President Barack Obama will seek an extensive re-write to the federal No Child Left Behind law that could increase the amount of federal education aid available and make the act more flexible for schools.
In regards to the proposed changes, Charles Pegan, Chautauqua County School Board executive director said, "There are reforms that are needed."
According to a New York Times article, the Obama administration said on Monday that it will ask Congress to raise education spending by about $3.5 billion, a 7.5 percent increase, for the 2011 fiscal year.
"We want accountability reforms that factor in student growth, progress, in closing achievement gaps, proficiency towards college and career-ready standards, high school graduation and college enrollment rates," said Arne Duncan, federal education secretary, in announcing the proposed changes, according to the New York Times article.
When it was approved under President George W. Bush, No Child Left Behind expanded the use of standardized testing to measure progress toward closing student achievement gaps while imposing sanctions on schools that fell short of adequate yearly progress targets.
President Obama's proposed funding increase includes $1.35 billion for competitive Race to the Top grants aimed at prompting school reform with financial incentives and build on a $4 billion grant program launched through the federal stimulus package.
"It's all about accountability these days," Pegan said. "We're using taxpayers money and we need to be held accountable."
One of the issues is if teachers should be evaluated by standardized test results, according to Pegan.
"How much should teachers be evaluated by New York state tests?" he asked.
If tenure is being evaluated by what happens in a teacher's room, Pegan said some teachers spend too much time teaching students to do well on the tests and possibly not helping students learn what they need for later in life.
"These test (results) better be what New York state really wants," Pegan said.
Deke Kathman, Jamestown Public Schools superintendent, said he hasn't seen the exact changes President Obama is proposing, but said he understands the flaws with No Child Left Behind and the reasons the president would want to change the program.
"I don't know that it hasn't been healthy, but some features have been rather punitive perhaps excessively so,'' Kathman said. ''So, for that reason I think it's appropriate to review aspects of the current law."
While Kathman wasn't sure what specific changes Obama is seeking, he stated that it does appear that the federal government may be moving to a more competitive application to get these federal dollars rather than utilizing the Title One program as a source that has been in place for year.
Currently, federal aid is a census driven funding stream, Kathman said. In the 'Race to the Top' proposed reform changes money will be awarded by the federal government to states and districts will apply to the state. If the state fails to get money, the districts will lose out also. If the state gets the funding, half of that will be kept in Albany for state-driven education reform and the other half will got to districts that apply and receive the grant funding.
"It will be a two-step process," Kathman said.
Carol Hay, Panama Central School superintendent, said the changes mean districts will get money for academic progress and not be tied to student achievement numbers and poverty. Until more information is known, she said it is hard to know if President Obama's changes will benefit area school districts or not.
"I also understand that Obama is looking at success as having all students leave high school "college or career ready,''' Mrs. Hay said. ''I like this better than saying all students will be successful by 2014.''
According to Mrs. Hay, one of the other additions she believes the federal legislation will address is benchmark goals, not just graduation or commencement level goals.
"New York state already does this in the standards we have, but I don't believe every state has the same benchmarking, standards, and assesment programs we do," Mrs. Hay said.
Mrs. Hay said standardized testing has especially been a topic of discussion since NCLB was enacted.
"As educators, we know that accountability is important and we need to have standard measurements,'' she said. We also know that a focus on testing can impact student's love of learning and creativity. Students need to learn how to problem solve, how to think creatively, how to be innovative and a leader - all 21st century skills and all difficult to put on a standardized test. When schools are judged - it often is just on the standardized tests and does not include the wonderful music program, the outstanding art students, the character building components - all important in the growth of a child and the preparation of that child for his/her place in society."
