Changes sought in No Child Left Behind

Utah is among 46 states asking the U.S. Department of Education to change the way schools must deal with No Child Left Behind.

The feds have already shot down two proposals that Utah officials say would have helped high-poverty schools.

"We knew the two proposals they turned us down on were long shots, but to us they make good sense," said state testing director Louise Moulding. "That's a little frustrating they said out of hand, 'No, we won't consider those,' but we're happy they're considering others, because we thought they, too, were long shots."

The State Office of Education wants only kids scoring low on standardized reading and math tests to get required extra help and have the option to transfer to a higher-achieving school at district expense, Moulding said.

But the feds say the state has to give help to poor kids first, even if they're not the ones who are failing, and offer school choice to everyone in high-poverty schools receiving Title I federal funds.

The state office also wants to say a Title I school needs improvement only if the same group of kids, such as Caucasians or special education students, failed the same subject twice in a row, Moulding said. But the feds want to stick with the current practice, which notes only the test was failed, not who did it.

The rest of Utah's request is pending. And the U.S. Department of Education says it has handed down no decisions on state requests to alter NCLB plans.

Moulding presented the information to state lawmakers on the Education Interim Committee last week. Legislators are studying No Child Left Behind after threatening earlier this year to pull out of the $106 million program, which several said usurped state rights.

NCLB aims to have all children, regardless of race, income or disability, do well in reading and math by 2014. States draft their own achievement plans. But no matter what, low-income schools receiving federal Title I money whose test scores don't improve for two consecutive years face annual sanctions.

Last fall, Utah schools got their first taste of the program. About one-third were shown not to be meeting NCLB achievement goals, as determined by "adequate yearly progress." AYP accounts for test score improvements and attendance rates, and requires that 95 percent of students participate. If one group fails to hit the mark, the whole school fails to make AYP.

About 10 percent of Utah schools failed to make AYP because of participation — a common problem nationwide. The U.S. Department of Education has changed some rules in response. For instance, now schools can average their participation over two or three years.