Education Commission of the StatesJuly 2004
This new report, released by the Education Commission of the States, draws together the data ECS has been gathering over the past 18 months of state implementation of NCLB to see how far along state implementation efforts are, to highlight best practices, to explore the challenges states are consistently facing, and to make recommendations for how state and federal policymakers can work to strengthen some of the law's key provisions. For those who have been watching NCLB closely over the past two years, many of the findings will be unsurprising: All 50 states had met or were partially on track to meeting half of NCLB's 40 requirements, but only five states - Connecticut, Kentucky, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania - had met or were partially on track to meeting all 40. However, the report does include at least two worthy policy recommendations that, if adopted, could help keep NCLB on track to achieve its goals. First, the authors urge states to "ensure their High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) plans meet both the letter and the spirit of the law." (Currently, the vast majority of the HOUSSE plans include a "trap door" through which veteran teachers can escape the "highly qualified teacher" requirement.) Second, the authors argue that adequate yearly progress "must be thoroughly analyzed to ensure it measures school and district effects on student progress," taking into consideration that "AYP currently does not follow the progress of cohorts of students over time - an approach that provides a more accurate picture of student performance and how schools and teachers are contributing to gains." Unfortunately the authors aren't tough enough on states that have found loopholes in other areas, such as their definitions of what constitutes a "persistently dangerous school" or their calculations of adequate yearly progress. But, the report does contain much interesting data as well as a fairly objective assessment of where states are and of what factors (political and otherwise) are currently hindering the smooth implementation of the law. You can find it here.
