"No School Board Left Standing"

When Howard Dean was running for President in 2003, he used this phrase to describe No Child Left Behind. It's double-speak for legislation that will undermine a public service that can only be "fixed" by contracting the service to a private company.

The intent behind the law - holding schools accountable and measuring student progress - is admirable and we've been doing it for decades. Remember the IOWA test? However, what happens to a school and its district if it doesn't meet the ever-rising criteria of "proficient," is basically "do a better job or else!" Instead of rewarding schools that improve year to year, they are threatened with "sanctions." Nurturing parents have long known that you get more flies with sugar than with vinegar; NCLB needs to be rewritten to include positive reinforcement techniques.

NCLB has been law since 2002 and Hamden is finally feeling the impact of this incredibly unfair and destructive law.

Here's the good news: since September 24, 2007, Hamden’s new Superintendent of Schools, Fran Rabinowitz, has been to every school, some more than once. At the October PTA Council meeting (October 11) she reported how impressed she was with the excellent teaching and administration in our schools. There is always room for improvement, but she reassured all present that we are not, as a district, or even as individual schools, “failing.” Hamden parents and teachers should not panic because Helen Street, Dunbar Hill and Spring Glen have been identified as “not making Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)” under the No Child Left Behind law (NCLB).

Here's the bad news: NCLB stipulates that if one subgroup in a school (black, Hispanic, white, disabled, English-as-a second-language or free/reduced lunch) is found to not meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) benchmarks for two years, then the school is put on the “in need of improvement” list.

The graduated “sanctions” outlined in NCLB (busing the poorest and lowest performing students to “better” schools, a.k.a. Open Choice, tutoring students after school but not allowing the school’s teachers to do the tutoring, replacing teachers and finally, restructuring the whole school administration) are the opposite of what needs to be done to help children improve.

Unfortunately Hamden Public Schools have no choice but to comply or lose all of their Federal funding – two million dollars plus – to our district. Superintendent Rabinowitz and her staff will be giving great thought and analysis to where Open Choice students should go. Options will be based upon space available at designated schools. In addition, Superintendent Rabinowitz has offered to speak to any individual or group on the topic of NCLB and it’s implications to our school system. (Please contact her office to schedule a visit at 407-2090).

So what’s to be done?

Since 1985 Connecticut educators and superintendents have asked our State Department of Education to institute a “growth model” to chart student progress and teacher effectiveness. A growth model compares fourth graders to fifth graders, rather than this year’s fourth graders to last year’s fourth graders.

It is unlikely that anything about NCLB will change prior to the election of a new President, so here’s what we can do in the meantime:

1. Contact your state and Federal legislators and ask them to adopt a growth model that will accurately and fairly measure our students’ and schools’ true Adequate Yearly Progress and

2. Stay calm and give your children and their teachers as much support as you can. Visit www.pta.org for some great ideas.