Keep focus on kids, ed panel says

WEST VALLEY — If there's a way to improve the federal No Child Left Behind Law, this would be it: Keep kids the focus.

That's the basis of recommendations made public Thursday by Rep. Chris Cannon , R-Utah, and his Education Advisory Committee, headed by Andrea Rorrer, director of the Utah Education Policy Center at the University of Utah.

"What we're doing is impeding the ability to test and understand what testing means for individual students," Cannon said. "We don't want No Child Left Behind to get in the way of progress."

The recommendations, rolled out at Monroe Elementary, a nationally recognized Title I school, are more principles than plans. Yet it's the details on how to change No Child Left Behind that are sure to get sticky.

The law requires all children, regardless of race, income or disability, to be able to read and do math well by 2014. Schools must report their progress toward that goal every year. Those receiving special Title I money because they are in high-poverty areas face sanctions if they repeatedly miss the mark.

Utah has fought the law as too one-size-fits all and an affront to states' rights to govern schools. Legislators here twice considered opting out of the law, and the $109 million it brings largely to help low-income and disadvantaged children.

With the law up for reauthorization, Congress is looking at ways to fix it.

Cannon empaneled business and civic leaders, public and private school bosses, PTA members and community representatives to recommend ways to improve the federal education law. The group has been meeting since March. While Cannon is not on the committee examining law's reauthorization, he plans to forward recommendations to Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who is.

The group suggests giving states some flexibility in how they hold schools accountable for student achievement. Maybe schools could require other yardsticks of school quality, such as school climate, or use other test subjects, like fine arts. Maybe they could hold schools accountable for how far students have come, not just how high they score.

Test scores need to come back faster — not so late that the school year has started and parents don't have options to transfer children to higher-performing schools, the group suggests. Maybe parents should get information about, and money for, tutors available to them under the law.

States should be able to define what highly qualified teachers are, rather than following a single model that has left some teachers scrambling for additional schooling some say they don't really need.