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THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT/ THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 ______________________________________________________________________________________________ PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY AND COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION |
March 2007
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE REAUTHORIZATION OF
THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT
From
THE NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF REGENTS &
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
The New York State Board of Regents (BOR) and the New York State Education Department (SED) have been strong supporters of the high expectations set by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). New York instituted standards-based reform 10 years before NCLB and support the law’s goals of closing the academic achievement gap and ensuring that all students have the education and skills necessary to compete in the global economy of the 21st century. However, to realize the law’s promise, NCLB must be changed to reflect the lessons states have learned during the last five years. In many instances, the law does not contain the right tools to meet its goals.
Recommendations from the Regents and Department for better aligning the law’s tools to its goals address seven areas for improvement: Accountability, Assessments, School Improvement, Highly Qualified Teachers, School Readiness, Funding, and Due Process.
Each area is important in ensuring the promise of NCLB, but five issues within those areas are especially critical. The five priorities are:
· Single Accountability Designation: Permit states to use Title I criteria alone, including the assessments of student subgroups, to determine when a school or district is “in need of improvement.” Additional measurements, under Title III and IDEA, only should be used to determine additional needs of special populations.
· Growth Models: Provide states with the option of using a growth model, a status model, or a combination of both to determine Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
· Targeted Interventions and Differentiated Consequences: Permit schools to target remediation or interventions to the subgroups of students who are falling short of achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rather than providing them to the entire student population of a school or district
· Assessments for Special Populations (English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities): Permit states to develop valid and reliable assessments for different sub-populations of ELLs and students with disabilities which will lead to more effective interventions
· Highly Qualified Teachers (HQT): Continue to support state efforts to meet reasonable HQT goals and provide incentives for states to pilot approaches to improve teacher effectiveness
Please see the package of Issue Briefs for more on the five priorities (pdf version-144KB )and the Issues Matrix (pdf version-205KB) for the complete set of recommendations.
For additional information, please contact Cynthia Woodside, Federal Relations Liaison, at cwoodside@mail.nysed.gov or 202-659-1947.