Schools lack solid foundation

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Thursday, May 17, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Grabbing paper and pen, the president of the nation's largest teachers union sketches a pyramid and divides it into four sections.

He's about to explain what's missing in the biggest education initiative from the White House in years.

At the top of the pyramid, which represents America's public schools, Reg Weaver of the National Education Association writes "accountability," the ultimate catchword of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Beneath that, Weaver writes down what must be in place before accountability can occur, with each element laying the foundation for the one that comes next: a sound economic structure and tax base, adequate and equitable student funding, and a school system with enough personnel, resources and facilities to meet the requirements of federal law.

The pyramid, Weaver says, reflects the backbone that's missing from No Child Left Behind, which comes up for reauthorization next year. The law's emphasis on accountability, he said, lacks the strength that comes from a solid foundation. Without adequate resources to support the law's demands, students, schools and states are being set up to fail, Weaver told the Sun editorial board this week.

No Child Left Behind requires public schools to make "adequate yearly progress," both overall and by ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups of students. Schools that come up short face various consequences, including, in worst cases, federal takeover.

Supporters say the law's expectations and demands are not unreasonable and will result in better teaching, improved learning and closing the achievement gap for minority and poor students.

To many of the law's critics, including the NEA, No Child Left Behind focuses too much on sanctions and too little on the underlying problems in public education.

"We're talking about shifting away from punishment and focusing on providing assistance for schools and kids," Weaver said. But that sort of reform, he said, requires resources.

Weaver is traveling across the country to promote the NEA's latest proposal for revising No Child Left Behind, which includes more flexibility in how student achievement is measured, restored funding for smaller class sizes and a more expansive approach to ensuring highly qualified teachers are on the job.

In the early days of President Bush's sweeping education reform, which took effect in 2002, the NEA often found itself standing alone in opposition.

Perhaps the greatest frustration came Feb. 23, 2004, Weaver said, when then-Education Secretary Rod Paige, in a White House meeting with governors to discuss No Child Left Behind, referred to the NEA as a terrorist organization.

Paige apologized the next day, saying that his remarks were a poor attempt at humor, and that he was referring to the union's aggressive tactics and not the teachers themselves. But to Weaver, it was a watershed, defining the chasm between the teachers and the feds.

Since then, the grumblings from within the schools, districts and state education departments over the law have grown louder, with dozens of community groups and organizations echoing the NEA's primary complaints that the law is underfunded and incomplete.

Two years ago, Weaver said, the federal Education Department didn't respond to the NEA's list of nine recommendations for changes. But since then, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has offered new accommodations for compliance in certain areas, including testing special-education students. All the changes were on the NEA's list, Weaver said.

There are elements of the law that the NEA supports, including the emphasis on collecting and using student data to identify who is lagging. The bigger issue is what happens after the data are collected and the problem areas are identified, Weaver said.

"What now?" Weaver asked. "What resources are you going to give to those schools to help those students?"

Many of the union's recommendations are supported by advocacy groups, education think tanks and lawmakers. Last year Spellings allowed a handful of states to measure academic progress by taking into account improvement in student performance over a prior year's results. Nevada has asked permission to use that formula to measure "adequate yearly progress."

Under the existing model, each state sets achievement benchmarks that increase periodically through 2014, when the federal law says all public school students must be proficient in reading, writing and math.

"We've got a lot of challenges, but we're up to the task, we really are," Weaver said. "Give us the tools and resources and we'll get it done."