Editorial: Give at-risk schools the top priority

Friday, Sept. 5, 2003 | 8:49 a.m.

We have not spared the No Child Left Behind Act from the criticism it has earned. Funding for the two-year-old federal law remains inadequate. The law's testing procedures were rushed and remain haphazard. Its provision allowing transfers for students in underperforming schools is fraught with logistical headaches and even potential setbacks in a child's development. But at least one aspect of the law is praiseworthy. It addresses a long-standing problem -- the tendency to assign the newest and least qualified teachers to the most under-achieving schools.

Martha Young, associate dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, explained the widespread problem to Sun reporter Emily Richmond in a story that ran Thursday. "It's no secret that (the Clark County School District), like many districts, places newer teachers in at-risk schools and that's one of the reasons we see a dramatic difference in achievement," Young said. "More successful schools tend to have a rooted population of teachers further along in their careers."

Under the new education law, Title I schools (those that qualify for extra federal funding, based on the high percentage of attending students who come from low-income families) are no longer allowed to hire teachers who have fewer than three years of total teaching experience. Teachers in Title I schools also now must pass special certification tests. Students at these schools are generally among the low scorers on standardized tests. Given the difficulties faced by Title I students, which include language barriers, nutritional deficiencies, and oftentimes a lack of parental involvement, it's obvious that districts all along should have been directing more resources, not less, to them. But just the opposite has been taking place in Clark County and districts around the country.

The Education Trust, a nonprofit watchdog group that tracks national education trends, is critical of the U.S. Education Department for emphasizing testing methods more than the law's teacher-quality requirement. It would be a shame if the one indisputably worthwhile aspect of the law was allowed to languish. Agustin Orci, Clark County's deputy superintendent of instruction, assured Richmond that steps are in place here to ensure it doesn't. "Over the long run I think we'll start to see the gaps between the teaching faculties even out," he said. We hope he's right.