Educators to Obama: No Child Left Behind needs fixing

BENTON COUNTY - When Barack Obama becomes the country’s 44th president, most eyes will be on what he does to help repair the economy, but there are countless other issues that will fall to his shoulders - including education.

Local school officials agree there should be some tweaking to the federal education law No Child Left Behind. Some would like to see more of an overhaul than just some minor changes. While many other school officials seem to agree with the spirit of NCLB - making sure that all children are given a chance to learn - most are upset with both the law’s extensiveness and its so-called punitive nature.

“We’re all interested in (Obama’s) new secretary of education,” said Ken Ramey, superintendent for the Siloam Springs School District. “What will the focus be on (NCLB)? Will it be changed or amended?”

Ramey said the punitive nature of No Child Left Behind, which creates high-stakes penalties for school districts that don’t have performance numbers that are up to snuff, is a big concern for the district. The concerns are especially for two subpopulations - special-education students and students who qualify for English as a Second Language services. Ramey said he hopes for more funding to help both of those groups, and for revisions to the rules regarding the subpopulations.

Whatever the changes that come about, Ramey said it will be interesting to see.

“A different administration gives you a different focus, new priorities,” he said. “He’s going to have to attack a lot of areas in a lot of different ways.”

Randy Barrett, superintendent for the Gentry School District, also said he hopes to see a restructuring of NCLB, as well as more federal money that would be made available to public school districts. He also hopes Obama carries through with helping public schools implement pre-kindergarten programs, Barrett said.

“I hope, in general, that (Obama) will be able to affect changes in the national economy, and I hope his plans for creating more jobs are successful,” Barrett said. “I hope that during his tenure, economic growth returns to northwest Arkansas and Gentry.”

Mark Sparks, deputy superintendent for the Rogers School District, agreed that he would like to see more resources funneled to schools to help the subpopulations that are targeted by No Child Left Behind.

“They are struggling to meet those academic goals,” he said.

Sparks said it will also be important to give the districts more latitude in how they use those resources, because it is the local educators who will have a better idea of how to help individual students.

“We need to leave (those decisions) more to the classroom teacher,” he said. “They know how to best use resources to get kids where they need to go.”

Sparks also addressed some of the punitive aspects of the federal education law, saying that while the school districts like the idea of accountability, the punitive measures are not helpful.

Bentonville School District Superintendent Gary Compton has strong feelings regarding the changes that need to happen to No Child Left Behind. He agrees that both ESL and special-education students are unfairly handled under the law.

Compton would like to see ESL students given more time to prepare for testing. Currently, they are tested within a year of joining the district, which means many children are being required to take a test in a language they are still learning.

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