The No Child Left Behind Act is up for Congressional
reauthorization and California’s State Superintendent of Public
Instruction hopes to see some changes to the federal law.
The No Child Left Behind Act is up for Congressional reauthorization and California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction hopes to see some changes to the federal law.
Jack O’Connell spoke for 30 minutes to Gilroy Unified School District trustees, Superintendent Deborah Flores and an audience of about 100 Rotarians and their guests at a Tuesday afternoon lunch at the Gilroy Elks Lodge.
He began by pointing out that the state’s student achievement is up. Test scores have steadily risen over the past five years, every year and at every grade level.
“Are we where we want to be? No. Are we moving in the right direction? Yes,” O’Connell said of the state’s performance.
“There is nothing more important for California’s 6.3 million children in public schools than to assure they get the best education possible,” O’Connell said. “My ultimate goal as superintendent is to make sure our students grow into well-educated, productive citizens who will carry on the state’s legacy of leadership for the next generation.”
He acknowledged that an important tool designed to accomplish that goal is the NCLB Act, a piece of landmark legislation that was signed into law in 2002. While he supports the four pillars of NCLB – establishing stronger accountability, increasing flexibility and local control, expanding options for parents and emphasizing proven teaching methods – he has issues with the act’s implementation by the federal government.
Currently, there are two accountability systems in California, the state model and the federal model. O’Connell likened the state’s Academic Performance Index, a measure of growth and improvement, to a long jump, while comparing NCLB’s accountability model to a high jump. The statewide API provides a yardstick for measuring school performance on a scale of 200 to 1000. It is based on a school’s year-to-year improvement with a target score of 800. Meanwhile, the federal accountability model under NCLB allows states to set a bar of proficiency that must be met by all schools and subgroups. In California, 25 percent of students must reach that bar. Under NCLB, 100 percent of students should reach that bar by 2014.
However, NCLB allows states to set their own definition of proficiency. California’s is “very high, while other states have chosen to set their bars much lower,” O’Connell said.
Additionally, the federal government requires that 95 percent of all students at each school and in each subgroup participate in statewide testing. If more than 5 percent do not, yearly progress is not achieved.
“(NCLB is) the most aggressive intrusion of the federal government into the educational system,” O’Connell said.
“While I strongly agree with the goals of NCLB, we must amend the law to more fairly and sensibly address the needs of states with established accountability systems and high expectations for schools,” he continued. After holding a statewide series of public hearings with education stakeholders, he developed a set of recommendations to amend NCLB.
“NCLB treats all states the same, but the starting line is not the same for all students,” he said.
California’s diverse population creates a unique demographic that many states do not share. Latinos comprise 48 percent of the public school population and 41 percent of California’s students speak a language other than English when they go home.
NCLB is to be rewritten next year and O’Connell will be recommending that the federal law incorporates a growth model similar to California’s API.
Santa Clara County Board of Education president, Jane Howard, said she was very much in agreement with O’Connell’s proposals.
“The federal approach is not a good approach,” she said. “A one-size-fits-all approach does not work. The (NCLB) goals are what all of us are hoping to attain but I’ve never agreed with that approach.”
We are preparing kids for jobs that don’t exist yet with skills that we can’t even imagine,” O’Connell said. “There are 6.3 million California students and we want them to thrive in this super competitive global economy.”
