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Schools Chief Blasts Bush Education Law

By Matthew Artz
Tuesday November 18, 2003

Berkeley Schools Superintendent Michele Lawrence doesn’t pull punches when expressing her disdain for President George W. Bush’s landmark No Child Left Behind law. 

“We’re robbing underachieving kids of their social capital,” she told audience members gathered in Lafayette Saturday for State Assemblymember Loni Hancock’s community forum on the 2002 law that requires rigorous standardized testing of students and harsh punishments for schools and districts that fail to achieve federally mandated goals. 

Lawrence blasted the law on multiple fronts, charging that the legislation places bureaucratic burdens on districts without providing the increased funds to pay for extra paperwork, forwards a right-wing political agenda aimed at undermining public education, and limits instruction in art, music and athletics in favor of a narrow focus on subjects that appear on tests. 

Berkeley has vowed to maintain a balanced curriculum despite the all-important tests that focus nearly exclusively on math and reading—but in separate interviews Berkeley administrators, principals and teachers said that, for better or worse, high stakes test preparation has crept into classroom instruction. 

“There’s no question that math and reading take precedent over other subjects, partly because of the tests and partly because they require more academic time for developing skills,” said Jennifer Adcock, a fifth grade teacher at Malcolm X Elementary. 

No Child Left Behind requires reading and math testing for all students in grades 3-8, with science to be added in 2006, and additional tests for high school students up to grade 11. 

Not only must schools demonstrate “adequate yearly progress” (AYP), but each ethnic and socioeconomic group—including English Language Learners and special education students—must likewise meet the standards. Ninety-five percent of each group must be tested and if any one group fails to make AYP, the school as a whole fails.  

While the requirements apply to all schools, punishments for failing only apply to schools that receive federal Title I funds for the instruction of disadvantaged students, which accounts for the majority of Berkeley elementary and middle schools, but not the high school. 

High school teacher Bill Pratt said No Child Left Behind wasn’t a big issue among his colleagues, but Washington Elementary school principal Rita Kimball said the law had “become a part of our lives.” 

She has required teachers to post curriculum standards in classrooms and collaborate on lesson plans to identify which standards will be taught with the accompanying lessons.  

Kimball credited standards-based testing with helping Berkeley rein in renegade teachers, establish stronger curriculum and help schools measure their progress, but said the federal requirements were catching a lot of improving schools in the government’s web. 

Despite gains since California first started testing in 1999, the failure of poorer students at Washington to achieve proficiency coupled with the failure to hit the 95 percent testing quota landed the school in the early stages of program improvement, which, she said, damaged morale. 

“It doesn’t feel good to know some parents might not choose your school because it’s in program improvement.” 

The poster child for No Child Left Behind in Berkeley is Rosa Parks Elementary, which despite some years of strong test score gains, finds itself in Stage Three of program improvement, potentially just two years away from a mandated overhaul. 

To help students pass the tests, the district has pledged additional development opportunities for Rosa Parks staff which will come at the district’s expense. 

That angers Lawrence, who has had to devote dollars and administrative staff time to administering the arsenal of tests as well as sorting through paperwork from overlapping federal and state testing laws.  

Hancock said that during the last legislative session she authored a bill that would have reduced some state testing requirements to ease the burden on school districts, but was told that even though it passed both houses, Gov. Gray Davis planned a veto. 

Lawrence fears the district will take another financial hit next year when all teachers must meet federal qualification standards that require a teacher to have majored in his or her subject or pass a competency exam—meaning that a history major may have to pass a test to teach English. 

Because some teachers, especially middle school teachers who often have multiple subject credentials, don’t always teach subjects aligned to their college majors, Lawrence said that the district might have to pay for additional training or competency exams. 

Lawrence also worries that the law’s unstated goal is to “see public education fall by the wayside.” In providing federally mandated after-school tutoring for struggling Rosa Parks students, the district had to offer students a choice of various private services—all paid for by public Title I money that Lawrence said should be spent in the classroom. 

“There’s a cottage industry cropping up now that’s tapping public school money,” she said. 

Aside from benefiting educational corporations, she feared No Child Left Behind advanced conservative social causes, noting it requires Berkeley to provide student names to military recruiters and certify that it will not interfere with a child’s right to pray on school grounds. 

Elisabeth Woody, a researcher at UC Berkeley-funded Policy Analysis for California Education, said she didn’t think the law had “evil intent,” but said her yet-to-be published study of state elementary schools found that despite forcing districts to focus on educational equity and higher curriculum standards, No Child Left Behind was too confusing and tended to squeeze out instruction for subjects that weren’t tested such as social studies. 

Cragmont Elementary School Principal Jason Lustig credited Berkeley for preserving enrichment programs and selecting less restrictive curriculum options from the state.  

“Berkeley is being pushed to state standards but is doing so in a progressive way,” he said, adding that teachers were still feeling increased pressure and some “are very disturbed by it for sure.” 

Adcock said high stakes testing has left her feeling more monitored, but that hasn’t soured her on the profession and she doesn’t even list it has her biggest concern. “There are 32 students in my class. That’s what kicks your butt.”