to teaching their students, local education leader said.

No Child Left Behind, a President George W. Bush-enacted legislation that requires 100 percent of students be proficient in reading and math by 2014, may be waived in states that can prove they have an equally ambitious plan to hold students, teachers and schools accountable, the New York Times reported.

The change still is years in the making—the federal government would have to adopt an official plan to waive No Child Left Behind, then state governments would need to apply and receive the exemption, according to Dorma Baker, superintendent of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.

"None of these processes are quick," she said.

But Baker said she was pleased that there could be a reprieve from the "the big line in the sand coming down the pike"—the student proficiency requirements.

"It has not been good for schools or good for districts," Baker said, referring to No Child Left Behind.

In the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, only seven of 33 schools met the federal standard in 2010, though most saw improvement, according to a Santa Cruz Sentinel report. The 2011 scores should be released in about a month (but a full school-by-school list of 2010 figures is available on the PVUSD website).

Francisco Rodriguez, head of the PVUSD teachers' union, said Watsonville-area educators "have some really strong concerns about the current law," especially the need for all kids to reach the literacy and math targets by 2014 and how schools are held accountable via standardized tests, "which we don't believe are the best measure of student achievement," he said.

In an attempt to meet the federal bar, schools have abandoned subjects that students aren't tested in to focus on math and reading. Teachers in Watsonville schools estimate they spend upwards of 100 hours of instructional time either teaching kids how to take the standardized tests or actually testing them. And, for schools that don't the grade, there can putative actions.

However, there was an upside to No Child Left Behind, according to Rodriguez. He said the testing pointed out the achievement gap between various economic and racial groups.

"It made an attempt at closing that achievement gap," he said.

Rodriguez said PVUSD teachers would prefer to waive No Child Left Behind benchmarks and adopt a growth model to gauge student success.

"We're not against accountability. We welcome accountability," Rodriguez said. "But it can't interfere with the actual teaching."

It remains too soon to say if California will get a federal waiver, what alternative assessment program may be introduced and if that is an improvement over No Child Left Behind.

"It's a mixed bag with it," Rodriguez said. "Anything that gives teachers more time to instruct and really work with the students would be good."