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Administration proposes changes in law
No Child Left Behind would address dropouts, minority achievement
BY NANCY ZUCKERBROD The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — The Bush administration sought to bolster its signature education law last week, announcing new rules designed to address the nation’s dropout problem and ensure that close attention is paid to the achievement of minority students.
    Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced that among the proposed changes being made to the No Child Left Behind law is a new requirement that by the 2012-13 school year, all states would have to calculate their graduation rates in a uniform way.
    States currently use all kinds of methods to determine their graduation rates, many of which are based on unreliable information about school dropouts, leading to overestimates.
    States will be told to count graduates, in most cases, as students who leave on time and with a regular degree. Research indicates students who take extra time or get alternatives to diplomas, such as a GED, generally don’t do as well in college or in the work force.
    While states will no longer be able to use their own methods for calculating grad rates, they still will be able to set their own goals for getting more students to graduate. Critics say that may allow some states to continue setting weak improvement goals.
MINORITY GRADUATES
    The administration’s proposed regulations would require schools to be judged not only on how the overall student body does but also on the percentage of minority students who graduate.
    Nationally, an estimated 70 percent of students graduate on time with a regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion drops to about half.
    Critics of the six-year-old education law have complained that judging schools on test scores but not, to the same degree, on graduation rates has created an incentive for schools to push weak students out or into non-diploma tracks.
    No Child Left Behind requires testing in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school. The stated goal is to get all kids doing math and reading at their proper grade level by 2013-14.
    Spellings has been taking steps in recent months to make changes to the law from her perch, after efforts to rewrite the bill in Congress stalled. The proposed regulations amount to the most comprehensive set of administrative changes she has sought so far.
    “The Congress, I guess because of the political and legislative climate, has not been able to get a reauthorization under way this year,” Spellings said in an interview. “I know that schools and students need help now, and we are prepared to act administratively.”
    The regulations call for a federal review of state policies regarding the exclusion of test scores of students in racial groups deemed too small to be statistically significant or so small that student privacy could be jeopardized. Critics say too many kids’ scores are being left aside under these policies.
TUTORING NOTICES
    The regulations also call for school districts to demonstrate that they are doing all they can to notify parents of low-income students in struggling schools that free tutoring is available. If the districts fail to do that, their ability to spend federal funds could be limited. The department estimates only 14 percent of eligible students receive tutoring available to them.
    An even smaller percentage of kids who are allowed to transfer to higher-performing schools make that switch, in part because they aren’t always informed of vacancies on time. The regulations require schools to publicize open spots at least 14 days before school starts.
    The administration’s proposal also would tighten the rules around the corrective steps schools must take once they’ve failed to hit progress goals for many consecutive years.
    Spellings and others have said schools often take quick steps when reforming troubled schools, such as replacing principals, rather than taking more comprehensive action. “Real school restructuring is not a new coat of paint,” Spellings said.
    President Bush said in a statement last week that the regulations would “address the dropout crisis in America, strengthen accountability, improve our lowest-performing schools, and ensure that more students get access to high-quality tutoring.”
    The administration is seeking public comments before finalizing the regulations in the fall.
    Regulations can be overturned by a new administration. Spellings said that’s unlikely in this case, because the rules she is proposing have widespread support. She said she hoped the ideas would help shape any future debate on Capitol Hill.
    “I think these things will help the law work better in the fi eld ... and I think they are ways for the Congress to have a good jumpingoff place when they start on their work,” she said.
    Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate education committee, said the regulations “include important improvements for implementing No Child Left Behind.”
CRITICS RESPOND
    Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., who chairs the House education committee, said the new rules fall short of what’s needed. He said the Bush administration didn’t try hard enough to get a revised law through Congress.
    “The changes amount to tinkering with a law that needs signifi cant improvements, as most parents, educators, and students know,” Miller said.
    Miller had sought changes that included a merit-pay program to reward teachers who boost student performance, which teachers’ unions opposed. He also wanted to expand the criteria under which schools are judged, which drew criticism from the administration.