My attempt to have my local represenitives vote down NCLB.

1. Recommendations For The Reauthorization Of No Child Left Behind
Prepared for
Bob Ingles
Congressional Representative for South Carolina
Prepared by
James Hanson
October 14, 2007

2. Memorandum
Date: September 26, 2007
To: Senator Bob Ingles
From: James Hanson
Subject: Recommendations for Reauthorization Of No Child Left Behind
This is a report that addresses the areas of concentration that South Carolina and
Greenville County will use to persuade Representative Ingles and the United States
Congress in their reauthorization of No Child Left Behind.
As stated by many educators the NCLB act that was signed into law in January 2002 by
the Bush Administration is in desperate need of repair. Although in theory the law
sounds like the answer to every schools education woes, it has been a feeble attempt to
improve student achievement.
Taking a look at many comments and statistics about the law will show that the
reauthorization that is scheduled in September 2007 is well overdue. Below is a list of
recommendations strongly being suggested to Congress on this matter.
The State should possess the power to evaluate students on more than one test score.
The average size of a class should be reduced.
The State should increase the number of highly qualified teachers.
The State should have the ability to terminate any teacher that does not meet the
standards set by the State Board of Education.
The recommendations come from many sources that will be highlighted throughout this report.
The persuasive arguments being sent to Rep. Ingles will hopefully help this law to either
be revamped entirely or eliminated.
It is an honor to work on a report that has such an impact on the education of South Carolina
children. Hopefully, the work accomplished here will help in the overall outcome
reached by the United States Congress on this vital reauthorization.

3. I
Contents
Executive Summary III
Explanation of No Child Left Behind III
Introduction IV
Effects the law has on schools V
All students must pass standardized test.
Funding for law.
Overcrowding of classrooms.
Unqualified teachers
Teaching for test only
Recommendations for reauthorization by the state. V
Use more than test scores to measure student performance.
Smaller class sizes.
Make exemptions for Special Ed. students.
Increase number of highly qualified teachers.
Local school district's resolution. VII
Lack of funding
Deterioration of local control
Unrealistic accountability
Conclusion VIII
Works Citied IX

4. II
Executive Summary
This report examines the No Child Left Behind Education Reform Act that became a
law in 2002. It will discuss the effect that the law has had on the State's education and
the recommendations being offered by both the State and Greenville County Board of
Education.
Explanation of the No Child Left Behind Law
Brought forth by the Bush Administration, the NCLB act was presented to Congress as
an aggressive way to tie federal funding of schools to the academic achievement of their
student body. The influential arguments presenting this act enable it to become a law in
January 2002.
In theory the law presents a great idea. It only seems logical to hold educators
accountable for the academic success of students. However, the law creates a host of
problems bringing havoc and confusion into the entire process.
Problems with No Child Left Behind
The NCLB has been a nightmare for the state and local school systems. The federal
funding linked to the test scores has caused teachers and administrators to focus all
their efforts on their schools ability to pass the standardized test required by the federal
government. The NCLB requires that every student demonstrates proficiency on a state
test by 2013-14. If not the schools will be designated as failing. Along with the
previously mentioned problems the law was also passed without adequate funding.
These problems associated with NCLB have snowballed into many more problems
stemming from the increased pressure to maintain high test scores.
Recommendations for Reauthorization
The State and Greenville Country School Boards would like the opportunity to use
several different measures of student achievement. They would also like the ability to
limit class size, offer higher salaries to attack quality teachers, and restructure the
federal funding of schools. The State would also like to make early childhood education
for 4 year olds mandatory.

