No Child Left Behind Act

How Oregon is Implementing the Act

July 2012: Oregon Wins Waiver from No Child Left Behind

Oregon won federal approval on July 18, 2012 for its plan to judge schools differently — and mete out different consequences to the lowest performers — than has been required under the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB).

That means the state's nearly 1,300 public schools will be graded in an entirely new way in for the 2011-2012 school year. And it adds certainty that the state will require all teachers and principals to be evaluated in part by their students' test score gains beginning in 2013-14.

Since 2003, schools have been issued a yearly federal rating based primarily on whether enough of their low-income, minority, special education and limited-English students passed state reading and math tests. If a single group fell short in one subject, the whole school was deemed to have inadequate performance — and schools that receive federal funding for disadvantaged students had to offer free private tutoring or priority rights to transfer to a different school.

The new way of addressing the NCLB is that a school shouldn't be able to skate by just because it enrolls a bunch of bright, high-scoring students; it must continue to push them ahead. Similarly, a school should not be penalized for less-than-stellar scores if it helps students who arrived unprepared make huge strides. Whether a school helps historically low-achieving groups, including low-income and minority students, counts extra. 

As part of the waiver these are some of the conditions:

• Oregon must identify the 15% of schools that are struggling most to help students achieve and show learning growth. Schools are measured according to the number of kids at grade level, average student growth and growth among disadvantaged students. 
• The state won't single out only poor-performing schools. It will name "model schools" — those with the highest test scores, biggest year-to-year gains, strong performance across student groups and, for high schools, best graduation rates. 
• Those schools could be paid by low-achieving schools for tips and coaching. They're also likely to be praised by the governor, asked to give presentations at conferences, and otherwise treated like educational superstars, state officials say.

Oregon applied earlier than most states for a No Child Left Behind waiver, but 26 other states got a green light before Oregon. The biggest sticking point was how specific Oregon would have to be with its pledge to make demonstrated student achievement gains a "significant" part of how every principal and teacher is evaluated. In the end, Oregon agreed that it would do so beginning in 2013-14 — but won't spell out the specifics until after it has tried a couple of approaches in a few pilot school districts during the coming year. Over 30 states have received waivers from the Obama administration.

2011 - 2012 Report

More About The Act

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), signed into law on January 8, 2002, is the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). ESEA was born in the context of the Great Society legislation of the 1960s. It was originally intended to address the plight of disadvantaged youth in the nation.

The ratings are intended to reveal how well schools teach reading and math to all their students, including minority students, those in special education and those learning English as a second language.

For the 55 percent of schools that don't receive federal Title I money to help disadvantaged students, the ratings boost their public image if they meet all federal targets, or spoil their reputation if they don't.

For the 500 Oregon schools that receive Title I funding, including two-thirds of the state's elementary schools, the ratings carry high stakes. Schools that miss federal targets two years in a row must notify parents, offer students a transfer to a higher-performing school and report to state overseers what they're doing to improve. Schools also get money − typically about $100,000 or more a year − to help spur improvements.

Specifically, NCLB requires testing for 95% of all students using each states individual standards and that the results be divided to show different performance for sub-groups of students such as students with disabilities or groups reflecting ethnic and cultural identities. The result of that testing must be made public. The key words are "individual state standards." The incentives for an improvement also may cause states to lower their official standards. Because each state can produce its own standardized tests, a state can make its statewide tests easier to increase scores. A 2007 study by the U.S. Dept. of Education indicates that the observed differences in states' reported scores is largely due to differences in the stringency of their standards.

When groups of these students, who traditionally don’t achieve well in school don’t meet Oregon’s standards, their schools are subject to an escalating schedule of consequences − starting with offering students the opportunity to transfer to other schools and leading up to the state imposing changes in how those schools are managed.  The key phrase is what is called the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Two Web sites for information about NCLB:

• The US Department of Education's Web site has information about the No Child Left Behind act. 
• Learning First, an non-profit education organization, has published a number of documents that explains the law and changes made to it over the year.  These documents are easy to read and understand.

Most Oregon High Schools and Middle Schools Exempt

Schools that don't receive federal money face no consequence for failing to make what the feds call "adequate yearly progress." They don't have to offer transfers or tutoring no matter how pervasive or long-standing their performance problems are.

About 90 percent of Oregon high schools and 80 percent of middle schools are in that category and therefore exempt from consequences under No Child Left Behind. Rather, it is the 500 Oregon schools that get federal funds, including two-thirds of the state's elementary schools, for whom the federal ratings carry high stakes, such as transfers and tutoring.

No Child Left Behind Ratings vs. Oregon State Report Cards

The annual Oregon school report cards differ from the No Child Left Behind ratings.  The state judges schools on average student performances, while the federal rating scrutinize individual groups such as limited English, minority, low-income, and special education students.  If one of those groups fails to make adequate progress, the entire school is downgraded. For example in 2006, two students (limited English skills) at the Twality Middle School in Tigard didn't pass the reading and writing test, preventing the school from meeting the federal standard.

The Oregon report card is strictly informational.  It measures schools on averages in reading, math, science, and writing.  Both the Oregon report card and the No Child Left Behind federal ratings factor in attendance and the number of students taking the test.

Each State Has Their Own Measurements

Each state has developed and implemented measurements for determining whether its schools are making adequate yearly progress (AYP).  AYP is an individual state's measure of progress toward the goal of students achieving to state academic standards in at least reading/language arts and math.  The criticism is that each state has their own measurements so it is impossible to compare states.  Just look at the number of students who score at a "meet expectations" level on Oregon 10th grade OAS test of math and reading. Based on where Oregon has set its standards for student achievement, a "meets expectations" score is not particularly high.

Oregon needs to raise expectations for all students and a first step was adopting the National Common Core Standards which they did in 2010. Oregon is also a member of Achieve which is an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization that helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability.