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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (30482)	2/20/2004 2:18:34 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793964

The Democrats voted for this to give more available money to the Teacher's Unions. Now the push is to water down the testing. End result? A more expensive education system that delivers the "same ol, same ol". 'No Child' Tests for Schools Relaxed English Learners Get Transition Time By Michael Dobbs Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 20, 2004; Page A01 The Bush administration moved yesterday to defuse mounting criticism of its landmark No Child Left Behind law by announcing a significant relaxation of testing requirements for students with limited knowledge of English. The new regulations will make it easier for schools to meet the annual targets set by the Department of Education and aimed at bringing the performance of all U.S. students up to grade level in math and reading by 2014. According to an independent study, about 28 percent of schools nationwide failed to meet the targets last year, triggering a mandatory set of costly remedial measures, such as supplemental tuition services and offers to move children to different schools if space is available. At a news conference, Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige said he is planning more changes over the coming weeks, including a new, more flexible interpretation of the requirement that all students be assigned a "fully qualified teacher." He previously agreed to changes in the way students with disabilities are treated under the law, allowing the most seriously disabled to be tested separately from other students. No Child Left Behind enjoyed wide bipartisan support when it was signed into law by President Bush in January 2002 in the broadest shakeup of American education since President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society reforms of the 1960s. Over the past few months, however, the law has come under sharp attack from Democratic presidential candidates and state and local officials who say it is under-funded and an unwarranted extension of federal authority. Paige, who spent much of this week fending off criticism of No Child Left Behind during appearances in Ohio and Minnesota schools, said he remains opposed to a congressional rewriting of controversial provisions in the law. He said there is already "sufficient flexibility built into the law" to permit his department to iron out any imperfections through revised regulations. "We want the law to make common sense," he said, adding that he will listen carefully to further suggestions from states and local school districts. The law requires the testing of students in grades three through eight and at least once in high school, and it requires schools to meet ever higher thresholds to demonstrate that they are making progress each year. If the schools fail, the law calls for increasingly tough remedies, including the possibility of replacing a school's entire staff. In an attempt to ensure that underprivileged children are brought up to grade level, No Child Left Behind divides students into subgroups that include various ethnic minorities, disabled students and children with limited knowledge of English. A school is judged "in need of improvement" if a single subgroup fails to meet the "adequate yearly progress" goals of the law. Under the new regulations announced yesterday, states will be permitted to grant a one-year transition period for English-language learners in their first year in U.S. public schools, which means that these students will be temporarily excluded from their schools' test results. At the other end of the performance spectrum, students will continue to be counted as members of the "limited English-proficient" subgroup for two years after they learn English. About 5.5 million students, or 12 percent of all U.S. K-12 students, are covered by the new regulations. Many of the limited English speakers are concentrated in underperforming schools. Preliminary studies by the Education Department suggest that the new regulations could lead to a 20 percent decrease in the number of schools that fall short of their academic targets because of poor test results from these students, most of whom are immigrants. The changes were welcomed by both supporters and critics of the law as a necessary reform that will reduce the financial burden on local school districts struggling to comply with the federal requirements. But some said the revisions did not go far enough. "It is a baby step in the right direction," said David Shreve, a Washington lobbyist for the National Conference of State Legislatures , which has been coordinating local opposition to the law. "We are glad that they have addressed this issue, but we have 15 more issues that we have identified that also need to be addressed." Ross Wiener, policy director for the Education Trust, a Washington-based think tank that has been campaigning for schools to be held to tougher standards, said the changes bring "clarity" to the implementation of No Child Left Behind. "The shame of it is that it took the department more than two years to offer such a simple, common-sense solution to a problem that has been bedeviling implementation efforts from the beginning." Local school districts are due to release in July and August an updated list of schools "in need of improvement," just as the general election campaign for the presidency heats up. Before Paige's announcement yesterday, many analysts had expected to see a sharp increase in the number of underperforming schools, which could have posed a political problem for Bush, who has termed No Child Left Behind the domestic "political cornerstone" of his administration. © 2004 The Washington Post Company