Educators lament rigid requirements

EVERETT – As kids throughout the Everett School District prepared for the final few days of WASL testing, Superintendent Carol Whitehead told a group of community leaders Monday that public schools could be fighting a losing battle.

The No Child Left Behind Act is simply not realistic, she said.

The law mandates that virtually every student – including those with learning disabilities and those who are still learning to speak English – meet the same requirements. It eventually will result in every public school and district being labeled as “failing,” Whitehead said.

“We don’t argue with the philosophy of the law; we argue with the implementation of the legislation,” she said. “We are concerned that we have over-promised what we are able to deliver.”

The act, signed into law in January 2002, has come under fire from educators and lawmakers around the country. Some state legislatures have discussed opting out of the program altogether, but would lose millions of federal dollars as a result. Washington isn’t considering it.

“Last year the federal government provided $740 million to this state,” said Kim Schmanke, a spokeswoman for state Superintendent Terry Bergeson. “Until you can see another revenue stream, it’s real difficult to say we’re going to opt out of that.”

Edmonds Superintendent Wayne Robertson said the accountability requirements are out of line with what’s best for kids.

“It’s a piece of sound-bite legislation,” he said. “The label sounds great – that’s what captures the imagination of the public – but you have to dig into the details and pay close attention to it to track the flaws.”

Whitehead said the law will result in all schools failing in some way.

“We are concerned about the perception people are going to have about public education around the nation and in the Everett School District,” she said. “It leads me to believe that the final purpose of this law is to take away public education.”

Robertson agreed.

“I think it is actually headed exactly the direction that the current administration wants it to head,” he said. “I don’t think that’s accidental.”

Eric Earling, a Seattle-based spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, said the law is a work in progress and some changes already have been made. “We continue to listen and explore additional ways to offer flexibility,” he said. “It’s very early on in the overall timeframe of this law and its goals.”

But Whitehead said it’s clear the law isn’t talking about “goals.” “If this was a goal, that would be dandy,” she said. “But it’s not a goal, it’s a requirement.”

And failure to meet those requirements is a hard hit – in morale, in enrollment and in the pocketbook.

To determine whether a school is meeting its goals, in addition to the overall school score, students are split into subsets. Each subset must have at least 30 students in it for its scores to count.

For example, if there are 29 or fewer American Indian students in a school, there will be no “Native American” subset, and those students’ scores will only count toward the overall school total. It’s the same with special education, English Language Learners and low-income students.

If any subset hasn’t met its performance requirements for two consecutive years, the school could start to see sanctions.

They include:

* Allowing students to transfer, with the district paying transportation expenses, to another school that is meeting its requirements;

* Requiring the school district to provide additional tutoring or other outside help without additional funding to pay for it;

* And ultimately handing control of the school over to an outside administrator.

“The underlying premise of the law, which is pushing to get us to do better, is the right thing,” said Terry Edwards, Everett’s curriculum director. “But the way it’s set up, you almost have to have a sense of humor about it, because eventually, you will fail.”

Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.

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