No Child Left Behind Loopholes Decried

Jay Matthews:

Should suburban schools that barely miss federal learning targets be allowed to escape penalties, while inner-city schools that never even hit the dart board are required to give free tutoring and let students transfer to better schools?

That question is at the heart of an emerging argument in Washington over how to improve the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Influential House Democrats and Republicans have circulated a draft proposal that would take many schools off the hook if they raise achievement for most students but miss the mark for a few.

Yesterday, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings pushed back hard against that approach. "To move from reasonable accommodations to big loopholes would be a huge mistake," she said.

In a speech to the Business Coalition for Student Achievement, which supports the federal law, Spellings said she is willing to consider proposals to allow states to use more than just annual tests in reading and math to rate schools and to treat differently schools that fall only slightly short of targets. But she said she is not willing to bend if the changes mean struggling students won't get the extra help they need.

Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling's Speech.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 6, 2007 9:34 AM
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