Palm Beach Post, The (Flordia)
April 30, 2011
HEADLINE: Fix law that flunks Florida

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan tried to prod Congress into updating and reauthorizing No Child Left Behind by warning that 82 percent of the nation's schools could flunk its standards this year. In Florida, an 82 percent failure rate would be an improvement.

Last year, 86 percent of Florida schools failed to make "Adequate Yearly Progress," as the NCLB standard is known. Not that 86 percent of Florida schools are horrible. In Palm Beach County, the Dreyfoos School of the Arts and Suncoast High -- among the best schools in the country -- failed under NCLB. As districts, Palm Beach and Martin counties were graded A and St. Lucie B by the state. All three flunked NCLB.

How? It's the "No Child" part. If any racial, ethnic or economic minority flunks, the school/district flunks. The 2002 law, championed by President Bush and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, laudably but unrealistically declared that all children will be performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014. As the deadline approaches, politicians are under pressure to change the law because schools that don't meet AYP face sanctions, including closure.

Tom Butler, communications director for the Florida Department of Education, said to "keep in mind that AYP is a pass/fail system where if a school misses even one of the 39 criteria they fail. Also keep in mind that the proficiency targets for AYP go up each year for reading and math."

NCLB needs to be changed, but we don't trust the Obama administration to do it right. Its policies actually have fostered a greater reliance on tests like the FCAT. Florida lawmakers cited Race to the Top -- basically a bribe of stimulus money -- when they passed an FCAT-based merit-pay law and forced districts to use FCAT results in hiring decisions.

Those actions by the Legislature and Gov. Scott serve as notice to Florida teachers and parents that revising or killing NCLB wouldn't end "teaching to the test." Then-Gov. Jeb Bush was pushing in that direction three years before his brother signed NCLB. Changing the state's attitude is at least as important as changing the federal law.

The FCAT and the evolving end-of-course tests are not bad in themselves. Florida is right to have state standards and to measure whether students meet them. The state Board of Education was right to commit Florida to meeting national academic standards as well. NCLB's concern for lower-performing students also is correct.

The huge, continuing error has been pretending that the FCAT is a valid measure of success in all those areas. Putting the burden on teachers while ignoring the role of parents has been the other crucial mistake. There's no reason to "reauthorize" NCLB if Congress simply reauthorizes its mistakes.

-- Jac Wilder VerSteeg,for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board