Teacher Union's "Technical Amendments" Would Gut No Child Left Behind
By Robert Holland and Don Soifer
Lexington Institute

August 4, 2003

http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/education/030804.pdf

At a time when the nation prosecutes its war on terrorism across four continents and chases down deadly remnants of Iraqi armies, the National Education Association has chosen to go to battle against "federal requirements to make significant decisions about schools, teachers, or children based primarily on test scores." This comes from recent documents distributed by the teachers union at its 2003 national convention.

Now, the NEA has targeted its formidable legislative operation at dismantling the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The landmark education law received strong bipartisan support when it passed in 2001, but has since become more controversial as states and school districts grapple with implementing rigorous requirements based on accountability and academic results.

What the NEA has proposed is a series of 47 "Technical Amendments" to No Child Left Behind. According to one senior Congressional aide, however, there is very little that is "technical" about these amendments - nearly all involve substantive policy changes aimed at stripping some of the law's basic provisions.

Most of the plan's proposed changes would have their greatest effect on poor students in underperforming public schools, and especially on language minorities. The changes seek to severely compromise the law's accountability measures and consequences, in effect preserving the very achievement gaps the law was designed to eradicate. They would also strike the most meaningful parental choice provisions from the law entirely, including portability for supplemental services for children in failing schools and even public school choice.

The NEA plan would substantially weaken No Child Left Behind's school accountability in a variety of ways. Sanctions for failing schools would be "limited," measures of progress would be made "flexible" and even the mathematical formulas used to average school test scores would be modified "to increase the stability of school-building results."

As for the nation's English learners, the amendments would weaken accountability to the point of effectively eradicating it. Students labeled English learners would carry that label permanently, so their test scores would remain disaggregated in that category long after they achieve proficiency in English. Further, schools would not begin to count their test scores until they have attended U.S. schools for three years.

These "technical" amendments also reprise another favorite teacher union policy angle by equating teacher quality with teacher certification obtained through traditional schools of education. All teachers would be required to hold such certifications, although there could be flexibility for more experienced teachers. The changes would fundamentally undermine alternative teacher certification paths and also require all charter schools to hire only teachers certified through that process.

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