Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for November 10, 2008 NCLB - LATEST LOCAL LAMENT

Local educators: 'No Child Left Behind' deeply flawed

By Blackwell Thomas, The Southern

Seven years after it was signed into federal law, some local high school educators say the No Child Left Behind Act is deeply flawed and in need of significant change.

The law uses standardized tests to gauge student success and progress at both the high school and elementary school level. Schools must meet their "adequate yearly progress" or risk a number of punishments, including funding cuts or having curricula overhauled.

And while a number of local schools have managed to pull themselves from the ranks of those failing to make their AYP, administrators say their success will be short-lived unless changes are made.

Students at Carbondale Community High School District 165 consistently rank in the top third of the state and the school is recognized as one of the region's best. But for three straight years, the school failed to meet its AYP.

School administrators were proud to announce they did hit their AYP this year, but the success does not hide some serious problems, said CCHS 165 NCLB coordinator Virginia Appuhn.

"First of all, 230 high schools out of the 657 in the state met AYP; that's 35 percent," she said. "We've got 1,200 students (at CCHS); of 138 other schools in our (enrollment) range, only 31 met (AYP)."

Appuhn said part of the flaw of NCLB is in its use of subgroups, which represent sets of 45 or more students who fall into a minority such as special needs or low-income students. The failure of a subgroup to hit its AYP means an entire school fails.

This year's standard held that 62.5 percent of students at a given school had to meet or exceed minimum test scores or the school would fail. Next year the standard slides to 70 percent, then 77 before topping out at 100 percent in 2014.

"Some aspects of it (NCLB) indicate absurdity and that (the 100 percent mandate) is one of them," said Dennis Smith, superintendent of Harrisburg Community Unit School District 3. "Does that mean we are going to be dropping our special programs then? Why would we need special education if all kids were meeting the standards?"

A sampling of school districts in Southern Illinois shows entire counties, like Alexander and Pulaski, which have two high schools apiece, where no high school hit its AYP. Success was not consistent in more populous counties, as three of four Jackson County high schools did not meet their AYP while in Williamson County, three of five high schools did.

As a state, Illinois has improved from 60 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards in 2002 to 75 percent in 2008.

Smith said progress is being made but it's largely in spite of NCLB and not because of it.

"It (NCLB) expects us to match up our local standards with state standards, but you can't rate us on a one-size-fits-all test," he said. "We are running the school district with about $6,000 behind each student and comparing them with kids in Chicago and the suburbs with $16,000 behind them. I don't think that's fair."

"I am all for standards and measuring success and progress; we need to do that," he said. "If we are all starting from the same starting point, that is fine, but we aren't."

Crystal Housman is principal at Shawnee High School in Union County, the only school of four there to reach its AYP. Housman said the achievement is one the school and its students are proud of but she stopped short of praising NCLB.

Instead, Housman echoed Smith's sentiment that standards and measuring progress are necessary but the current system of doing so is failing.

"It (100 percent of schools meeting AYP) is absolutely not realistic and changes will have to occur," she said. "At some point there will not be any schools able to make AYP. To expect 100 percent of students to meet all minimum targets set by the state is unrealistic."

Appuhn, a former teacher who has spent 35 years in education, said a possible solution will have to focus more on individual progress than universal standards that ignore such measures.

"It (NCLB) is putting more stress on people instead of helping," she said. "Instead of presenting a great curriculum or some resources, they just pile it on and tell us you aren't doing it right. Federal and state level needs to offer solutions rather than just punishments."