By ERIC EARLING
Eric Earling is the deputy secretary's regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education's Regional Office in Seattle that covers Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.
The Aug. 31 Mountain Express guest column, "The 'NCLB game' is not winnable," misrepresented the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), one of the most important federal education reform efforts in our nation's history.
Thanks to NCLB, Blaine County residents now know which schools are succeeding in educating all children and which schools need extra help. They now know whether or not certain groups of students—e.g. those from minority groups or from low-income families—are receiving the quality education they deserve. That's important information that every community in Idaho deserves to have.
Keep in mind the real problem with public education in recent years has not been a lack of resources; it's been a lack of accountability. Some schools consistently turned out well-educated kids, while others turned out graduates who had trouble reading their diplomas.
So, gone are the days when the federal government handed out money without expecting to see results. NCLB says that in return for dramatically increased funding, states agree to be accountable for raising the achievement levels of all students, no matter their skin color, zip code, disability, or economic status.
Under NCLB, if a school is found in need of improvement, parents are given more options to help their children excel, such as public school choice and free tutoring. And the school is given extra help to improve. It's hard to imagine how anyone could think of public school choice and free tutoring as a punishment rather than as a benefit for kids.
Contrary to the Aug. 31 column, Idaho is receiving an unprecedented amount of funding to implement NCLB. Since it became law, Idaho has already received over $354.5 million alone in NCLB funding. President Bush's next budget also includes over $94.2 million for NCLB in Idaho, a 66 percent increase since 2001, plus an additional $52.8 million for special education, an 84 percent increase in that same time span.
The best news of all is that NCLB is working. The recently released Nation's Report Card showed significant improvement in overall student scores for the first time in decades, with 9-year-old reading and math scores at an all-time high. It also showed the smallest achievement gap in the 30-plus year history of the report between white 9-year-olds and their African American and Hispanic peers.
Not only is NCLB working on the national level, it is also working in Idaho. Idaho's recently released ISAT scores verified that NCLB is working and that students can achieve at higher standards when adults believe in them. State Board of Education President Rod Lewis noted: "More Idaho students are performing on grade level than ever before and some achievement gaps are actually narrowing."
The authors of the Aug. 31 column expressed a lot of concerns about testing students to make sure they're learning, and setting high standards, which we know children can reach. For some reason, some adults continue to set a low bar for particular children, preferring the comfortable to the challenging.
It's a shame that some adults think that NCLB isn't "winnable," as if improving education for all children is some sort of game; especially when we have increasingly strong evidence the law is working in Idaho.
NCLB is working because it provides two needed ingredients—funding and focus—to help schools improve to ensure that all students receive a quality education. While such change doesn't always come easily or quickly, it's the right thing to do.
Editor's Note: The Aug. 31 guest opinion was submitted by the following members of the board of the Parent Teacher Association of Hailey and Bellevue elementary schools: Dayle Ohlau-Graham, Kathryn Graves, Elise Bingham, Cynthia Carr and Elizabeth Schwerdtle.
