Money is needed to help the community better engage in schools, to attract and keep teachers at low-performing schools, and to help any low-income students, regardless of where they go to school, get outside tutoring.

"What we want to do is be fair to children as well as the system," said Rorrer, who says the recommendations mirror those of Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

But how to do these things will be tricky.

For instance, say special education students are allowed to take tests on their intellectual level as determined by their individual education plans, and kids learning English can take a test that shows their language acquisition instead of state-mandated tests until they become more proficient in English. The idea is to give more meaningful information on student progress.

But where do you draw the line? How do you hold schools accountable if you open the door to off-level testing, which could be used to game the system? How do you make it fair for kids, yet fairly assess whether a school is actually leaving kids behind?

The answers will not be easy to come by. But the suggestions nevertheless must be put out for discussion, said Charlene Lui, advisory committee member and director of education equality for Granite School District.

"Bottom line," she said, "I hope we're looking at what's best for individual students."

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com