69ý

Federal

NCLB Panel Gathers Views on Testing and Data Collection

By Michelle R. Davis — May 16, 2006 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

The No Child Left Behind Act imposes the wrong kind of testing on schools, educators need better systems to interpret the test data they get, and the federal government should help pay for the mandates it imposes, according to several advocates who last week addressed a private panel studying the education law and how to improve it.

The Commission on No Child Left Behind, an independent, bipartisan group formed early this year, ventured onto the battlefield of the policy wars with its hearing in Connecticut, a state that last year sued the federal government over the requirements of the school accountability law championed by President Bush.

The discussion centered on assessments and data systems, with a group that included Connecticut’s education commissioner and its state attorney general. It was the second of five public hearings scheduled for the commission, which will release a report and recommendations in January.

Also last week, staff members of the commission, which is housed at the Aspen Institute in Washington, released a report on the performance of special education students and students with limited English under the 4-year-old law. It showed that in the five states surveyed it was not solely the test performance of students from those two subgroups that was typically the reason schools did not make adequate yearly progress, or AYP, under the law.

At the May 9 hearing at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn., former Gov. Roy E. Barnes of Georgia—the Democrat who co-chairs the panel with Republican Tommy G. Thompson, the former Wisconsin governor and U.S. secretary of health and human services—said education data systems must be “robust and complicated” so the information can be accurately compiled and used.

“It makes little sense to assess our children if we can’t accurately and effectively manage the data that has been produced,” Mr. Barnes said at the meeting, which was televised on the Web.

Several panel members said the type of testing being conducted under the federal law must be re-evaluated. The No Child Left Behind law requires testing students annually in grades 3-8 in reading and math and once in high school in those subjects, and schools will be required to start testing in science in the 2007-08 school year. But the law does not require “formative” assessment— testing that teachers can do repeatedly through the year and use to guide their lesson plans.

Betty J. Sternberg, Connecticut’s commissioner of education, said that, in her view, formative testing is increasingly important.

“The tests required by NCLB are not useful to shape instruction for individual students,” she said.

Ms. Sternberg also said she was concerned about a trend toward all multiple-choice questions and a de-emphasis on essay questions, or other types of complex questions that require students to do more than fill in a box.

Not Enough Money?

Several members of the panel also said the U.S. Department of Education should look more closely at testing that tracks individual student improvement over time. That type of longitudinal or growth-model measure, for which the Education Department is establishing a pilot program, would provide much more accurate information, said Joel I. Klein, the chancellor of the 1.1 million student New York City school system.

“Failure to take a longitudinal approach has led to all sorts of unfortunate behaviors” on the part of states, schools and districts trying to use strategy to game the system, he said.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the most significant problem with the No Child Left Behind law is the lack of funding for its mandates, the issue that prompted his state’s lawsuit against Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Mr. Blumenthal filed the lawsuit in August 2005, after the federal Education Department refused to grant the state testing waivers.

“We are perilously close to failing in this program,” Mr. Blumenthal said. At issue is funding for additional testing and all the demands the law makes, he said.

“We’re very simply asking the federal government to give us the money to comply with the law,” Mr. Blumenthal said.

But James A. Peyser, the chairman of the Massachusetts state board of education, said the amount the state receives from Washington for education appears to be enough.

He said the state receives about $7.8 million from the federal government to support the requirements of NCLB, and he estimated his state’s “bill” for testing related to law was about $11 million. He said that because his state goes beyond what the law requires, “it’s not at all clear to me that those amounts are misaligned.”

“I can’t, in good faith, argue that the amount of money we receive is out of line with actual costs,” he said.

5-State Survey

The report released last week by the commission’s staff provided a bit of clarity on at least one facet of the No Child Left Behind law. On common complaint about the law is that schools are not making AYP solely because of the test scores of children with disabilities or those with limited English skills, the report says.

But an analysis of achievement data for the 2004-05 school year in California, Florida, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania found that only a small percentage of schools in each state had to report test results from those students because their numbers were small enough to render the groups statistically insignificant.

Only a very small percentage of schools in those states, the report says, did not make AYP targets because of the inclusion of test results of one of those subgroups.

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69ý
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Federal Video Linda McMahon: 5 Things to Know About Trump's Choice for Education Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate former pro-wrestling CEO Linda McMahon to lead the education department.
1 min read
Federal The K-12 World Reacts to Linda McMahon, Trump's Choice for Education Secretary
Some question her lack of experience in education, while supporters say her business background is a major asset.
7 min read
Linda McMahon, former Administrator of Small Business Administration, speaks during the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee.
Linda McMahon speaks during the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. McMahon has been selected by President-elect Trump to serve as as the next secretary of education.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Federal What a National School Choice Program Under President Trump Might Look Like
School choice advocates—and detractors—see a second Trump term as the biggest opportunity in decades for choice at the federal level.
8 min read
President Donald Trump listens during a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America's 69ý," event in the East Room of the White House, on July 7, 2020, in Washington.
President Donald Trump listens during a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America's 69ý," event in the East Room of the White House on July 7, 2020, in Washington. He returns to power with more momentum than ever behind policies that allow public dollars to pay for private school education.
Alex Brandon/AP
Federal 5 Things to Know About Linda McMahon, Trump's Pick for Education Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump’s selection, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment has long spoken favorably about school choice.
7 min read
Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington on Oct. 3, 2018.
Linda McMahon speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington on Oct. 3, 2018, when she was serving as head of the Small Business Administration during President Trump's first administration. McMahon is now President-elect Trump's choice for U.S. secretary of education.
Susan Walsh/AP