Bush School Reform Tests Candidates

Middle school teacher Steven Israel has a beef with the federal government’s No Child Left Behind law. He thinks it’s wrong to scrutinize schools on standardized test scores alone, especially at campuses such as his in South Los Angeles where many students are still learning English.

“The No Child Left Behind Act disenfranchises students,” said Israel, who teaches English as a second language at John Muir Middle School.

Israel has plenty of company in high places.

The two leading Democratic presidential candidates, Sens. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina, also are taking aim at the Bush administration’s signature education law.

Both candidates voted for the bipartisan measure more than two years ago, but they say it hasn’t turned out the way they had hoped. Both say it needs to be fixed to give states more freedom and more money.

Kerry argues that the law relies too heavily on test scores without also considering other important indicators of academic progress such as attendance rates and parent satisfaction.

“There needs to be a more flexible approach,” said Laura Capps, Kerry’s campaign communications director in California.

Edwards echoes the flexibility theme, saying he wants to revise the law so that states can focus attention on “truly failing schools” without punishing campuses that make progress but stumble occasionally.

Both candidates accuse the Bush administration of heaping complicated new mandates on schools without providing adequate funding. That lack of resources, they say, is felt most severely in schools serving the neediest children.

“The gravest education challenge in America is providing equal opportunity to kids in the poorest school districts, where schools are performing worst,” said Robert Gordon, a senior aide in the Edwards campaign.

Officials with the Bush administration and reelection campaign say the president has provided unprecedented levels of funding for schools to carry out the law and significant freedoms for states to craft accountability measures to suit special needs and challenges.

Last week, the Department of Education issued revised guidelines to give schools greater flexibility in how they counted students who were still learning English, the officials said.

The new policy allows campuses to keep students in the category of limited English for two years after they have become fluent. That will allow schools to more easily show test improvements.

A Bush campaign official accused Kerry and Edwards of playing politics with the president’s education record as Tuesday’s state primary approached.

“Both Sen. Kerry and Sen. Edwards voted for No Child Left Behind and now attack it in an effort to garner votes,” said Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for Bush’s reelection campaign.

The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law by Bush in January 2002, requires students in all schools nationwide to be proficient, as demonstrated through tests, in English and math by the 2013-14 school year. Schools must also demonstrate proficiency among subgroups of students, including those in special education and others who have limited English abilities.

Campuses that receive federal funds because they serve low-income students can face sanctions, including the removal of teachers and principals, if they repeatedly fail to meet testing targets.

Such schools also must use part of their federal funds to provide outside tutoring or transportation for children who wish to transfer to better schools if there is room for them.

School administrators in California and other states voice frustration about the emphasis on standardized test scores -- saying it’s unrealistic to expect 100% proficiency in all schools.

Already, nearly half of California’s 8,000 public schools have failed to meet their federal improvement targets. State officials warn that nearly every school in California could miss its federal goals by the 2013-14 deadline because at least one subgroup falls short of expectations.

Playing to that unhappiness with the federal law, Kerry and Edwards say they would increase funding for No Child Left Behind by rolling back tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest people, among other things.

And they say they would spend more money to help raise teacher salaries, bolster teacher training and expand after-school programs.

Kerry would give teachers, administrators and others a $10,000 tax deduction if they worked in “low-performing” schools.

Edwards would provide mortgage tax credits to teachers who lived in low-income communities where they taught, and he also would pay for the first year of college for students if they also worked part time.

Kerry’s and Edwards’ proposed changes in the No Child Left Behind law play well in the classrooms of Steven Israel’s South Los Angeles campus, where nearly all of the students qualify for government-subsidized lunches and 40% speak English as a second language.

John Muir Middle School serves more than 2,300 students, almost all of them Latino and African American. It is a sprawling campus about a mile south of USC.

The school failed to meet its federal test-score targets last year because all of its subgroups -- including special education students and those with limited English abilities -- didn’t meet expectations.

Israel was not surprised. “It’s unfair that these kids are tested because they’re not prepared,” he said of this limited-English students.

His colleague, special education teacher Kassandra Fitz, said the campus needed more money to reduce class sizes, train teacher aides, hire more counselors and stock classrooms with more materials.

“It seems like there is not enough money at the school,” Fitz said.

Neither Kerry nor Edwards has won the endorsement of the state’s most powerful teachers union, a traditionally strong ally of Democrats.

The California Teachers Assn. endorsed former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in October.

It is encouraging its members to vote for Dean in the Tuesday primary, even though he has dropped out of the race. The union will decide next month whether to stay with Dean or endorse another candidate.

“We want someone who will push for additional flexibility and changes in the No Child Left Behind Act, because right now it doesn’t work for California,” said CTA spokeswoman Sandra Jackson.

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Kerry and Edwards on education

Democratic presidential candidates John F. Kerry and John Edwards are criticizing the Bush administration’s signature education law, known as the No Child Left Behind Act. The candidates, who each voted for the measure two years ago, now say it is overly prescriptive and underfunded. Both are offering their own proposals to fix the nation’s public schools.

Kerry: Would create a ‘national education trust fund’ to fully cover the cost of No Child Left Behind and special education services in schools.

Edwards: Would boost the amount of money the federal government spends on teacher pay and professional development. He would offer college scholarships for students who make a five-year commitment to teach in the most needy schools.

Kerry: He would provide better pay and training for teachers and paraprofessionals; support early childhood programs; and continue to promote smaller class sizes.

Edwards: He would expand early childhood education, offering voluntary preschool to 1 million children.

Kerry: He would provide $10,000 tax deductions for teachers, principals and others in low-performing schools, and he would offer tax credits to help parents pay for after-school programs.

Edwards: He would reform high schools by helping school districts build new schools, break up existing large campuses and renovate old sites.

Edwards: He would pay the first year of tuition at public universities for students who come prepared and agree to work part-time.

Source: L.A. Times research