Federal legislation is 'most significant ever,' McCary says

By Lynn Hotaling

During Monday's (Jan. 27) session of the Jackson County Board of Education, McCary and several administrators discussed the impacts of legislation passed some 18 months ago and titled "No Child Left Behind."

NCLB is the latest version of Title I, McCary said, and through it federal legislators have mounted a massive push for school accountability.

North Carolina, which has won national acclaim for its ABC accountability program, is in better shape than other states, the superintendent said, though NCLB uses a different measure to determine how successful schools are.

While North Carolina's system "grades" schools based on student achievement, it uses averages. Schools recognized as Schools of Distinction, for example, are schools that average 80 percent of students at or above grade level. ABCs' other component rates schools according to whether individual students achieve "expected" growth from one year to the next.

With NCLB, schools are judged based on whether a new standard - "adequate yearly progress" - is made by every group and subgroup within a school.

Individual schools must be able to demonstrate progress in "closing the gap" among students of different income and racial groups, McCary said.

"One particularly difficult thing is closing that gap between income groups," McCary said Monday.

Despite the difficulty, North Carolina was poised to address that gap even before the federal government stepped in, the superintendent said. "North Carolina had already started down that road," McCary said. "It shouldn't matter if a child is poor - that's the vision behind the legislation."

Joining the discussion were Assistant Superintendent Nancy Sherrill, Culllowhee Valley Principal Theresa Peters and Scotts Creek Assistant Principal Steve Jones, who are members of the school system's NCLB communications team.

Another impact of the federal law is its mandate that every classroom have a "highly qualified" teacher, Sherrill said. Under the new guidelines, emergency licenses, which allow teachers to be employed without full certification, will not be recognized, and teachers will not be allowed to teach outside their area of certification.

Potential compliance difficulties for Jackson County lie with the middle grade (grades 6, 7 and 8) years, Sherrill said. Because of this county's K-8 elementary schools and lack of a consolidated middle school, teachers in those grades often teach more than one subject, though they may be certified in only one of the areas taught, she said.

Teacher assistants also must be qualified, Jones said, and those who do not hold at least a two-year degree must pass an examination to continue in their positions.

Because of NCLB's emphasis on subgroups, a school could be labeled a School of Distinction under the ABCs at the same time it's termed "in need of improvement" by NCLB.

"In addition to growing all kids, we also have to be concerned with doing whatever it takes to get all subgroups (up to grade level)," McCary said.

Incentives paid to teachers and assistants under the current North Carolina accountability system will in the future be tied both to the ABC system and to NCLB, Sherrill said.

NCLB includes stiff sanctions for schools that don't make the grade, Sherrill said.

Schools have two years to get their pupils to the desired level of success, she said. If a school fails for a third year, parents of children at that school will receive a letter informing them of the school's status and be given the choice of transferring their child to another school, Sherrill said.

Should a school fail a fourth year, it remains in school improvement, students have the option of transferring and the school system must provide additional assistance, such as tutors, if parents request it, she said.

If the school fails again, it would be closed and reopened as a charter school, Sherrill said.

Sherrill also pointed to NCLB's good points, like its aim to have all children at grade level a decade from now.

"When you look at the positives and ask questions like 'What do I want for my children and grandchildren?' then you just roll up your sleeves and get to work," Sherrill said. "I hope I live until 2014 so I can see all children at grade level."

Back to Archive: 01/30/03.