Local school leaders welcome
No Child announcement
By HOPE E. TREMBLAY
Staff writer
BOSTON – President Barack Obama’s decision to free Massachusetts from some requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law was a vote of confidence for a system the state designed to assess the performance of public schools, top state education officials said Thursday.
Massachusetts was among the first 10 states to be granted waivers from the 2002 law, which set a goal of having all children proficient in reading and math by 2014.
“This is really a case where perfect has become the enemy of good,” said Mitchell Chester, commissioner of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The federal measuring stick for No Child Left Behind is known as Adequate Yearly Progress and many schools are failing.
Southwick-Tolland-Granville Schools Superintendent Dr. John Barry said there are several reasons Obama’s decision is good for students and school districts.
“One of the reasons this is good is Massachusetts is out-scoring 49 other states on the national assessments, and despite that, 90 percent of the school districts and 81 percent of schools are not making AYP under the law,” said Barry. “So that is obviously not a good way to assess schools.”
Barry said there will be better leveling and schools can work on closing gaps between racial and ethnic groups, among other things.
“Those are more practical assessments,” said Barry.
Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Suzanne Scallion stressed the importance of the number of Massachusetts schools that are considered failing under NCLB.
“It’s important to know that under NCLB 80 percent of schools were inadequate,” said Scallion. “Clearly we are not going to have 100 percent of students proficient by 2014.”
Scallion said the new requirement calls for a reduction in performance gaps by 2017.
“I think it’s much more realistic,” she said.
Scallion said a school district is rated by its lowest performing school.
“In Westfield, we have three schools at a level three, so we are considered a level three district.”
Chester said AYP “invites cynicism.”
“That just flies in the face of common sense, and it is not useful at all,” Chester said. “It doesn’t help us distinguish between schools that are on the move and schools that are stuck.”
Massachusetts officials, in their application to the U.S. Department of Education for a waiver, pointed to their five-tiered assessment plan for schools and school districts, with level one being the strongest and level five the weakest.
Chester said most schools place in the top two tiers. The state recently took control of the public schools in Lawrence, a city about 25 miles north of Boston, after it was deemed a level five underperforming district.
Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick’s education secretary, Paul Reville, said the No Child Left Behind waivers show a realization that the 2002 law was “deeply flawed.”
“It’s not that everything is bad,” Reville said. “There are some very strong features, but (the law) needed reworking.”
The law, championed by the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., passed Congress with bipartisan support and was signed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. It has been up for renewal in Congress since 2007, but lawmakers have been unable to agree on the fix.
Senator John Kerry applauded the announcement and said, in exchange for this flexibility, these states have agreed to raise standards, improve accountability, and undertake essential reforms.
“We’ve pushed for this waiver a long time so we can continue to out-innovate other states in education reform. I asked Secretary Duncan to come to Massachusetts earlier this week to talk about the pioneering steps we must take to give all our students a world-class education and help our colleges graduate students who can out-compete our global rivals. I’m grateful to Secretary Duncan and President Obama for this flexibility so Massachusetts can continue to lead the way.”
In October, Kerry worked with state leaders to submit an 85-page application highlighting Massachusetts’ exemplary education standards and requesting national recognition and consent for the state to continue to drive its schools’ curriculums and reforms. This waiver provides flexibility regarding certain requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
To qualify for the waiver, states must: demonstrate that it has college- and career-ready expectations for all students; develop and have a high-quality plan to implement a system of differentiated recognition, accountability, and support for all districts; commit to develop, adopt, pilot, and implement teacher and principal evaluation and support systems that meet certain specified requirements; and assure that it will evaluate and, based on that evaluation, revise its administrative requirements to reduce duplication and unnecessary burden on districts and schools.
Hope Tremblay can be reached at [email protected]
