District 180 Board Told Shift Coming to No Child Left Behind Law

Members of the Community Consolidated District 180 School Board were told Monday night that changes are coming to the No Child Left Behind law, though what those changes mean for the district remains unclear.

Earlier Monday, the Obama administration gave its approval to a plan by Education Secretary Arne Duncan to grant states waivers from having to achieve certain provisions of the law, most notably, that 100 percent of students must be proficient in math and science by 2014. The law is four years past due for reauthorization and legislative action is being delayed by the increasingly partisan political atmosphere in the nation’s capital.

“This is in response to … the lack of action in Congress regarding No Child Left Behind,” Superintendent Dr. Thomas Schneider told board members. “I don’t think anybody’s sure right now what this means to the state because there’ll be a waiver system where the state can apply to the Department of Education for a waiver from some of these requirements.”

A number of states already have announced their intention to seek such a waiver, including Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Schneider said there are indications that the Obama administration is moving to change federal education policy more toward its Race to the Top program. Illinois was a finalist for a portion of the $4 billion in funds made available by the program, but did not receive any assistance.

While Schneider said the specifics ramifications aren’t known at this time, it’s clear the Obama administration’s action means “a giant shift in the way things will be done under No Child Left Behind.”

AYP struggles

The No Child Left Behind Act was an initiative of President George W. Bush, which Congress passed in 2001. It requires all public schools receiving federal funding to carry out standardized testing of students. Schools must show “adequate yearly progress (AYP)” toward meeting the proficiency goals of the program. Increasingly severe corrective action can be taken against schools which fail to meet AYP in consecutive years, including forcing the school’s closure.

Click here for information about District 180's AYP.

In March, Duncan told Congress that up to 82 percent of schools across the country were on pace to fail to meet AYP this year.

“No Child Left Behind is broken and we need to fix it now,” Duncan said at the time.

in prepared statements and according to various news accounts Monday, Duncan told reporters that No Child Left Behind “is far too punitive. It is far too prescriptive. It led to a dumbing down of standards. It led to a narrowing of the curriculum. At a time when we have to get better, faster education than we ever have, we can’t afford to have the law of the land be one that has so many perverse incentives or disincentives to the kind of progress we want to see.”

He cited Tennessee as an example. He said the state originally had a very low standard of achievement for No Child Left Behind and claimed to have 91 percent of students proficient in math.

“They were, in fact, lying to children, lying to parents,” Duncan said.

He said the state then “did the courageous thing,” adopting tougher standards designed to make students ready for college or a career.

“When they raised the bar, Tennessee went from 91 percent of children proficient in math to 34 percent,” Duncan noted. “That was a very tough lesson, but for the first time they are telling the truth.”

Duncan said he had spoken to 25 to 30 governors over the weekend and “everyone is asking for more flexibility” in the law.

“We would have loved to see Congress act. No question that it should have happened. We hope it happens at some point down the road, but it hasn’t and we can’t afford to wait,” Duncan said. “Everywhere I go, teachers, parents, principals, school board members, state superintendents are asking for the flexibility to do the right thing.”