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Tell Congress: Send NCLB Back to the Drawing Board—and Get it Right

NEA President Reg Weaver told the House Committee on Education and Labor on Monday that NEA could not support the draft of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind (ESEA/NCLB) released last week. It undermines educators' rights to bargain local contracts, includes a "pay-for-performance" plan that NEA cannot support, continues to define students and schools by high stakes standardized tests, and fails to ensure the tools and resources needed to provide great public schools for every child.
NEA believes that Congress should slow down, talk with educators about pressing needs, and commit to making the necessary changes. Getting ESEA/NCLB right this time will take more than just minor adjustments.
Send a Message to Congress Today!

BOE raises MCAS requirements
Starting with the class of 2010, all students must reach "proficiency," Board of Education says in October 24 vote.
Alternatively, students who score between 220 and 240 and take a required set of courses will qualify for a high school diploma. The MTA submitted public comment on the changes prior to the the board's vote.

Study predicts high failure rate under "No Child Left Behind"

Massachusetts education groups call for major reforms of "flawed" law.
Three-quarters of all schools in Massachusetts will fail to meet federal educational performance standards by 2014, according to an analysis of student test score data by Ed Moscovitch of Cape Ann Economics. Many of these schools will face increasingly harsh sanctions under the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as the No Child Left Behind Act.
Despite the high failure rate that will occur under NCLB, Massachusetts schools rank at or near the top on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, the SATs, college attendance rates and other measures of achievement.
A report based on Moscovitch's findings was released at a State House press conference June 23 by MassPartners for Public Schools, a coalition of the leading statewide educator and parent associations. The report is entitled Facing Reality: What happens when good schools are labeled "failures"? MassPartners commissioned the study with funding from Communities for Quality Education and the Civil Society Institute.
With the release of this report, Massachusetts educators and parents are joining their counterparts across the country in calling for major revisions in the federal education law.
"MassPartners supports the overarching goals of NCLB, which are to provide all children with a quality education and to close the achievement gaps," said Joan Connolly, president-elect of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and superintendent of the Malden Public Schools.
"Unfortunately, this law does not help us accomplish those goals. NCLB's inflexible formulas lead to some misleading results and require sanctions that are often unnecessary or counter-productive."
Catherine Boudreau, co-chair of MassPartners and president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, added, "When too many schools are labeled failures -- including schools with proven track records of success -- attention and resources are diverted from the much smaller number of schools that really do need help."
Nadya Aswad Higgins, executive director of the Massachusetts Elementary School Principals' Association and MassPartners Board member, said, "We support collecting performance data and breaking it out by different groups of students because it is important to shine a spotlight on performance gaps. However, the consequences under the law often bear little relation to what struggling students need."
MassPartners is calling for significant changes in NCLB and its implementation:
NCLB should be amended to require states to evaluate schools based on multiple criteria, not on test scores alone.
NCLB should be amended so that schools failing to meet educational standards receive technical assistance and support, not just penalties, and funding should be available to make that support possible.
The state Department of Education should work closely with education and parent groups to implement effective school improvement strategies.
The DOE should adjust the Adequate Yearly Progress formula to reduce the need for rapid test-score growth as 2014 nears. This will not solve the fundamental problems with NCLB, but will somewhat reduce mislabeling of schools.
The Moscovitch findings
Moscovitch examined student MCAS scores over the past three years to project how many schools are likely to meet NCLB's AYP standards in the future. He said that his is an "optimistic" projection since it presumes that MCAS scores will continue to rise for the next decade, although historically achievement test scores rise more rapidly in the early years after a new test is administered before reaching a plateau.
In 2004, 22 percent of all Massachusetts schools (384) had failed to make AYP for two years or more. By 2014, Moscovitch found:
3 out of 4 schools (1,286 out of 1,731 schools for which AYP reports are produced, or 74 percent) will fail to make AYP for two or more years.
Of schools failing to make AYP, 8 out of 10 (79 percent) will fall short based on aggregate school scores, not just for subgroups.
59 percent of the schools serving the most affluent students, and 86 percent of those serving the poorest students, will fail to reach the AYP standards.


RED SOX READING GAME IN SEVENTH SEASON
K-8 schools will soon receive materials to participate in MTA's popular literacy program.
The Read Across America celebration serves as the kickoff for a series of activities designed to get Massachusetts students excited about books and promote literacy throughout the year. The centerpiece is the MTA Red Sox Reading Game. The game encourages students in kindergarten through eighth grade to pledge to read nine books over the summer, one for each position on the baseball field. It is a team effort that involves representatives of the Sox – including All-Star catcher Jason Varitek, the contest spokesman – and MTA members from throughout the Commonwealth.
Reading game bookmarks, which also serve as contest entry forms, and Jason Varitek Literacy Champion posters will be delivered to MTA K-8 schools statewide in mid-May. The names of students who make reading pledges are entered into a drawing for tickets to a late-summer Red Sox game and other prizes.
Information on all aspects of the MTA Red Sox Reading Game will be available this spring. The site has contest details, reading tips, suggestions for activities and links to a wealth of resources to help promote the love of books.