Utah education leaders speculate on No Child Left Behind

SALT LAKE CITY — While President Barack Obama is launching action to revamp the federal mandate No Child Left Behind, Utah education leaders are speculating on the outcome — and its connection to the Race to the Top program.

A $4.35 billion grant is being split between qualified states as an incentive to reform education in the federal Race to the Top program.

"What we're seeing is Race to the Top will start to take the place of NCLB. They will be meshed together," said JoDee Sundberg, second vice president of the Utah School Boards Association.

Sundberg, who is also a member of Alpine School District's board, said district officials are seeing, as they fill out their Race to the Top applications, that these guidelines are what districts are already doing for NCLB.

Sundberg said Race to the Top outlines how NCLB can work. "It's the 'how' to No Child Left Behind," she said. "And many of the districts are already doing it."

Utah's Race to the Top goals are based on the state school board's "Promises to Keep" mission implemented last year. It ensures students learn math and reading and receive high quality instruction, that the state has a relevant curriculum with high standards, and requires tests that result in accountability and high quality instruction.

NCLB aims for schools to ensure all students are succeeding — regardless of ethnicity, English skills, income or disability — and are proficient in language arts and math by 2014.

Utah Education Association spokesman Mike Kelley said his organization agrees with the goal of NCLB but says the law isn't working in its current form. "Ultimately, under the current No Child Left Behind legislation, almost all schools will fail," Kelley said. "It's the way it's set up. It's inevitable."

In Utah, NCLB data is based on the Criterion-Referenced Test, which students take each spring. Based on the test scores, adequate Yearly Progress reports label each school with a passing grade only if the school succeeds in 40 categories, including attendance. If the school misses one category, it is labeled "failing."