ESEA Repair Log

After more than a year of proposals, petitions, and If pounding on the door by NEA, other organizations, and state legislators, the Department of Education recently took several steps that make the Elementary and secondary Education Act more workable-for some students with disabilities, middle school teachers, and English-language learners. At press time it announced its intentions to offer more flexibility on still other rules-those involving attendance requirements and rural teachers. It's all a start, but much more needs to be done to fix and fund the law so that its focus will no longer be on measuring and imposing sanctions based just on two test scores. The successes so far:

ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Up to one percent of students can now be evaluated according to "alternative standards." That means students with significant cognitive disabilities who cannot compete with most of their age-mates in reading and math can be assessed according to standards designed for them. This will affect roughly 1 out of 11 special edu- cation students, says NEA staffer Patti Ralabate, who was in the thick of the massive lobbying campaign that brought about this change. She says the new rule will help although it's not enough.

Other special education students must still meet the state's academic standards for their grade level, but they may qualify for accommodations in the way they are assessed.

"Many states don't have the variety of ways to assess students that kids with disabilities need in order to show what they really know/' says Ralabate. "That's our next push."

COUNTING ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS States no longer have to drop English-Language learners (ELL) from their subgroup when they become proficient in English. These students' scores can count toward AYP for two years after they achieve proficiency. Previously, these students triggered a catch-22 provision in the regulations: Once they became proficient, they were eliminated from the group, so the group could never meet yearly proficiency targets. In addition, states can now exempt immigrant students in the United States for less than a year from the reading test, though they still must take the math test.

HIGHLY QUALIFIED MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS

States can designate middle school grades or specific subjects as elementary level for the purposes of the highly qualified teacher provision of the law. That way, a middle school teacher explaining the fine points of fractions and decimals won't have to pass a test designed for high school calculus teachers.

HIGHLY QUALIFIED HIGH SCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS

Special education teachers who co-teach with academic subject teachers or who provide consultation to them need not have degrees in each subject area. That will help many teachers, but not those who work in self-contained special education classes.