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May 12, 2005

Yawu Miller

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said her agency would consider changes to its system of labeling schools during a meeting with Hub School Superintendent Thomas Payzant at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School last week.

Spellings, who has been touring the country to promote the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act, told Payzant that she would take under advisement a request that her department change the guidelines under which it labeled Boston’s school system “in need of improvement.”

Although the Boston schools have seen marked improvements in students’ scores on standardized tests, it was placed on the list because its attendance rates dropped by two percentage points over a two-year period.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools and school systems are judged by 32 separate criteria on their improvement in two-year increments. Failure to show improvement in any single area lands a school district in the “in need of improvement” list.

Both individual schools and whole districts can be placed on the list. When schools are put on the list — as were 60 in Boston — students are given the option of either transferring to another school or receiving free tutoring services, provided either by the school system or an independent contractor.

When an entire district is placed in the “in need of improvement” category, the district is barred from receiving the federal funds earmarked for tutoring services as well as some state funding.

State officials have acknowledged that Boston has made considerable progress and argued that the school system should not be penalized simply for its failure to improve attendance. The city appealed its ranking on the list in October and has not yet received notice of whether it would be taken off the list.

But department spokesman Jonathan Palumbo said Spellings told Payzant she would consider taking the school system off the list.

“She said she’s heard a lot about the issues of labeling,” he said. “We’ve clearly made the case that as a district, we’re making considerable improvements.”

If the district remains on the list and fails to take adequate corrective action according to the federal guidelines, after two years it moves to a “in corrective action” category, where further sanctions are possible.

In the last category, “restructuring,” the state is given broad powers  to take corrective action.

Under the act, students in all school districts must score “proficient” on standardized math and English tests by 2014.

While Boston has appealed its designation, some states — several with Republican governors — have taken a stronger stand. Utah, California, Connecticut, Texas, North Dakota and Virginia have challenged the No Child Left Behind Act.

Suits filed by Connecticut’s attorney general and by school districts in Michigan and Vermont argue that the act is an unfair federal mandate ordering an expensive testing regimen and offering insufficient funding.

Spellings said testing is the only way to ensure progress is made on school reform.

“What gets measured gets done and gets attended to,” she said.

Boston students with disabilities and students who speak English as a second language are particularly challenged by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assistance System test. Only half of ESL students who took the test passed.

Of the regular education students, 87 percent passed the English portion of the test, but only half reached proficiency.

Despite the challenges, Spellings urged school officials to stay the course.

“We’re really not doing kids or taxpayers or educators a favor to set this artificially low bar,” she said.

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