Letters: No Child Left Behind, Act II

ELEVEN YEARS have passed since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 - popularly known as NCLB - was signed into law. NCLB mandates increased accountability for school performance, gives states and communities freedom in the use of Title I funding, targets federal funds to proven education programs and methods, and provides options to parents when schools do not meet standards.

Although NCLB has produced some positive effects, the bill has not produced enough improvement to reach its goal of all students meeting proficiency standards by 2014 and has numerous flaws that policymakers should address. Although talks in Congress have stalled, and national attention surrounding NCLB has taken a back seat to election season, Hurricane Sandy and the "fiscal cliff," NCLB reauthorization is sure to be an issue during the Obama administration's second term.

The bill's 11th anniversary presents an opportunity to consider what the evidence tells us about how to make NCLB more effective. Should Congress reauthorize NCLB, five potential improvements include:

1. Address lack of standards comparability across states. Currently, measures of proficiency vary from state to state, so a student deemed proficient in one state could potentially move to another state and no longer be considered proficient. One promising initiative that can help address this problem is the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which proposes a set of reading and math standards that states can adopt on a voluntary basis. All but five states have adopted these standards.

2. Capture student gains at all points on the test-score distribution. NCLB's proficient / not-proficient dichotomy has resulted in schools not receiving credit for gains made above or below the proficiency threshold. This provides an incentive for schools to focus on their "bubble kids" - students just below the threshold. Improved measures of growth should capture gains at the low end of the distribution as well as among advanced students.

3. Expand the set of outcomes we measure beyond reading and math. Student learning in other subjects - including social studies, science, art and music - is not always evaluated through achievement tests. Similarly, important, high-order skills such as problem-solving and teamwork may be underrepresented or excluded.

4. Keep the classroom in mind when designing tests. Because the content and format of achievement tests has a huge influence over how teachers run their classrooms, it is crucial that we design high-quality tests that measure the range of skills and knowledge we want students to learn.

5. Flexibility and capacity are key, particularly for struggling schools. In a tight fiscal environment, many school districts lack the capacity - and at times, the political will - to make the changes necessary for real school improvement. A structure that allows for a flexible system of interventions and fosters capacity-building can encourage states and districts to help their most struggling schools, in the most effective way, while accounting for the local context.

Re: 'Responsible gun owners: Speak out!' (Stu Bykofsky coumn, Jan. 11)

I am a member of the NRA and think at times they do go off the deep end, but there has to be a counterbalance to the radical preachings of the likes of King Bloomberg of NYC and [California Sen.] Diane Feinstein. Both are extremely hypocritical with their views. I suppose only the politically elite are entitled to body guards or to posess a carry permit, as Di-Fi has.

[Vice President Joe] Biden's remark earlier this week about he and Obama circumventing Congress with an executive order on gun control is plain scary. I must have missed the changeover from a democracy to dictatorship. On top of all this, a few pages after your column was a short article on Obama signing into law guaranteed Secret Service protection for life for himself.

I have a hard time understanding why the political elite don't think the average law-abiding citizen is responsible enough to posess a magazine that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. There are probably millions of responsible gun owners in the U.S. (as record gun sales over the last four years have proved) that have never so much as had a parking ticket. The current regime, I believe, is starting to fear its citizenry. I can very plainly see that gun violence is a major problem and the shootings in Connecticut were beyond tragedy, but attacking the right to bear arms by responsible gun owners won't solve the problem.

I am living proof that legally owning and carrying a firearm can stop a crime. I had three "gentlemen" try to surround me at a local mall one night. Fortunatly I didn't have to draw my weapon, only to reach for it to convince them that their actions could be harmful to their health. Not even a word was spoken.

Karl Hoetzel

Willow Grove