U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige sent the following letter to Virginia state legislators to set the record straight about the No Child Left Behind Act.

January 29, 2004

Dear Legislator:

This month marked the two-year anniversary of the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a truly historic piece of legislation, supported by a bipartisan Congress and dedicated to the absolute belief that all children can achieve to high academic standards. Much has been accomplished in this short period of time, and much remains to be done. Due to the hard work of many dedicated people throughout this country, we as a nation are committed once again to the proposition that all children should have a quality education.

Throughout this time, there has been much written and said about the No Child Left Behind Act. While I have heard of many examples of students and teachers taking advantage of new programs under the law, unfortunately there have been numerous inaccuracies reported about the law as well. Recently, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a resolution seeking for Virginia a waiver from the provisions of NCLB, citing as a reason successful increased student achievement through the Commonwealth's own standards and accountability reforms.

I am writing today to "set the record straight" on many of the components of the law, and to reaffirm the critical role which the Virginia State Board of Education played in charting the State's implementation efforts. As you will see, although the law establishes broad parameters and goals for increasing student achievement, most of the key implementation decisions on how to reach those goals were left up to State officials. The law and subsequent regulations were intentionally written that way to provide maximum flexibility to States while at the same time working toward academic achievement for all children. I hope this letter will help clarify how the United States Department of Education can continue working in partnership with the Commonwealth of Virginia to the benefit of all of Virginia's children.

I want to commend the Commonwealth for its own aggressive initiative in demanding educational excellence for your schoolchildren. Under the Standards of Learning reform program adopted in 1995, Virginia was one of the first States in the nation to set in place a bold program of accountability for its schools. By setting a target that schools must have 70% of children scoring at grade level in order to gain accreditation, you recognized that setting high expectations for your schools would lead to increases in student achievement for your students. In many ways No Child Left Behind complements this important principle of Virginia's Standards of Learning program. I am pleased to see, based on the hard work of so many students, parents, teachers, and administrators, that Virginia is well on its way to meeting this goal.

However, while the Resolution correctly notes the gains in student achievement under the Standards of Learning, there remain serious gaps in the achievement levels of certain student subgroups. This problem is not unique to Virginia; indeed, addressing this national problem is one of the principal tenets of the No Child Left Behind Act.

Helping identify and close this achievement gap is one way that NCLB can complement, and expand upon, Virginia's successes. While school accountability measures under the Standards of Learning are based on the performance of the entire student body within the school, No Child Left Behind measures not just the entire school, but different student subgroups within the school as well. By requiring that all students participate in a State's assessment and accountability system, No Child Left Behind ensures that students who in the past may have been excluded are likely to get the added attention they need to improve academically. As evidence, one can turn to the most recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which showed that Virginia's students as a whole continue to improve academically. Closer examination, however, also shows that significant performance gaps exist among various racial, ethnic, and income categories. An evaluation of the progress under the Standards of Learning shows similar trends. Furthermore, while the threshold for schools to be accredited under Virginia's Standards of Learning is 70% of students at grade level (thus implying that 3 out of every 10 Virginian students may not be at grade level), No Child Left Behind sets a goal for all children to be striving toward grade level. When a school is identified as "needing improvement" because one of its subgroups (or the school as a whole) is not performing at levels set by the Virginia State Board of Education, critical resources can then be directed to those schools -- and the students in the schools -- to increase student achievement. Finally, it is important to note that there are important safeguards built into the law and into Virginia's accountability plan to ensure that misidentifications are not made. In these ways, under the direction of the Commonwealth, students most in need of extra services will receive the attention they deserve.

Rather than, as the Resolution states, "violat(ing) the time-honored American principles of balanced federalism and respect for state and local prerogatives," No Child Left Behind pays justice to this critical principle. Virginia officials were instrumental in deciding on the manner in which many of the most important provisions were interpreted and incorporated into the Commonwealth's accountability plan. As you can see from the attached document ("Charting the Course: States Decide Major Provisions Under No Child Left Behind"), States were provided significant flexibility to decide such issues as what standards to test, how to test, and what assistance to provide to schools that struggle to reach their performance targets, in addition to the timeline for reaching the 100% proficiency goal. All States were given the opportunity to fold the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind into their existing State plans, or to establish a separate system. This flexibility was incorporated into the law because it is clear that, with over 15,000 school districts in this nation, a "one size fits all" approach would not work. Indeed, with the announcement in November of new regulations governing the assessment of special education students (something that has been required since passage five years ago of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), the U.S. Department of Education is continuing its commitment to address the practical classroom realities in implementing the law to the maximum benefit of schools, districts and students.

The assertion that "Congress has not provided sufficient funds for its mandates" is not borne out when one examines the history of federal funding since the adoption of NCLB. From the year immediately prior to passage of the law to today, Virginia has seen an increase of tens of millions of dollars annually in federal funding to implement NCLB. Indeed, under President Bush's Administration and with the support of Congress, new programs were instituted targeted at those children who are most in need of the resources. For example, last year, Virginia's schoolchildren received a six-year $110 million Reading First grant to help your youngest learners to read. This is in addition to the $40 million increase in Title I for the most disadvantaged children to a total of $182 million (a 28% increase over two years). Another $60 million increase in special education assistance was provided in the first two years (a 39% increase), with a 13.5% increase in the 2004 budget. Further, through FY 2004, Virginia will have received $24 million to support the development of new assessments associated with NCLB. This funding markedly contrasts with the unfunded federal assessment obligations that existed prior to the passage of No Child Left Behind.

This increased funding is consistent with the traditional role of the Federal Government in education -- as a supplemental resource to the financial efforts of a State. In Virginia's case, as it is throughout the country, the federal funding is additional funding to help the most disadvantaged children in Virginia attain the grade level standards incorporated in the Standards of Learning program. Of course, if any State does not choose to pursue the goals of NCLB of raising the academic performance of all children and closing the achievement gap, the State may elect not to take the money.

There is no doubt that this bipartisan legislation represents a substantial yet important change in how we as a nation look at our public education system. States and local school districts have retained and will retain the critical role in educating our children, as our forefathers envisioned. Indeed, last year the citizens of this nation, at the local, State, and federal levels, invested over $480 billion in K-12 public education, more than is spent on our national defense. That commitment is testimony to the importance we place on this endeavor. With the No Child Left Behind Act, our nation has taken an important step in moving to a time when all children, regardless of race, ethnicity, geography, or other factors, will have the opportunity and the needed assistance to learn. I look forward to working with Virginia to ensure that our mutual goal – an educated child – is attained.

Sincerely,

Rod Paige

Enclosure

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