Schools grapple with federal law Schools grapple with federal law (April 09, 2004)

No Child Left Behind Act called 'unrealistic' in local districts

By Julie O'Shea

As Mountain View students prepare to take the state's rigorous STAR test later this month, many district administrators are finding fault with a federal law that demands all school children reach grade-level proficiency by 2014.

Educators across the nation are taking aim at President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, a 2001 federal achievement measure that mandates 100 percent of America's children -- regardless of whether they are in special education or English language learners -- will be proficient in reading, writing and math within the next 10 years. And by the 2005-2006 school year, teachers must be considered "highly qualified."

If a school fails to meet the U.S. government's tougher accountability standards three years in a row, it could face a state takeover and other sanctions.

Local school officials are calling the president's goal "unrealistic" and speculate that the 2001 federal bill won't last long in its current form.

"I think we are really in for some challenges," said Mountain View-Los Altos high school district Superintendent Rich Fischer. "I think the Legislature won't have the will to continue with it.

"This is the largest intrusion of the federal government ever -- I find it confusing and absurd," Fischer added. "Local control works really quite well here, but we are losing it."

The federal government did not set the standard for "proficient" when it adopted No Child Left Behind three years ago, leaving the door open for individual states to come up with their own definition of the word. The problem, school officials say, is that California already had extremely high proficiency standards in place long before President Bush unveiled his education accountability act.

While it is certainly not bad to have high expectations, "is it appropriate and realistic to assume all students in California are college bound?" said Alicia Henderson, principal at Landels Elementary in the Mountain View-Whisman district .

California's standards place students on the college path. This means that all students -- regardless of whether they are in special education or are English language learners -- must reach the proficiency level on the California Standards Test, an arm of the state's STAR testing program, by 2014.

"You don't want to say you want to lower the standards because that's not the message you want to send out," said Mountain View-Whisman Superintendent Jim Negri, but "I need to be held accountable to reasonable standards."

Other states are more lenient. Henderson points out that children living outside of California can reach grade-level proficiency without having to adhere to criteria needed for higher education.

"It's a nice goal," said Mountain View-Whisman Assistant Superintendent Modrite Archibeque. "The problem is that it's a one-size-fits-all."

But districts don't really have a choice in the matter.

Schools must have 13.6 percent of their students reaching the proficient mark or above on the English language arts portion of the state's standardized test; 16 percent must be at that level in math. Next year, the bar will rise to 24.4 percent for English arts; 26.5 percent for math. What's more is that each subgroup within a school, such as socioeconomically-disadvantaged students, must hit this mark as well.

The threshold for "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) continues to rise until it finally hits 100 percent in 2014.

Additionally, schools must have a 95-percent participation rate in order to reach their AYP. Legally, parents can choose not to have their child participate in the test.

In response to the national backlash, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced last week that schools and districts will be allowed to average their participation rates over three years. In addition, schools won't be penalized if students don't take the test because of a medical emergency.

Paige also said special education students will be able to take a test that matches their individualized education plan.

Local high schools met their targets last year. However. Brigitte Sarraf, the Mountain View-Los Altos district's associate superintendent for educational services, fears that as a whole, the district might not meet its AYP in the future because it might not receive a 95-percent participation rate at Alta Vista and Moffett High Schools.

Over at Mountain View-Whisman, three schools -- Landels, Castro Elementary and Graham Middle -- failed to meet their goals in 2003. But Archibeque anticipates that every school in her district will meet its AYP this year.

Landels didn't meets its goal because it didn't have enough students participating in last year's test. At Castro, where 80 percent of its student body speaks a language other than English at home, the Hispanic, socioeconomically-disadvantaged and English learner subgroups did not score a proficient mark or above. The tests are administered in English only.

And Graham did not meet its AYP because less than 16 percent of the students in the socioeconomically-disadvantaged subgroup hit the mark in math.

Jonathan Pharazyn, the assistant principal at Graham, said the school is vigorously preparing for this month's STAR test and believes students will pass in all the subject areas.

"Accountability is very good to have," he said, asking if schools should be penalized for situations they have no control over.

Added Sarraf: "The big problem with No Child Left Behind is that it is a highly underfunded mandate."

Schools that do not meet their AYP are labeled Program Improvement Schools. Districts must give parents the option to transfer their children out of Program Improvement Schools. Also, federal and state aid given to these schools could be earmarked for tutors, extra academic support services and transportation services.

"The intent is right," Negri said. "The implementation just hasn't been worked out yet."

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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