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May 12, 2005
U.S. education secretary mulls changes to testing guidelines
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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