Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 1, No. 2 | The BackPage: No Child Left Behind, page 2 (low bandwidth)

Annual Measurement for Results
To ensure that every child is learning, there must be testing—every child, every year. Testing is one element of the president’s plan that has caused consternation in some quarters, but good testing is a powerful and effective tool for teachers and is a critical part of turning around failing schools.

A good test is one that is integrated with the standards and curriculum set at the state and local level. It is not an isolated component or an additional layer. Tests that are aligned with standards, curriculum and teacher training are the best tool we have for identifying where students and schools are succeeding and where they are failing. Once a failing school is identified, we can dedicate the resources necessary to try and improve it.

A good test is an invaluable part of teaching. When we build tests that measure learning and when we can break down the results, we can create an individualized learning plan for every child—even the hardest to reach and the hardest to help. This will give teachers and schools the power to help every child succeed, regardless of his or her background.

Accountability for Results
When failing schools are identified, and when they continue to fail despite resources and assistance, they must be held accountable. The federal government has done an outstanding job of supporting education with resources in the past decade; where it has failed is in demanding results for that investment. A strong accountability program is a powerful incentive for all schools to improve.

Under the president’s plan, if a school is not performing adequately after one year, it will get additional resources to help it get the job done. If a school is not performing after two years, the school will get resources, but students will also have the option of attending another public school in their area. But if a school is still not making progress after three years, disadvantaged students will be given funding to help them either attend another public or private school, or get some tutoring.

Students in many states are already reaping the benefits of a strong accountability program. Georgia has implemented an accountability system with tests for all students in consecutive grades. School performance is measured so that low-performing schools receive intervention and schools that are exceeding expectations receive rewards. In Florida, parents are the beneficiaries of the nation’s first “money-back education guarantee,” allowing children in chronically failing schools to attend a school that is meeting standards.

Government has a responsibility to make sure that schools get the resources they need. But schools in turn have a responsibility to make sure students are learning, and when schools aren’t teaching children, they must be held accountable for their results.

Flexibility and Local Control
The federal government has a role to play in our public education system, but it is a limited one in comparison with that played by state and local officials. This is the structure of our public education system, and it is one that makes sense. It leaves decisions about what happens in the classroom at the local level—where the students are.

At the federal level, the government stands ready to provide resources and assistance, but will also give local officials the flexibility they need to fashion their own solutions. The president recognizes that it is easier to achieve better results by reducing regulations, paperwork and bureaucracy.

To give states and school districts more flexibility in the use of federal education funds for Title I, the president will lower the poverty threshold for schoolwide programs from 50 percent to 40 percent. By doing this, we will enable thousands of additional schools to use Title I funds to upgrade their entire school, expanding the reach of federal dollars for disadvantaged students.

The president’s plan will also give states and school districts greater access to funds for technology. Under the plan, we will coordinate education technology programs to reduce the paperwork burdens of submitting and administering multiple grant applications serving nearly identical purposes. In addition, the plan will consolidate overlapping and duplicative grant programs and let states and school districts decide how to use their share of the single grant resulting from this combination of federal funds.

The president is committed to building on the existing efforts already underway at the federal, state and local levels. States and school districts will not be asked to drop everything they are doing and start over, but they will be asked to pursue more vigorously many of the kinds of changes they are already implementing, and that are already showing results.

Expanded Parental Choice
To ensure that children are getting a quality education, parents must be involved. Ultimately, parents are the ones who make the choices about a child’s education, and to do so, they must have access to more accurate information and more valuable options. The president’s plan calls for school-by-school report cards and gives students in failing schools the option of transferring to a better school. In addition, the president’s budget expands educational choice with $150 million to help charter schools acquire, construct, or renovate educational facilities. To further empower parents, there also will be an expansion of annual contributions to Education Savings Accounts from $500 to $5,000. Parents also will be able to withdraw their funds tax free to pay for educational expenses from kindergarten through college.

Some are concerned that giving parents more options will lead to a weakening of public schools, but the truth is just the opposite. Giving parents options is not designed to weaken public schools, but strengthen them. It will serve as a powerful incentive for failing schools to improve.

Broad Systemic Change
The president is putting the full weight of his administration behind his education proposals. He is passionate about our public schools and wants to see them work better. Despite the growing achievement gap in our inner cities, there are schools that are working and students who are learning. With comprehensive systemic changes like the ones proposed by President Bush, we can turn those few exceptions into a system and a culture of achievement.

Broad problems cannot be solved with narrow solutions. Our education problems are broad and complex and will require solutions that address the expansive nature of the problem. It is time to change the culture of the public education system from a culture of compliance to a culture of achievement. By returning to the fundamentals, and emphasizing standards, assessment and accountability, we can achieve the public education system we desire, and the public education system our children deserve.