NEA Hails NCLB Fairness Act

Kennedy-Miller Bill Allows Reexamination
of School Ratings Based on New Guidelines

NEA hailed a new legislative proposal that would increase the fairness and accuracy of assessments of public schools' progress toward meeting student achievement benchmarks established by the federal so-called "No Child Left Behind" education law.

The No Child Left Behind Fairness Act of 2004 by U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) would, in effect, make  recent changes in U.S. Department of Education regulations and guidelines retroactive.

U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige has announced several revisions over the past several months that provide greater flexibility to schools for measuring whether or not they have made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as required by NCLB in educating certain children with disabilities and children with limited English proficiency.

The NCLB Fairness Act will allow schools to request a review of their AYP determination for the 2002-2003 school year based on the Dept. of Education's revised regulations and guidelines. This would mean that a school's progress would be measured by the same criteria last year and this year.

This is critically important to schools because successive years of failure to meet any of the AYP benchmarks results in harsher and more expensive sanctions and remedies.

In a statement praising the proposed legislation, NEA President Reg Weaver said, "The changes proposed by Senator Kennedy and Representative Miller represent a common sense and fair approach. NEA will continue to push for further changes -- and resources for methods and practices that work -- in order to make sure every child has what he or she needs to be successful."

For more information about the NCLB Fairness Act of 2004, read this summary or the entire bill (PDF, 58 KB, 7 pages). The news release issued by the offices of Sen. Kennedy and Rep. George Miller also is available here.

06/04