Meeting No Child mandate worries lawmakers at forum

By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

Hawai'i and Mainland lawmakers yesterday shared their concerns and challenges involving the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

At a Council of State Governments-West education forum, Senate Education Committee Chairman Norman Sakamoto described to Mainland legislators Hawai'i's challenges to meet the requirements of the federal law, in addition to following a federal court order to improve services for special needs students.

"It's almost like saying on a four-lane highway we want everybody to go as fast as the carpool lane," said Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake). "Our problem is how do you devote time to the disabled under our consent decree, how do you devote time to the various subgroups, what happens to the middle of the road people who then get put on the side because we're trying to address all these concerns ..."

Yesterday's forum was among the last discussions that wrapped up the Council of State Governments-West annual meeting, which began Tuesday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Thirteen western states participated in the conference.

No Child Left Behind requires steady improvement of reading and math test scores until all students have reached proficiency by 2014. Additionally, every demographic and racial group at each school also must show progress in both subjects or the entire school will fail to meet the federal requirements.

The law forces schools that have failed to meet standards for two years in a row to let students transfer to better public schools within the district. Schools that fail for three consecutive years become labeled as "corrective action" and also must pay for extra academic help, such as tutoring.

States consider the No Child Left Behind Act a mandate not supported by federal money, although federal officials said federal education spending is enough for states to meet the law's minimum requirements.

Dewayne Matthews of the Education Commission of the States said states will incur two types of costs from No Child Left Behind. The first, which are paid for by the federal law, are direct costs that include state assessments and data collection, he said.

But there are also indirect costs, such as teacher salaries and smaller class sizes, said Matthews, senior adviser to ECS President Ted Sanders.

"The question basically becomes, what kind of teacher is it going to take to be able to reach these very high levels of performance in every school?" he said. "What kind of school is that going to take, and are there costs associated with that and who's going to pay for that? That's a big unanswered question ..."

Montana Sen. Bea McCarthy, who taught first grade for 32 years, said standardized testing may be effective in large classes, but that it could present problems in rural schools with a small number of students because one or two students could significantly change the result.

McCarthy also said the sanctions regarding student transfers would also be problematic for rural schools, which are geographically isolated from other schools. Delaying such actions and granting waivers for certain schools would be solutions, she said.

Other lawmakers said some children may not understand the significance of the tests they take as it relates to No Child Left Behind, which could result in inaccurate assessments.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.