October 22, 2007: Letter to the U.S. House of Representatives

October 22, 2007

Member
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re:  National School Boards Association Comments and Recommendations
Regarding the Miller-McKeon Discussion Draft to Reauthorize the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)/No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) Act

Dear Representative:

The National School Boards Association (NSBA), representing over 95,000 local
school board members, urges your support for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), last reauthorized as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. As the House of Representatives begins the formal legislative process to reauthorize ESEA/NCLB, local school board members within your congressional district want to ensure that you are fully aware of their priorities.

In response to this concern, the National School Boards Association has developed two documents to assist you in reviewing local school board priorities for the reauthorization, and in determining your concurrence. No Child Left Behind: The House Discussion Draft provides a comprehensive summary of these key recommendations and describes how the Miller-McKeon Discussion Draft, issued in August 2007, addresses local school board priorities. The Checklist of Key Provisions in NCLB Reauthorization provides a quick reference to the key provisions and NSBA’s recommendations that will assist you in preparing for legislative actions regarding amendments and the final House bill.

As you are aware, over the past couple of years, local school board members have been concerned and vocal over the flaws in this legislation that are overtaking NCLB’s mission to raise student achievement. Based on input from local school boards across the nation, NSBA developed over 40 specific recommendations to improve the law, which are reflected in H.R. 648 – and over 500 local school boards across the nation have passed local school board resolutions endorsing the provisions in this comprehensive bill. Additionally, local school board members have likely communicated with you or members of your staff, and provided additional information on how some of the provisions in the current law impact their operations, and how the proposed changes would enable them to successfully achieve the goals of the law.

Local school board members believe that key changes must be made to the law now, rather than to delay the reauthorization until 2009 or later. They are committed to improve the academic achievement of each child. However, they believe that many of the provisions in the current law, if they remain unchanged, would hurt rather than help our school’s efforts to raise student achievement and close the achievement gap.

In reviewing the Miller-McKeon Discussion Draft, we are generally pleased with the direction that the committee took by shifting the emphasis of the law away from punitive sanctions and a “one-size-fits-all” approach and moving toward an approach that recognizes the need for greater flexibility and increased options for states and local school districts in improving academic achievement for all students. However, we have some concerns with certain aspects of these provisions that will need to be addressed. Additionally, we note significant increases in data collection and reporting requirements for states, school districts and schools. While each requirement can be justified, whereas when we view the comprehensive requirements, we don’t believe schools, school districts or states will have the financial and personnel capacity to meet these requirements. Therefore, we urge you to ensure that such requirements are reassessed, prioritized and eliminated unless absolutely necessary.

Likewise, we are pleased with a number of proposed changes including, growth models and indexing systems, multiple measures of academic achievement, a pilot program to allow use of locally-designed assessments, and several key reforms regarding progress measures for students with disabilities and English Language Learners (ELL). These proposals will also require some modifications, but certainly refocus the law in a more positive and workable manner.

While there are corrections that will need to be made, we believe that there is time to appropriately address our concerns. Therefore, we urge you to support the recommended changes as outlined in our enclosures, and to move forward with passage of a final bill by the end of the year. We believe that, with your support, these omissions and flaws can be corrected.

Thank you for your continued support for high quality public education across the nation, and for your strong support to complete ESEA reauthorization during this 110th Congress. Questions concerning our recommendations may be directed to Reginald M. Felton, director of federal relations at 703-838-6782, or by e-mail, rfelton@nsba.org.

Sincerely,

Michael A. Resnick
Associate Executive Director