While touring the U.S. Duncan promised to reward good teaching and get the government out of the way. But, the devil is in the details. What about the schools that are consistently underperforming? They are not off the hook.
NCLB to Have Three Tiers
Presently, schools are either passing or failing. If a school is not above the trajectory, it fails. If a school is above, it passes. This two level system is going to change to a three level system. The new system will divide nearly 100,000 schools into three categories:
- Schools rewarded for high performance – top 10%,
- Schools challenged to overcome major academic struggles
- Schools that are pushed to improve but given freedom to innovate.
It is estimated that the last group is approximately 75% of schools. The majority of schools need some tweaking but not drastically. [1]
President Obama Announces New Education Goals
On March 16th, President Obama held his weekly radio address and shared his vision. "All students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career – no matter who you are or where you come from. Achieving this goal will be difficult. It will take time. And it will require the skills, talents, and dedication of many principals, teachers, parents, students. But this effort is essential for our children and for our country." [2]
Government stepping aside and letting them continue the good work will reward top schools. "We want to get out of their way," Duncan said. "But we also want to learn from them." For the lowest 5% or the schools, Duncan says, "They will be required to take drastic steps to improve, including firing their principal and, in some cases, at least half of their staff, as happened last month at a Rhode Island high school." [2]
Congress Asked to Approve Radical NCLB Changes
The changes that will be placed before Congress in the form of a 41-page document will be:
- Require some states to adopt "dramatically higher" academic standards by 2014. (This is in reference to some states setting goals too low in the past.)
- Scrap NCLB 2014 deadline for all students to be proficient in basic math and reading and replace it with a 2020 "college- and career-ready" benchmark measured through annual tests. Students leaving high school would be expected to be ready for a career or college-level classwork, with younger students expected to master material leading to 12th grade.
- Allow schools to use subjects other than math and reading in their annual ratings.
- Use "value-added" indicators to rate teachers and schools, tracking how much students learn throughout the school year under a given teacher.
- Use indicators other than student test scores to rate teachers, such as principals’ classroom observations and reviews of lesson plans.
In schools that rated consistently among the lowest 5%, states and school districts would be required to "do something every single year to fundamentally change outcomes for those children." [2]
The Bottom 5% of Schools Treated Differently
The changes hit underperforming schools much harder. In order for the bottom 5% of schools to qualify for federal grants, those schools may need to
- Close schools and move students to a new school.
- Placed in the hands of an outside management company.
- Run as a charter school.
- Fire staff and rehire no more than 50%.
- Bring in new principal to transform the school.
For schools in the category, the situation could become worse with even more pressure than under the former NCLB sanctions.
Reactions to the Drastic NCLB Changes
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is not so enthusiastic about the changes. "Despite some promising rhetoric, this blueprint places 100% of the responsibility on teachers and gives them 0% authority. For a law affecting millions of schoolchildren and their teachers, it just doesn’t make sense to have teacher bear the responsibility for school and student success." [2]
Mike Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute had a positive opinion of the changes stating, "It uses federal power to give political cover to reformers at the state and local level, but focuses most of its muscle…on a handful of the worst schools." [1]
David A. Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association, says, "It is the same one-size-fits-all and flawed foundation of the Bush-era that has unfairly and unproductively used test scores to label public schools." [1]
All the details are not yet known. Along with the new expectations comes a new name. The No Child Left Behind title will be abandoned and a new one will surface. Some in education see this as a new era of hope by rewarding good schools but many see the changes as just more of the same – targeting poor schools.
Sources:
[1] Nick Anderson. "Updated ‘No Child’ law would focus on failing schools," The Washington Post, March 16, 2010.
[2] Greg Toppo, "Duncan wants 3 ratings for schools in education overhaul," USA Today, March 13, 2010.
Barbara Pytel - Email me Experience Although I was never particularly fond of going to school as an ELL student, I ironically became a teacher, ...
