On her way out of a summit on teachers and the federal No Child Left Behind Act here last week, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings found herself in an elevator next to Philadelphia schools chief Paul G. Vallas, who handed her a sheaf of papers about his district鈥檚 progress toward getting its teachers deemed highly qualified.
With the deadline looming at the end of the school year, Mr. Vallas鈥攚ho runs a 210,000-student school system that has embraced much of President Bush鈥檚 accountability-oriented education philosophy鈥攕eemed eager to do a little lobbying. He suggested that he had successful teachers who might not meet the criteria for the 鈥渉ighly qualified鈥� designation.
Ms. Spellings nodded, but later hinted that she would push Mr. Vallas to meet the deadline. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to lobby him, too,鈥� she said.
Ms. Spellings鈥� April 27 trip to Philadelphia for the first of what will be at least four U.S. Department of Education-sponsored forums on the landmark federal education law also signaled how far the Bush administration believes the 4-year-old law has come and the distance it still needs to go鈥攐ften with a push from the secretary.
This week, for instance, the department will start receiving bids from districts eager to tap into a $100 million Teacher Incentive Fund to help get talented teachers into struggling classrooms and keep them there.
But it won鈥檛 be easy. In Philadelphia, Ms. Spellings told a crowd of hundreds at school district headquarters that school officials across the country must 鈥渃onfront some of the sacred cows in education.鈥� Those include the practice of pairing the best and often most experienced teachers with the students who are easiest to teach, she said.
In a wide-ranging interview afterwards, the secretary sketched out just how the national debate over education has changed since the No Child Left Behind law was enacted with bipartisan support during President Bush鈥檚 first year in office.
Ms. Spellings said the Teacher Incentive Fund is a starting point when it comes to getting the most out of good teachers.
A Continuing Conversation
But Joel Packer, a lobbyist for the 2.7 million-member National Education Association, who was at the event here, said his organization 鈥渟trongly opposes鈥� the fund. Existing federal grant programs could allow states to do the same things鈥攕uch as institute merit pay鈥攊f they chose, he said.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 make sense to create a new program that has a narrow purpose,鈥� he said.
Mr. Vallas said the law has forced his district to closely examine teacher qualifications.
鈥淪ometimes deadlines produce results,鈥� he said.
In tandem with the incentive fund, Secretary Spellings said, schools also must provide teachers with more tools. She lauded a presentation in Philadelphia that highlighted how detailed testing can show teachers which lessons have been successful and which need a new approach.
But the larger realization, she said, was that a conversation about detailed testing and how it can guide lessons day to day would hardly have been possible a few years ago. Schools then just weren鈥檛 using testing in that way, the secretary said.
That was before the NCLB law required testing of students in reading and mathematics annually in grades 3-8, and once during high school鈥攁nd breakdowns of the results by group鈥� to hold schools and districts accountable for the achievement of students of different races, as well as poor students, those in special education, and English-language learners.
Test Anxiety
But the growth in educational testing may have placed a strain on the system. Last week, Secretary Spellings met with representatives of more than a dozen testing companies to address concerns about errors in assessment.
Such concerns were dramatized recently when the College Board, which sponsors the SAT, acknowledged that students鈥� scores on more than 4,000 of the college-entrance exams were miscalculated.
The April 25 meeting with test-makers was a positive one, said Kevin F. Sullivan, the Education Department鈥檚 assistant secretary for communications and outreach.
Ms. Spellings 鈥渨as pleased to learn that plans are already being put in place to improve quality control across the industry,鈥� Mr. Sullivan said.
Sol H. Pelavin, the president and chief executive of the American Institutes for Research, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that provides some testing services, said Ms. Spellings raised concerns over whether the industry has the capacity to handle the type of testing being called for under the NCLB law.
鈥淪he seemed concerned because of NCLB, but also because of these mistakes that have been happening,鈥� Mr. Pelavin said.
Implementation of the No Child Left Behind law has been the focus of other recent concerns, too. Late last month, the Associated Press reported on an analysis it conducted showing that the test scores of nearly 2 million students were being excluded from schools鈥� NCLB progress reports because the students belonged to racial subgroups that did not meet minimum group sizes determined by states with approval from the Education Department. (鈥淎nalysis Finds Minority NCLB Scores Widely Excluded,鈥� April 26, 2006)
鈥淲e can and will do a better, smarter job of looking鈥� at that issue, Ms. Spellings said in the interview with Education Week, which occurred while she was returning to Washington by train after the Philadelphia meeting.
The Education Department will look more closely at the rationale for the threshold that each state has set for excluding a subgroup from a school鈥檚 annual progress report, she said.
鈥淭his whole thing is an evolution, and we鈥檙e always going to be moving toward 鈥� a continuous-improvement notion,鈥� she said.
But Ms. Spellings said she was perplexed about the sudden concern in some quarters to see all groups鈥� test scores count toward school accountability.
鈥淲here was the outrage five years ago, when 23 million students were uncounted? Now we鈥檝e got them down to 1.7 [million],鈥� she said, referring to the Associated Press analysis.
Looking Ahead
The debate over the law鈥檚 future will carry over to next year, when it comes up for reauthorization in Congress, though Ms. Spellings said that timeline may not be met. The secretary said she hopes the Education Department will be seen as a resource on No Child Left Behind for lawmakers.
鈥淚 think they鈥檙e going to look to us at the department to be as smart as they can be about what鈥檚 going on,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think we have a ways to go on that.鈥�
