Educators in Maine worry that children will get left behind after all

By Deirdre Fulton

WASHINGTON – The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001- President Bush's sweeping education reform initiative - was supposed to revolutionize the nation's education system by raising standards, testing more students and offering parents better options. But many Maine educators say pieces are missing, out of place or just plain wrong.

While educators in Waterville and Augusta - like many of their counterparts across the country - support the law's fundamental principles, they say the Bush administration hasn't provided enough money or flexibility to ensure its success.

"The expenses that we're incurring are extraordinary," said Jean Gulliver, the president of the Maine Board of Education. "And they're not being funded."

Principals and superintendents in Maine, which already used rigorous testing, say their students were thriving before the federal law took effect. The No Child Left Behind Act, they said, has too many tests, too many across-the-board requirements and too little money.

Some high-ranking Maine educators go so far as to suggest none of the state's schools will be able to meet the new federal standards. Waterville School Superintendent Eric Healy and Maine Education Association President Rob Walker said they were concerned the law was so unforgiving that it ultimately would label every Maine school as "failing."

SHOW US THE MONEY

Teachers, principals, superintendents and other education advocates in Maine say many of the new regulations are "unfunded mandates." In other words, they say, the federal government is telling schools what to do but not giving them the money to do it.

"I think the restrictions of the law were made by people who don't know one damn thing about education," said Barbara Jordan, curriculum coordinator of the Augusta School District. "They've never been in a classroom, they don't know what's going on - they make these laws and these regulations and then we have to implement them. And without the money to do so."

Schools need more money to help teachers meet new certification standards that require them to be "highly qualified," Jordan said. They also need financial help to set up database management systems that will monitor the yearly progress of each child who passes through a school's door, according to Gulliver. And there is a severe lack of money for special education, Healy added.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Education acknowledge they have heard many complaints about money from educators on the local and state levels. And spokeswoman Melinda Malico said the president has responded by significantly increasing what he has asked Congress to spend on education.

Malico said, for instance, that Bush requested $2.8 billion more for fiscal 2004, which starts Oct. 1, than he did for 2003. But Congress added exactly that amount to Bush's 2003 request. As a result, the president's proposal to spend $53.1 billion on discretionary education programs - those for which set dollar amounts are not mandated by law - is only $26 million more for 2004 than Congress appropriated for the current fiscal year.

Even in fiscal 2003 - the first full year after Bush signed the No Child Left Behind legislation into law - he requested a budget hike of only $400 million, an increase of less than 1 percent.

Bush's budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 would give Maine schools $417,474,428, an increase of $10.1 million from fiscal 2003.

A large portion of the education budget goes to Title I reading and math programs aimed at bolstering low-income and low-performing students.

Federal special-education money is distributed under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, which, like the No Child Left Behind Act, emphasizes accountability and assessment, said Education Department spokesman Jim Bradshaw.

When IDEA was first enacted in 1975, Congress told states and cities that the federal government would pay 40 percent of all special-education costs. The 2004 budget request is for 19 percent of the national average of per-pupil expenditures - less than half of what was promised.

But Bradshaw said 19 percent is a higher percentage than any other president has requested for special education.

The Education Department estimated that $45.9 million in special-education grants would go to Maine in 2004. According to the Maine Department of Education, state special education expenditures were more than $218 million in 2001 and were increasing by about eight percent a year.

These figures indicate that the federal government will be paying about 20 percent of Maine's special-education costs in 2004.

Educators say the process of getting the money is almost as frustrating as the lack of money itself. Grant applications for Title I funds can be 40 or 50 pages long, said Jordan, who fills them out for the Augusta school district. In addition, the grant applications have to show that districts are complying with stricter standards - making it harder, in some cases, for schools to get money.

When applying for professional development grants, for example, Jordan has to make sure that teachers fulfill certification requirements. One of the new federal standards requires middle-school teachers to be certified in specific subject areas. In Augusta, where middle-school teachers are certified as "team teachers" who don't have a specialty, this regulation may mean less money.

"It's a bureaucratic nightmare," Jordan said. "I want to concentrate on helping teachers teach better - I don't want to concentrate on this other stuff. But I don't really have a choice. I have to."

Educators are placing too much emphasis on money, said Frederick Hess, an education expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. If money isn't reaching the schools, he said, it is because it's being spent ineffectively by state governments or local school districts.

"The fact is, the change doesn't always cost more money," he said. "The change only costs more money if people are unwilling to let go of existing practices."

Maine's Department of Education was quick to counter that. State education officials make every effort to spend the money they are given "as judiciously and effectively as we can," said Jacqueline Soychack, the department's federal programs administrator.

TESTING: THE LIMITS

No Child Left Behind requires that every school in the nation administer yearly exams in grades 3 through 8. By the fall of 2004, every child's progress will be tracked in district-wide databases. Results will be given to state officials, who will report to the federal government. Schools and teachers with too many students who fail the tests will be given a year to bring more scores up.

Schools that consistently report low test scores will be required to give students extra help by providing tutors and after-school classes. Parents of students in "failing schools" will be given the option of transferring their children to better schools. The purpose, according to Malico, is to make sure "no children fall through the cracks."

