NCLB is a failed attempt at a quick fix, says CTA

No Child Left Behind "is not about teacher quality," CTA Board member Pixie Hayward Schickele told a national commission studying the legislation. It's about "punishing schools, and labeling children and teachers as failures."

The chair of CTA's Elementary and Secondary Education Act Workgroup, she testified on CTA's behalf at the first of five national hearings held by the Aspen Institute's Commission on No Child Left Behind. The independent bipartisan group is charged with issuing recommendations for changes to NCLB next year when the law comes up for reauthorization by Congress.

The first hearing focused on NCLB's impact on improvement of teacher quality. As one of six witnesses testifying at the Pomona event, Schickele took the federal government to task for cutting funding for proven reforms like class size reduction and teacher training, and focusing on simplistic solutions like testing and punishment.

"The current testing system is exhausting and demoralizing and doesn't give coherence for improvement," said Schickele. "For very young children, the testing is hard and harsh, and not in line with what we're teaching them." She called NCLB a failed attempt at a "silver bullet" quick fix that doesn't improve achievement, but instead improves the system for culling students.

In his testimony, San Jose Unified School District Superintendent Don Iglesias praised the San Jose Teachers Association for its efforts to get the school year extended in some low-performing schools to allow for more professional development time for teachers. He urged other districts to build more positive relationships with their teachers' unions to mutually explore ways to help struggling schools.

Iglesias also argued that high standards for teachers are necessary, but sanctions for failing to meet all NCLB requirements are unfair. "One hundred percent of teachers being highly qualified is a laudable goal, but penalizing schools that don't meet that goal all the time is excessive and punitive." Since employment patterns, retirements, transfers and a lack of candidates make the goal impossible to achieve in all schools at all times, the law sets up schools and districts for failure.

Schickele, Iglesias, California Department of Education Chief Deputy Superintendent Gavin Payne, and Kitty Dixon of the New Teacher Center at UC Santa Cruz all drew attention to the lack of federal funding that has severely impacted states and districts under NCLB, especially in the area of teacher support and improvement. The commission's co-chair, former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, tried to steer the witnesses away from funding issues, saying those were political decisions outside the commission's scope. The witnesses argued that it was impossible to discuss NCLB without discussing the lack of funding necessary to meet its goals.

Not all of those testifying recognized the real problems of NCLB; some charged that the law doesn't go far enough. In spite of the state's extremely rigorous teacher credentialing program, Russlynn Ali, director of Education Trust-West, accused California and other states of watering down the definition of "highly qualified." Her organization is pushing for more federal oversight and enforcement.

Thomas Kane, Harvard professor of education and economics, advocated making it much more difficult for beginning teachers to achieve permanent status and using test scores, principal evaluations, and other "objective" measures to rank teacher performance. Principals would only be able to grant tenure to "bottom performers" with a district waiver and notice to the public.

Kane's emphasis was misdirected, responded Schickele. "I didn't become a master teacher in a week, a month, or a year. I became a master teacher because of all the other teachers who took the time to help me and administrators who knew what they were doing. I needed a principal who knew something about teaching."

Having supportive and knowledgeable administrators would help attract teachers to struggling schools, she pointed out. "We need to have highly qualified principals who understand what quality teaching looks like."

In addition to holding hearings, the commission will be collecting and analyzing data on Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and issuing a series of white papers that highlight key NCLB policy issues. CTA members can give direct input on their concerns about NCLB or view the hearing in its entirety by visiting the commission's website www.nclbcommission.org.