5. III
Introduction
Originally titled the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, now re-titled the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 set a goal that all children should score proficient on
standardized test by 2013-2014. The primary focus of the act was to create creditable
goals, superior principles and responsibility for the education of children.
Persuaded into law by the Bush Administration in January 2002, the new established
NCLB law introduced American students and educators to new way of measuring
performance in the classroom. Deemed as the ultimate measure of academic progress
each state was given the opportunity to create it’s own standardized test. These test
allowed each state to gauge the success of the school on the overall score achieved on
this test. This created an atmosphere that caused educators to focus all efforts on their
student's abilities to pass the standardized test.
Educators knew that failure would be dramatically tied to the school's federal funding.
Stated in the law, it outlines the disciplinary action schools face if they do not meet the
laws strict guidelines. This forced school administrators to insist that their teachers teach
students to pass the test.
This is the primary focus of this report. Along with discussing the consequences coming
from teaching for the test, the report will tell of many other problem are caused by
NCLB and the many recommendations coming from both The Greenville County and
South Carolina Boards of Education.

6. IV
Effects the Law Has On Schools
The law currently requires that each student pass a state approved standardized
achievement test. This test is given at the end of each school years. The children are
coached and prepared by their teachers for this all important exam. Because of
legislation requirements set into place by the law, federal funding for the school rest
directly on the overall outcome of the testing; other than the score on the yearly PACT
exam, schools are also judged on their graduation rate, and percentage of students
available to take the exam. Furthermore, high priority is placed on English and
mathematics and less on social studies, science, etc.
Classroom size has also become a hindrance. Overcrowding places a large burden on
educators. Giving individual attention to students has become a thing of the past. NCLB
in theory ask that schools be held accountable for the education of students. The law
creates a lot of problems for school administrators, because of the increase in classroom
size, teaching for the PACT exam, and federal funding linked to exam outcome, teachers
that are highly qualified do not want to deal with all the hassles. They are leaving the
profession for more fulfilling careers.
Recommendations for Reauthorization by the State (South
Carolina)
The recent evaluations that are based on the PACT exam tend to lead to muggy results.
South Carolina is pushing heavily to restructure the test.
The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC
COLUMBIA- Increasing teacher’s salaries, giving additional incentives to
teachers who teach in high-poverty schools, altering the state’s school funding
formula and changing standardized testing are a few of the recommendations of
State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. Rex and former state Rep. Ronny
Townsend, who led the accountability committee, agreed that PACT is in
desperate need of modification. The assessment tests dominate the time of
teachers and students, yet results don’t provide details on how a student can
improve and aren’t released until several months after the test is taken. The
federal No Child Left Behind law is up for reauthorization this year, making it an
ideal time to consider devising new tests. (Together we can)
Many of the issued discussed above are the reasons for South Carolina children
receiving a less than satisfactory education.

7. V
The State feels that the overcrowding of classrooms is one of the most troublesome
areas. The overcrowding is a result of under funding of schools; it is a fact that without
money to offer competitive salaries, college graduates shy away from the teaching
profession.
The PACT exam is an all inclusive test that allows for no exceptions. South Carolina
like other states feel that this is extremely unfair. They purpose that new guidelines be
established for testing. In these guidelines there is a need for realignment. United States
Senator Russ Feingold elaborates his own opinions in this article from the National
Education Association website.
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has introduced the Improving Student Testing Act of
2007, a bill that will make changes to the No Child Left Behind Act to improve
the quality of education assessments used in our schools and support innovation
state and local school reform efforts. The legislation is fully paid for through
offsets.
Feingold’s legislation contains the following provisions:
Reforming NCLB’s Focus on High Stakes Testing- Encourages states and local
districts to move away from using high stakes standardizing testing as the primary
measurement of academic achievement in school accountability decisions. The
bill provides competitive grant funds for states and local districts encouraging the
creation of high-quality, authentic measurement of student performance. The
legislation also provides states and local districts with flexibility to use high-
quality multiple measures of assessment in state testing and accountability
systems.
Reforming Testing Mandates- Promotes state and local control over decisions
affecting children’s day –to-day classroom experiences, including the frequency
and use of high stakes standardized testing. The bill reforms the federal testing
mandate to allow annual assessment at least once in grades 3-5,6-9, and 10-12,
instead of the current requirements for annual testing in grades 3-8 and once in
high school.
Revising the One-Size-Fits-All Adequate Yearly Progress Model- Provides
flexibility for states to develop alternative accountability models. One example of
such models include growth models, which allow schools to better ensure that
each student, regardless of his or her current academic level, continues to make
academic progress.
Addressing the 2014 Deadline- Reforms the 2014 deadline by putting in place a
funding trigger that waives the 2014 deadline for any year that Congress does not
fully fund Title I, Part A.

