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By Andrew Shaw President Barack Obama's call to revamp No Child Left Behind, the decade-old educational law, has raised some eyebrows from York County education officials. No Child Left Behind is the catalyst behind standardized tests around the country such as the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, which are being administered this month. Schools' ability to meet the standards on those tests dictates funding, state intervention, and, in many cases, job security for educators. Obama said this week he questions whether the tests are properly evaluating schools, pointing out most of the country's schools in the past year would be viewed as failing. Critical thinking and creativity aren't being measured, he said, and teachers aren't evaluated properly. York County educators said they'd like more details on his plan -- specifically how it would be funded -- but agree there is definite room for improvement. "I think there's a lot of things that can be done there to assist with moving away from this categorization of schools, which really just puts labels on schools that in many cases are undeserving," said Fred Botterbusch. Botterbusch is the president of Dallastown Area school board and former president of Pennsylvania School Boards Association. In Dallastown, special-education students at Ore Valley and York Township elementaries in the reading category failed to meet state standards last school year, meaning the entire school failed to make AYP. Botterbusch said he thinks it's fair to let people know if a school fails to deliver in a particular area, "but to assume the entire school is failing is really misleading." "You don't want to be beaten over the head too many times. Sometimes, external pressures do more harm than good," South Eastern Substitute Superintendent Robert Wildasin said of NCLB demands. Expanding content area: Several educators said they also are interested in Obama's idea to expand what students are tested on, beyond just core academics. But how to do that in any objective manner is hard to determine, they said. Dover Superintendent Robert Krantz said there are students who might be able to show they comprehend a subject by performing a hands-on activity but couldn't do the same with a paper test. No Child Left Behind has been a "one size fits all solution," Krantz said. But even if there are changes, he still worries there will continue to be unfunded mandates and inequitable funding. "The whole process boils down to equity in school districts," Krantz said. West York Superintendent Emilie Lonardi agrees, saying Obama's "expensive sounding rhetoric" was full of good ideas but lacked a way to fund them. "We're not doing more, we're doing less," Lonardi said of districts forced to cut back. West York faces a $1 million-plus funding gap next year in what they expected to get, she said. Schools graded? Changes on the state level could be coming, too, according to a recent proposal by Gov. Tom Corbett's administration. His acting education secretary, Ronald Tomalis, suggested switching to a school grading model used by other states to compare district performance on PSSAs, using an A to F grade. Per-student spending and dropout rates would also be included in the report. South Eastern's Wildasin said comparing schools in that fashion may make it convenient for parents, but he worries it won't take into account different factors such as how well a district helps a student's character and attitude improve. Even then, he said, the PSSAs do help districts evaluate how they are doing, and the state has done a good job in recent years providing more precise ways to assess the results. But too much time is taken up testing, he said, among other issues. "I'm a big believer in accountability. But how much until enough is enough?" Wildasin said.
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