No Teacher Left Behind: Report Recommends Testing Teachers, Principals
NCLB
Keene Sentinel
Jessica Arriens
Boston University Washington News Service
2/13/07
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 —Teachers and principals should be tested as well as students in any reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law, according to a private bipartisan panel’s report released Tuesday.
The year-long study, based on roundtable discussions with educators across the country, gave 75 recommendations geared to guide Congress as it begins debate on reauthorizing the five-year-old law.
“We looked at what was best for the child,” said former Georgia Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, co-chair of the committee. “And we excluded what was best for the adults in the system. It’s kind of revolutionary, but it should be basic.”
The most “revolutionary” area of the report, produced by the non-profit Aspen Institute, an international organization promoting nonpartisan discourse, is its recommendation that testing standards—the kind No Child Left Behind enforces on students—also should be placed on the teachers as well.
“Teacher quality is the most important factor in improving school equality,” said Barnes. “Especially in disadvantaged children.”
The commission also recommended testing students in science, requiring school districts to offer space for students who transfer from failing schools, and a voluntary national standard that schools should meet, based of the current National Assessment of Education Progress standards. The commission said that schools should be 100 percent proficient by 2014.
Under the committee’s recommendations, the progress of a teacher’s students, measured over a three-year period, would be combined with evaluations done by a fellow teacher or a principal to measure a teacher’s effectiveness. Struggling teachers would receive professional developmental support, but could be forced out of positions if they fail to improve.
“If a teacher continues to struggle after several years of support, we can’t continue to short-change the children,” said Barnes. “They should not continue to teach the most disadvantaged children.”
Under the original law, teachers had to be certified, have a bachelor’s degree and be competent in their subject matter.
Barnes recognized that the teacher-standards recommendation “is one of those areas thats going to attract attention,” but said it was made “not to single out, not to punish, not to blame, but simply with the idea of improving education for our children.”
Not surprisingly, the proposal drew criticism.
“You can’t measure a teacher by test scores alone,” said Grace Jeffery Nelson, coordinator of public education and school support for New Hampshire’s chapter of the National Education Association. “You can’t measure my classes like that every year. The students are all in different places.”
Nelson pointed to her experience teaching for more than 25 years, and to the students in her classroom with developmental disabilities who “could never pass the test,” or students with underprivileged backgrounds as examples of why across-the-board proficiency requirements do not work.
“If a student comes into class who did not have dinner last night, did not have breakfast this morning, comes to school dirty—they’re in survival mode,” she said. “They’re not in a learning mode.”
The standards for principals would include receiving state certification and students meeting improvement standards. Under the proposal, federal funds would be contingent upon principals meeting the standards.
In determining student achievement, the commission recommended minimizing the size of subgroups that students are classified under to measure achievement in order to narrow learning gaps and make sure no child falls through the cracks.
But Nelson said students being lumped into “cell-sized groups” worries her. “I don’t want it to become an issue of, ‘We don’t want those kids in our schools, because they’ll bring our test scores down,’” she said. “I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m afraid it may rear its ugly head.”
In New Hampshire, Department of Education commissioner Lyonel Tracy instituted a program called “Follow the Child,” an initiative based on personalized learning that focuses on “educating the whole student, not just the testing piece,” according to Nelson, who said it is a better alternative to the current federal law.
The program, which began this school year, is focused on measuring growth in four different areas—personal, social, physical and academic—which Nelson said is a better way to educate students than blanket standards, where “the focus becomes on the test, and not on the child.”
She said while the No Child Left Behind law has its good parts, it has “certainly put a lot of stress on the teachers. We will do the best we can with students. Will they all be proficient? Probably not.”
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