Teachers need all the help they can get to make sure they achieve the goals laid out for them by No Child Left Behind, said Walker of the Maine Education Association. Walker said he is worried that creativity in the classroom will be lost if teachers begin "teaching toward a test."

Many educators expressed concerns that students will spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for the tests. "The testing is taking away from teaching time," Walker said.

"Just because we assess kids more doesn't mean they're going to learn more," said Waterville superintendent Healy.

"We're assessing kids out the ying-yang," added Augusta's Jordan.

They argue that in a state such as Maine - where students consistently score in the top levels on national reading, math and science tests - the assessment, accountability and certification standards are too rigid. Maine's Learning Results - the set of statewide standards designed in 1996 to ensure that students learn fundamental skills - is succeeding, Healy and others said.

Learning Results measures achievements by using state and local indicators. The state gives the Maine Educational Assessment tests in grades 4, 8 and 11, and uses scores from those tests to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of schools and districts. Local schools are also encouraged to consider students' overall achievements in assessing their progress.

"Why would you want to destroy that?" Healy asked. He and many other Maine educators said they feared enforcement of No Child Left Behind would gradually weaken the standards and measures already set in place by Learning Results.

Maine's existing practice of using assessments to identify and target weak schools or curriculum areas is very similar to the one required by the No Child Left Behind Act, said Scott Phair, principal of Waterville High School. But though the programs are similar, Phair said, the methods of assessment differed.

Many educators said they considered the state's system more fair.

"Maine made a determination many years ago that when we wanted to test our kids we would use what we call multiple measures, which is simply a variety of ways to test children to determine what they actually know," he said. "With No Child Left Behind, the way it's being played out in most states really has to do with every student sitting for an annual test. And that test is not of multiple measures at all - it's one single measure."

But while Phair, along with many of his colleagues, sees potential problems in coordinating the state and national education plans, he doesn't think increased assessment will necessarily mean that kids will be learning less. Instead, assessments will help teachers pinpoint skills they need to improve, he said.

That is precisely the rationale behind the act, said the Education Department's Malico. "We don't see the negatives of teaching to a test as long as you're deciding what you want your kids to know and teaching them that content," she said.

Increased testing also will focus public attention on the actual successes - and failures - of the schools and of the students themselves, Malico said. It also will help schools identify and address the educational needs of students who are not making progress, she said.

To track each student's yearly progress, every school is expected to install the data-management system that state Board of Education President Gulliver said was an unfunded mandate. Jordan estimated such a system would cost the Augusta School District about $60,000.

MIXED HORIZONS

By Jan. 31, each state was required to submit a plan to the U.S. Department of Education outlining how it would meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. The Maine Department of Education submitted Learning Results, with slight changes to fit the federal regulations.

On Feb. 27, five federal officials traveled to Maine to review the plan with state education officials, Maine's Soychack said. The main objective, she said, was to coordinate the expectations of Learning Results and No Child Left Behind.

Malico said the Education Department has not yet approved Maine's plan - only five states have been approved so far. But Soychack said she is optimistic.

"When we take a position, we defend it and we document it," she said, referring to Maine's high showing on national exams. "Our record of success nationally in comparison to other states… is compelling."

While the state waits to hear about the plan, Maine's congressional delegation is also fighting for more funds and more flexibility. While there are varying degrees of support for the act itself, there is bipartisan agreement among Maine's members that the state should have more money and more autonomy.

"What we feared might happen has really happened," said Democratic Rep. Thomas Allen. "The [Education] Department's being inflexible - this is a one-size-fits-all federal policy being imposed on the state without adequate funding."

Allen estimated the shortfall at about $10 billion a year. Earlier this year, he proposed a budget amendment that would have cut $100 billion from Bush's proposed $726-billion tax cut, in return for full funding of the No Child Left Behind Act for 10 years. The amendment was defeated, but Allen, along with fellow Democratic Rep. Michael Michaud, are continuing to press for more money.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who served on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in 2001, was one of four senators who rounded up votes for the bill when it reached the Senate floor.

"During this debate, she led the fight for full funding of special education - IDEA - over six years," Collins' press secretary Megan Sowards said in an e-mail. "And she pushed for increased funding for Title I money. Although these provisions were not included in the bill, she solidified support for them in the Senate on a bipartisan basis and continues to work toward these goals."

Collins and senior Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe are both members of the Main Street Republican Partnership, an organization of moderate Republicans. The group has said it is committed to the "protection and delivery of education reform as promised to both parents and children by Main Street moderates, the president and Congress."

Snowe and Collins applauded the increase in federal education funds but said there was still a way to go.

Snowe is concerned that the federal government has not provided states with enough money to comply with the law, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Wenk. She said Snowe is working to ensure the federal government fulfills its promise to pay for 40 percent of special-education programs.

Whether or not the state's plan gets approved, Healy said, his focus will remain on cultivating what he described as the best thing about the school district - the staff. The educators have "tremendous conversations," he said, and want to educate students in the best way possible.

"I'm putting my energy and my efforts where they can do good for the students," he said. "I find nothing in the No Child Left Behind Act that is going to better the education of the kids in Waterville."

Published in The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in Maine.