8. VI
Improving the Department of Education’s Peer Review Process- Makes
changes to the Department’s peer review process to ensure that states have the
ability to interact directly with peer review teams. The bill also encourages more
consistent decision-making from state to state during the federal peer review
process of state testing and accountability systems.
Disaggregating Graduation Rates- Requires states to disaggregate graduation
rates by NLCB’s student subgroups, including economically disadvantaged
students, students from major racial and ethnic groups, student with disabilities,
and students with limited English proficiency.
Encouraging Capacity Building- Creates a competitive and flexible grant
program to provide funds for state and local districts to help build their
infrastructure and capacity. Increased access to federal funding for capacity
building will help encourage states to develop better assessment and
accountability systems including using multiple measures of assessments and
growth models.
Improving Privacy Protections- Includes important measure to help ensure the
privacy of personal information contained in state education data systems.
(Feingold)
Local School District Resolution
When contacting the Greenville County Board of Education for their opinion of NLCB,
they sent me a copy of the following letter sent to the state congressmen.
Whereas, The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110) was
passed by the United States Congress and signed into law on January 8, 2020, and
Whereas, the members of the Board of Trustees of Greenville County Schools
support the goals of the Act including improving accountability in public schools,
offering parents more educational options for their children, and closing the
achievement gap between minority and white students, and
Whereas, the members of the Board of Trustees of Greenville County Schools
however, have serious concerns regarding the No Child Left Behind Act’s
effectiveness, fairness and accuracy in reporting significant data, and

9. VII
Whereas, Congress has already begun consideration of major revisions to the Act,
which is up for possible reauthorization in 2007, and
Whereas, school districts and states across the nation share these concerns with
leaders such as Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (R) signing a measure into state
law, which allows the state's
district's to ignore the provisions of the law that conflict with Utah's state
programs, and
Whereas, concerns regarding the Act include: the failure of Congress to fully fund
the Act; the inequitable standards and testing programs across the nation which
produce misleading state reports and unduly penalize states with high standards
such as South Carolina, the deterioration of local control in making educational
policy, the excessive negative impact on Title I schools, the lack of funding to
meet increasing infrastructure and resources requirements, and the unrealistic
accountability benchmarks which provide no provisions for reasonable student
academic growth and inaccurately portray student achievement within schools and
districts;
Therefore, be it resolved that the members of the Board of Trustees of Greenville
County Schools strongly urge the members of Congress, specifically Senator
Lindsey O. Graham, Senator James W. DeMint, Representative Henry E. Brown,
Jr., Representative Joe Wilson, Representative J. Gresham Barrett, Representative
Robert D. Ingles, Representative John M. Spratt, Jr. and Representative James E.
Clyburn to support the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
(Public Law 107-110) if provisions are included therein which address all of the
concerns above while protecting the lofty goals of the bill and endorsing
accountability and reporting method which are accurate, reasonable and fair.
(Greenville County Schools Board of Trustees)
Conclusion
In summary, as discussed in this report NCLB has been an extremely controversial law,
In practice NCLB should have been able to help education. It ask that everyone
involved in the education of children be held accountable. Because of poor execution
and under funding, the wonderful idea of this law reeked havoc on educators and school
systems. This report helps outline the many proposals being offered by both South
Carolina and the Greenville County Boards of Education in hope that it may help in the
reauthorization of NCLB.

10. VIII
Works Citied
Feingold, U.S. Senator Russ. quot;Improving Student Testing Act of 2007(S. 2053)quot;.
October 2,
2007. http://www.nea.org/lac/esea/studentstest:ng.html.
Greenville County Schools Board of Trustees. quot;Resolutionquot;. E-mailed to State of South
Carolina Congressmen. 8 January 2002.
quot;Together we canquot;. South Carolina Dept of Education. February 13,2007.
http://www.ed.sc.gov/news/related/more.cfm?newsID=735relatedId=8

11. IX