The 'No Child' conundrum

The federal No Children Left Behind law evokes mixed feelings. On the one hand, it is a bureaucratic intrusion from Washington into public education — a government function that always has belonged on the local level. And yet, on the other hand, it's difficult to argue that schools in Utah would be taking improvements as seriously without it.

The state's school leaders announced this week that, upon further review, four of the 14 schools initially listed as needing improvement under the law had indeed achieved desired levels of performance. Two schools, Doxey Elementary in the Davis School District and Lewis Elementary in Ogden, have now gone two years meeting what the law describes as adequate yearly progress.

If schools receiving federal Title I funds fail to reach adequate yearly progress two years in a row, they face sanctions that may include giving parents the option to transfer their children to better schools or, in some cases, a takeover of the school by state education officials.

Prior to the No Child Left Behind law, Utah had made various attempts to require tests that measured how well students were being taught, but there was no serious effort to apply any penalties for failing to meet standards. Without meaningful sanctions, no form of accountability will be taken seriously.

The law provides this much-needed element, which has forced real progress in many schools. It also has brought much-needed attention to the gulf in achievement between white students and minorities in Utah.

The best situation, however, would have been for Utah to impose standards and penalties on its own. The law is an unprecedented move toward centralized, federal control over education, and it has come without much federal funding to cover its requirements. That it would come from a Republican Congress and administration is particularly curious considering that party's traditional disdain for federal incursions into education.

Centralized solutions to local problems generally don't work. In this case, the law also usurps the powers of local school boards and the Legislature. But there is no denying that it is forcing a sense of urgency in schools that need to improve.