[StBernard] Lieberman, Landrieu, Coleman Unveil Plan to Improve No Child Left Behind

[Westley Annis]

Lieberman, Landrieu, Coleman Unveil Plan to Improve No Child Left Behind  

Senators to introduce the All Students Can Achieve Act of 2007

 

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - At a press conference on Capitol Hill today, Senators
Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)
unveiled legislation aimed at improving the current No Child Left Behind
law.  The Senators announced they will introduce the All Students Can
Achieve Act of 2007 (ASCA), which focuses on improving teacher effectiveness
and raising education standards for America's students.  

 

The Senators were joined at the press conference by former Georgia Governor
Roy Barnes of the Aspen Institute's Commission on No Child Left Behind,
Chancellor Joel Klein of the New York City Public Schools and Chancellor
Michelle Rhee of the Washington, DC Public Schools.

 

"No Child Left Behind, which Congress must now reauthorize, provides a
foundation, but we now must take new, bold steps in order to fulfill the
national commitments we first made five years ago," said Lieberman.  "That
is why today we are presenting a significant reform proposal, which we are
calling  ' All Students Can Achieve' -- to make the law more
parent-friendly, more student-friendly - and, above all, more
results-friendly."

 

"This bill makes necessary changes to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) to
give every child the chance to succeed," said Landrieu.  "It holds public
schools accountable for students who are not making adequate progress and
provides them with the tools to meet their students' needs. It also pushes
our public schools to close the achievement gap and ensures our foster
children don't fall through the cracks.  I am proud that five years ago, I
worked with Republicans and Democrats alike to craft legislation that
encourages public schools to meet new, higher standards in education for all
children, including the most disadvantaged. These improvements work to make
our original goals for that legislation a reality.  I want to thank Senators
Lieberman and Coleman for their commitment to real education reform."

 

"Education must be one of our country's top priorities and I am proud to
join Senators Lieberman and Landrieu in the fight to educate young America,"
said Coleman. "A quality education is imperative for individuals to succeed
in life and for the United States to thrive in the increasingly competitive
global market. I support accountability, but also flexibility when it comes
to the No Child Left Behind law. Our legislation provides the flexibility
educators have been asking for, without sacrificing high quality education
for our children. Moreover, it builds upon No Child Left Behind's successes
while also addressing its weaknesses, by promoting flexibility while
maintaining accountability, high standards, effectiveness, and access to
quality resources."

 

ASCA contains three key components for advancing quality education in
America's public schools.  First, ASCA aims to achieve student growth by
focusing on what's most important:  achieving results in the classroom and
ensuring effective teachers.  Second, the bill seeks to encourage high
standards throughout the country and better align the curriculum of schools
across America.  And, third, the proposal focuses on closing the achievement
gap by holding schools accountable for the performance of all students and
providing resources to address this gap.

 

The legislation offered by Lieberman, Landrieu and Coleman has been endorsed
by the Aspen Institute's bipartisan, independent Commission on No Child Left
Behind.  Last year, the Commission held numerous public hearings and
roundtables across the country and collected written testimony and research
from many parents, teachers and administrators.  These hearings played a
critical role in helping to shape many of the proposals contained in ASCA.

 

Below is a summary of the bill's highlights:

 

Focusing on the achievements of all students: 

 

.           To ensure parents that all students are achieving, states must
create comprehensive data systems that track students' academic progress and
other factors that affect their success.  

 

.           One of the most important factors in school and student
achievement is teachers.  The quality of teachers should be determined by
their effect on students' learning, not just their qualifications.  All
students should have effective teachers.  Thus, these data systems must link
student achievement data to teachers, allowing states to measure teacher
effectiveness.  

 

.           States should be held accountable for student achievement.
However, students do not progress at the same pace or start in the same
place.  Thus, states are allowed the flexibility to measure student academic
growth, rather than looking at absolute test scores.  States are also
encouraged to look at merit pay including getting the best teachers to teach
in the poorest schools.

 

High expectations for all students:

 

.           To ensure that all elementary through secondary school students,
regardless of where they live, are prepared for success in college or the
workplace, states must set high expectations for all students.  Academic
standards must be designed to prepare students to succeed and assessments
must be effective tools to measure students' progress toward meeting these
standards.  Currently, states often weaken standards and assessments so that
more schools and students appear to meet requirements.

 

.           Voluntary American standards and assessments in reading, math
and science would help raise the standards and assessments in states that
have set their expectations too low.  States will have the flexibility to
adopt or adapt the American standards, thereby freeing up state resources
for other educational needs, or keep their own standards, which the
Secretary of Education would compare with the American standards.

 

.           In order to ensure that high expectations are held for students
from before they begin school to after they graduate, states must establish
P-16 Commissions to ensure that state curriculum is aligned to standards
that are at an optimum level.  This will help to ensure that students
graduating from high school succeed in college or the workplace.

 

Closing the Achievement Gap

 

.           States need to focus resources on closing the achievement gap.
This includes directing their attention to comprehensive interventions where
more than 50% of students are not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) or
focused interventions where less than 50% of students are not making AYP.
Federal support for these interventions will increase.

 

.           New approaches need to be taken to close the gap.  Thus,
incentive grants will be awarded for innovative teacher and school programs.

 

.           To ensure that all students are properly measured, current
loopholes in the law that allow states to avoid counting students,
especially students with disabilities and English language learners, or skew
achievement data, are closed.

 

.           Another important measure of academic achievement is high school
graduation rates, which should be tracked and reported for all groups of
students.

 

 

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