OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

DeLauro Advocates for Improvements to No Child Left Behind Act

Press Release

Date: May 16, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: K-12 Education


DeLauro Advocates for Improvements to No Child Left Behind Act

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) - a long-time advocate of reforming the No Child Left Behind ACT (NCLB) - made recommendations today to the Education and Labor Committee as to reforms of the law that should be incorporated as the Committee crafts legislation to reauthorize it. While she supports the goals of NCLB, she has supported modifications that would better serve children and help them achieve success. To that end, she has introduced legislation with Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) - the No Child Left Behind Reform Act (NCLBRA) - that would make three basic changes to increase the law's flexibility.

"No Child Left Behind is not a lost cause," stated DeLauro. "Its basic principles are sound and with the right reforms, we can not only fix the law, but strengthen it. In doing so, we will ensure that through education we can make opportunity real for students."

As support for changes to NCLB, DeLauro cited the measurement results for Connecticut 's schools. In 2006, 290 out of 806 elementary and middle schools did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress - an increase of 145 from the previous year. And of the 145 schools that failed, 40 did so, not because the school was failing as a whole, but because one of the school's subgroups failed the test as required under NCLB.

"While testing is an important measure of academic achievement and progress, it should not be the only method," continued DeLauro. "As we begin to reauthorize NCLB, we need to prioritize improving the tools we have to determine accountability and giving schools credit for performing well on measures other than test scores. We need to provide our schools with the flexibility to succeed.

"That is why, in collaboration with Senator Dodd, and working closely with parents, teachers, administrators, and policy experts we have developed a number of common sense reforms through our legislation the No Child Left Behind Reform Act."

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward