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News Clips September 24 – October 1, 2004 Funding plan worries school leaders/Register
Star Funding plan
worries school leaders Aaron Chambers, Register Star, "We have got to have more flexibility from the state in how we
carry out programs," Rockford Superintendent Dennis Thompson said.
But school officials around "The one that's not there is obviously, 'Are we going to have
any funding reforms?' " said Richard Fairgrieves, regional superintendent
for Winnebago and Boone counties. "Is the state board going to
support that, or is the governor going to support anything in terms
of funding the public schools in The school funding remedy most often promoted in Blagojevich has stated opposition to such tax increases. The Chicago
Democrat and the General Assembly increased state spending on education
by $800 million over two years, but many local school officials say
such incremental increases are insufficient to cover their rising costs.
They note that 74 percent of school districts in Last Monday, Blagojevich's appointees to the State Board of Education
-- seven of the nine members -- started work. They quickly appointed
Dunn, the governor's choice, to replace Robert Schiller as state superintendent.
Over the past week, Dunn spoke at length about how he hopes to expedite
certification of teachers. He said staff members are investigating how
to cure a backlog of 7,000 cases and that, in the long term, he'd like
to overhaul the certification process. Hononegah Superintendent Ralph Marshall said the holdup can directly
affect schools. "There are some teachers from out of state who have many years
of experience and have been recognized as high-quality teachers that,
because of the backup in The governor also charged Dunn and the board with cutting rules and
regulations covering local schools, as well as jump-starting a statewide
procurement program intended to save school districts money when they
buy supplies. But on school funding, Dunn reiterated the governor's opposition to
a tax increase. He said the education system must show that it's truly
efficient before asking taxpayers for more money -- logic often cited
by Blagojevich's political allies. Local officials are concerned about the long-term implications of that
approach. "That's one of those things that I believe this governor has avoided,"
said Don Schlomann, On the other hand, Thompson said local school districts must first
tighten their belts and that the state should help with that. Bush's No Child
Left Behind Education Plan Gets Failing Grades Bloomberg.com Michael McGill climbs the terrazzo steps to a balcony above the newest
wing of The freshly tiled walls are lined with awards won by high achievers
in the 4,569-student school district in With all of its honors and accomplishments, Scarsdale Middle School
is failing to comply with President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind
law, which Bush, 58, describes as ``the cornerstone of my administration.''
One-third of the 90,000 In high-achieving Scarsdale, where home prices range from $600,000
to more than $6 million, the middle school failed to meet the New York
State Education Department's criteria under the 2002 law because 85
percent of the eighth-graders took the state's math and English exams
instead of the required 95 percent participation rate. Boycotting Tests Fifteen percent of the students intentionally didn't take the tests
because of a boycott organized by parents who believe excessive standardized
testing stymies learning and limits creativity. No Child Left Behind is the most comprehensive national education legislation
since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which authorized
grants to schools with a high proportion of low-income students. The Bush law, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, 60, a four- term Now, many of those who supported the law say it amounts to government
demands without the money necessary to carry them out. Disagreement on Cost Funding has become a source of contention. The president says he's
increased the federal budget for the poorest school districts by 52
percent since he took office, to $13.3 billion from $8.8 billion. He
says his 2005 budget would increase spending by 49 percent for all elementary
and secondary school programs, to $37 billion from $24.8 billion. Kerry and the NEA say the federal government must spend an additional
$27 billion to make the law work. Kerry says that if he's elected, he
would roll back tax cuts Bush provided to the wealthiest citizens and
direct more resources to public schools. ``Thousands of schools are falling short of the law's targets because
the president has fallen billions short of his own promises to fund
the initiative,'' Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer said in August.
``If George Bush were getting graded for his implementation of No Child
Left Behind, he'd get an `F.''' `Unfunded Mandate' The bipartisan National Governors Association voted unanimously in
2003 to name No Child Left Behind an ``unfunded mandate,'' which means
the federal government isn't supplying the money needed to make the
law work. The Washington-based group called on Congress and Bush to
fully fund the law. All students are required by the law to make progress each year in
math and reading scores. If they don't, the school district must take
steps such as busing students to better schools, tutoring or, after
repeated failure, replacing staff and re-opening under private management.
The school districts must pay for these measures. The federal government is supposed to fund the schools; most districts
say they're not getting enough money, according to the NEA. Twenty-nine states are considering resolutions requesting waivers or
asking for more money to cover the law's mandates, according to the
National Conference of State Legislatures. School districts in `It's Unrealistic' Six other states are considering bills or resolutions that would allow
them to opt out of the law's provisions. In He's already sent out 5,000 letters to parents letting them know the
two high schools he oversees are failing under the law. ``It's unrealistic to expect all students to pass annual exams in grades
three to eight without money to pay for smaller classes, more individual
attention for slow learners and intensive tutoring programs,'' he says.
``The costs are going to explode when the next round of test scores
and sanctions come out,'' he says, referring to the end of the 2004-2005
school year. `Really Insulted' Joseph O'Brien, 54, superintendent of schools in Public school systems already reeling from state budget cuts and taxpayer
revolts that curtail education spending now face punishing sanctions
if test results don't improve, says Gary Orfield, a Orfield, 62, is a founding co-director of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based
Harvard Civil Rights Project, which is studying No Child Left Behind.
``People who work in disadvantaged schools and study education reform
and testing are really insulted by this law,'' he says. ``It shows an ignorance and arrogance that's stunning,'' Orfield says.
``People who really care about schools being good for poor kids see
it is doing damage.'' Give the Law Time Corporate executives say the sanctions the law prescribes for lagging
schools are needed to improve student performance and stem the loss
of ``To be competitive, innovative and at the forefront of research and
development, the U.S needs to upgrade the skills and knowledge of our
future workforce, and we think this law is an important part of doing
that,'' Traiman says. The group has urged Congress to give the law the
time it needs to work. Bush says the law is closing the achievement gap between minority and
white students and improving student performance. ``We are already seeing
hopeful results,'' Bush said during his weekly radio address on Aug.
21, saying fourth- and eighth-grade math scores across the country were
up last year. In 2003, 77 percent of fourth-graders met Grades Up Since 1990 Such gains shouldn't be linked to No Child Left Behind, says Dan Kaufman,
a spokesman for the 2.7-million-member NEA. He says test scores have
been going up for more than a decade because of smaller class sizes,
more-focused training and early-childhood programs that preceded the
law. In 1996, 64 percent of fourth-graders met basic standards; in 1992,
59 percent passed; and in 1990, 50 percent met standards, according
to the NCES. The law doesn't move education forward in any way, Kaufman
says. ``The problem is that now NCLB, despite its praiseworthy goals, is
interfering with this progress by adding rigid mandates, additional
bureaucracy and standardized testing and narrowing the curriculum without
adequate funding,'' he says. Poor, minority districts can least afford the law's sanctions and remedies,
says Richard Guida, 57. The lawyer is representing the schools of $18 Million Short Median household income in Two-thirds of ``We are $18 million short of the money we need to carry out the school
improvement plans,'' Guida says of Ron Tomalis, counsel to U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige, says the
role of the federal government in Reading and every school district
is to supplement the district's needs, not pay for them. He says `Testing, Blaming, Punishing' The law's requirement that standardized test scores go up each year
comes at the expense of original thinking and creative programs such
as art, music, poetry and history, says Lisa Guisbond, co-author of
a two-year study of the law by FairTest, a Cambridge-based nonprofit
group that researches standardized testing. ``The law is based on testing, blaming and punishing,'' Guisbond says.
``Teachers feel threatened that they will lose their jobs if their students'
scores don't go up, and then they end up narrowing their focus.'' That's why parents in ``Testing does not make for good education,'' says Leslie Berkovits,
a former corporate securities lawyer at White & Case LLP in New
York and a mother of three Scarsdale students. ``This is not just about
Parents in communities in Law Raising Standards Under the law, each state must set standards, and schools have to separately
report scores of as many as 41 categories of students, including minorities,
those for whom English is a second language, disabled pupils and those
who are economically disadvantaged. If scores in every group don't meet state standards for two years in
a row, students in schools that receive money for poverty programs might
be forced by the federal government to get special tutoring or transfers;
the schools would have to pay for both. Bush says the tests are needed to measure progress and says the law
is raising standards and improving accountability in Achievement Gap The department agreed to give school districts greater flexibility
in the way they report the scores of special education students, she
says. ``Every organization in this nation that is devoted to minority advancement
and civil rights should be embracing No Child Left Behind,'' Paige said
during a July speech before members of the National Urban League, a
New York-based civil rights group. The law that once seemed full of promise to the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, the oldest civil rights organization
in the ``We believe schools are being challenged to meet the mandates without
the resources,'' he says. Poor and diverse minority communities where a majority of schools have
failed to make progress for two years don't have the classroom space
to transfer students to better schools as the law requires, Harvard's
Orfield says. 10 That's the case in Of 15 high schools in the district, only three aren't listed as needing
improvement, and students are not eligible to transfer because they
have specialized admissions policies. ``You can't transfer them from one public school that isn't making
progress to another,'' The Harvard group studied 10 U.S. school districts -- including those
in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York -- in the last school year and
found that none of the schools could afford to pay for all of the transfer
requirements and that no district was able to approve all transfer requests.
``If the transfers are to be really valuable, they should be to genuinely
better schools, and to do that would require including suburbs and providing
voluntary transfers across district lines,'' Orfield says. In `All About Excellence' Berkovits says parents won't be deterred. Superintendent McGill, who
says he supports the philosophy behind the parents' boycott, says failure
to meet the law's requirements isn't a reflection on the quality of
``This is a very rigorous place academically and a school district
that is all about excellence,'' McGill says of the suburb, 20 miles
(32 kilometers) north of ``If this law says that our schools are failing, I think it means the
system is broken -- or poorly designed,'' McGill says. `Kid in a Corner' At a meeting with his administrative staff in July, Superintendent
O'Brien broke the news that while scores rose in every school, the district
would be cited as ``in need of improvement,'' a label that would make
the district look like it was failing. The label came because the collective test scores of students with
disabilities didn't rise enough during the past three years, O'Brien
said. ``This is like putting a kid in a corner for performing poorly,'' says
O'Brien, a 30-year veteran of the The law has the potential to dismantle public education in the Appealing the Label In his national radio speech on Aug. 21, Bush said the law is intended
to remedy, not punish. ``We are leaving behind the broken systems that
shuffled children from grade to grade even when they were not learning
the basics,'' Bush said. Mack Johnson, a school administrator in He estimates he and his staff spent more than 90 hours at the end of
the 2003-2004 school year appealing the failure label, only to be told
by state officials in July that the district hadn't made adequate progress
a second time under the rules of the law. O'Brien says the law is costing the district $800,000 to $1.6 million
for additional staff, tutoring, special education teachers, classroom
materials and data management. Less Science and History On an 86-degree July day, Springfield third-grade teacher Sandy O'Connor
packs up summer school books and describes the stress she and her students
feel during the week-long tests that are now mandatory under the law.
``It takes a lot of time away from other subjects,'' O'Connor says.
She says she can't work individually with students in small groups and
has to cut back in areas such as social studies, geography, science
and history. ``The test should not be driving classroom instruction,
but it is,'' she says. Frank McNight, principal of Springfield's middle school, says that
the law is a sincere effort to increase student achievement and that
he doesn't believe it's aimed at districts like Springfield, where the
vast majority of students are doing well. ``What I think is unfair is that students with learning disabilities
are held to the same standard as students without disabilities,'' he
says. Not a Failure Rina Vassallo, director of teaching and learning in Springfield, fears
that consecutive ``needs improvement'' labels could shut down Springfield's
public schools and open the door to private management. ``This system
has been around since the early 1900s; I went to these schools,'' she
says. In March, six Pennsylvania superintendents testified before a U.S.
Senate subcommittee on behalf of 138 of their colleagues, outlining
their opposition to the law and their need for more funding. A total
of 336 of 501 Pennsylvania superintendents signed a request seeking
changes to the law, says James Weaver, president of the Pennsylvania
State Education Association. Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Francis Barnes tried to soften
the stigma of a school district's being considered a failure under the
law in a news release on Aug. 24. ``It's important to point out that if a school does not meet annual
yearly progress, it is not necessarily a failing school,'' he said.
Barnes said that in the 2003-2004 school year, there was a 20 percent
increase in Limited English Speakers Tomalis says educators have misinterpreted what the law says. ``Even
our best schools have room to improve,'' he says. ``We are not saying
these schools are failing.'' In Reading, most of the buildings are aging and overcrowded, and with
so many schools deemed in need of improvement, there is no place to
transfer students, says Superintendent Melissa Jamula, 51. In August, after a three-judge state court panel ruled against the
district's appeal of the state's decision to label six schools as ``needing
improvement,'' Jamula found herself scrambling to offer parents choices
where none exist. Because the district has just one high school, Jamula instead will
try to satisfy the law by offering extra tutoring. ``Neighboring districts
are not going to want to take our kids, who are the poorest and scored
the lowest,'' she says. ``They'll pull down their scores. The question
is, How is this law going to help these kids when they have nowhere
to go?'' Smaller Classes Unless an appeal by the The district had asked the state to allow the newest immigrants to
take the exams in Spanish. ``We've had kids taking these tests who are
in tears, because they don't understand what is on this test and are
barely speaking English,'' Jamula says. Jamula credits the school system both she and her parents attended
with providing an excellent education for her son, a graduate of She says she knows what is needed to improve student performance: all-day
kindergarten, smaller classes, an extended school year, better technology
and money to make teacher salaries more competitive. She says those
goals aren't easy to accomplish with a budget of $132 million for 17,000
students. In In No Child Left Behind Limits Rural Education Keloland TV Senator Tim Johnson requested the study from the Government Accountability
Office. It lists how rural school districts have limited resources,
difficulty recruiting teachers, shrinking budgets and that teachers
are expected to take on more responsibilities. While those areas are making it harder for schools to implement No
Child Left Behind, school administrators say the problems don't stop
there. The report recommends the U.S. Department of Education give more assistance
and be flexible on how rural districts choose to implement NCLB. Senator
Tim Johnson said the current restrictions on schools are rigid and don't
account for the special needs of rural education. Sen. Johnson said, "I really think that NCLB, while it's not going
to be repealed, it isn't up for re-authorization for a couple more years;
it needs to be more flexible, needs to get away form some of this one
size fits all, particularly as it pertains to rural schools. The survey also pinpoints the importance of the Rural Education Achievement
Plan. It provides additional funds to rural schools for implementing
the law. Superintendent of Centerville Schools, Doug Voss, is faced
with these challenges firsthand; 19% of his students have special needs.
Voss said "We've been fortunate enough that, without the Rural
Achievement grant, our students would be having some difficulties meeting
their needs. But city schools are also having trouble meeting requirements. With
students from forty different countries and diverse socio-economic circumstances,
Principal of Anne Sullivan Elementary, Nancy Duncan said, "We
have students who are coming to us from all different backgrounds, at
all different starting places, but they all have to hit the end of the
race at the same time." Senator Johnson says he'll now take this report back to Bush's No Child Left Behind Education Plan Gets Failing Grades Bloomberg.com Michael McGill climbs the terrazzo steps to a balcony above the newest
wing of The freshly tiled walls are lined with awards won by high achievers
in the 4,569-student school district in With all of its honors and accomplishments, Scarsdale Middle School
is failing to comply with President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind
law, which Bush, 58, describes as ``the cornerstone of my administration.''
One-third of the 90,000 In high-achieving Scarsdale, where home prices range from $600,000
to more than $6 million, the middle school failed to meet the New York
State Education Department's criteria under the 2002 law because 85
percent of the eighth-graders took the state's math and English exams
instead of the required 95 percent participation rate. Boycotting Tests Fifteen percent of the students intentionally didn't take the tests
because of a boycott organized by parents who believe excessive standardized
testing stymies learning and limits creativity. No Child Left Behind is the most comprehensive national education legislation
since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which authorized
grants to schools with a high proportion of low-income students. The Bush law, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, 60, a four- term Now, many of those who supported the law say it amounts to government
demands without the money necessary to carry them out. Disagreement on Cost Funding has become a source of contention. The president says he's
increased the federal budget for the poorest school districts by 52
percent since he took office, to $13.3 billion from $8.8 billion. He
says his 2005 budget would increase spending by 49 percent for all elementary
and secondary school programs, to $37 billion from $24.8 billion. Kerry and the NEA say the federal government must spend an additional
$27 billion to make the law work. Kerry says that if he's elected, he
would roll back tax cuts Bush provided to the wealthiest citizens and
direct more resources to public schools. ``Thousands of schools are falling short of the law's targets because
the president has fallen billions short of his own promises to fund
the initiative,'' Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer said in August.
``If George Bush were getting graded for his implementation of No Child
Left Behind, he'd get an `F.''' `Unfunded Mandate' The bipartisan National Governors Association voted unanimously in
2003 to name No Child Left Behind an ``unfunded mandate,'' which means
the federal government isn't supplying the money needed to make the
law work. The Washington-based group called on Congress and Bush to
fully fund the law. All students are required by the law to make progress each year in
math and reading scores. If they don't, the school district must take
steps such as busing students to better schools, tutoring or, after
repeated failure, replacing staff and re-opening under private management.
The school districts must pay for these measures. The federal government is supposed to fund the schools; most districts
say they're not getting enough money, according to the NEA. Twenty-nine states are considering resolutions requesting waivers or
asking for more money to cover the law's mandates, according to the
National Conference of State Legislatures. School districts in `It's Unrealistic' Six other states are considering bills or resolutions that would allow
them to opt out of the law's provisions. In He's already sent out 5,000 letters to parents letting them know the
two high schools he oversees are failing under the law. ``It's unrealistic to expect all students to pass annual exams in grades
three to eight without money to pay for smaller classes, more individual
attention for slow learners and intensive tutoring programs,'' he says.
``The costs are going to explode when the next round of test scores
and sanctions come out,'' he says, referring to the end of the 2004-2005
school year. `Really Insulted' Joseph O'Brien, 54, superintendent of schools in Public school systems already reeling from state budget cuts and taxpayer
revolts that curtail education spending now face punishing sanctions
if test results don't improve, says Gary Orfield, a Orfield, 62, is a founding co-director of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based
Harvard Civil Rights Project, which is studying No Child Left Behind.
``People who work in disadvantaged schools and study education reform
and testing are really insulted by this law,'' he says. ``It shows an ignorance and arrogance that's stunning,'' Orfield says.
``People who really care about schools being good for poor kids see
it is doing damage.'' Give the Law Time Corporate executives say the sanctions the law prescribes for lagging
schools are needed to improve student performance and stem the loss
of ``To be competitive, innovative and at the forefront of research and
development, the U.S needs to upgrade the skills and knowledge of our
future workforce, and we think this law is an important part of doing
that,'' Traiman says. The group has urged Congress to give the law the
time it needs to work. Bush says the law is closing the achievement gap between minority and
white students and improving student performance. ``We are already seeing
hopeful results,'' Bush said during his weekly radio address on Aug.
21, saying fourth- and eighth-grade math scores across the country were
up last year. In 2003, 77 percent of fourth-graders met Grades Up Since 1990 Such gains shouldn't be linked to No Child Left Behind, says Dan Kaufman,
a spokesman for the 2.7-million-member NEA. He says test scores have
been going up for more than a decade because of smaller class sizes,
more-focused training and early-childhood programs that preceded the
law. In 1996, 64 percent of fourth-graders met basic standards; in 1992,
59 percent passed; and in 1990, 50 percent met standards, according
to the NCES. The law doesn't move education forward in any way, Kaufman
says. ``The problem is that now NCLB, despite its praiseworthy goals, is
interfering with this progress by adding rigid mandates, additional
bureaucracy and standardized testing and narrowing the curriculum without
adequate funding,'' he says. Poor, minority districts can least afford the law's sanctions and remedies,
says Richard Guida, 57. The lawyer is representing the schools of $18 Million Short Median household income in Two-thirds of ``We are $18 million short of the money we need to carry out the school
improvement plans,'' Guida says of Ron Tomalis, counsel to U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige, says the
role of the federal government in Reading and every school district
is to supplement the district's needs, not pay for them. He says `Testing, Blaming, Punishing' The law's requirement that standardized test scores go up each year
comes at the expense of original thinking and creative programs such
as art, music, poetry and history, says Lisa Guisbond, co-author of
a two-year study of the law by FairTest, a Cambridge-based nonprofit
group that researches standardized testing. ``The law is based on testing, blaming and punishing,'' Guisbond says.
``Teachers feel threatened that they will lose their jobs if their students'
scores don't go up, and then they end up narrowing their focus.'' That's why parents in ``Testing does not make for good education,'' says Leslie Berkovits,
a former corporate securities lawyer at White & Case LLP in New
York and a mother of three Scarsdale students. ``This is not just about
Parents in communities in Law Raising Standards Under the law, each state must set standards, and schools have to separately
report scores of as many as 41 categories of students, including minorities,
those for whom English is a second language, disabled pupils and those
who are economically disadvantaged. If scores in every group don't meet state standards for two years in
a row, students in schools that receive money for poverty programs might
be forced by the federal government to get special tutoring or transfers;
the schools would have to pay for both. Bush says the tests are needed to measure progress and says the law
is raising standards and improving accountability in Achievement Gap The department agreed to give school districts greater flexibility
in the way they report the scores of special education students, she
says. ``Every organization in this nation that is devoted to minority advancement
and civil rights should be embracing No Child Left Behind,'' Paige said
during a July speech before members of the National Urban League, a
New York-based civil rights group. The law that once seemed full of promise to the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, the oldest civil rights organization
in the U.S., isn't closing the achievement gap, says Hilary Shelton,
director of the Washington NAACP office, which has criticized No Child
Left Behind. ``We believe schools are being challenged to meet the mandates without
the resources,'' he says. Poor and diverse minority communities where a majority of schools have
failed to make progress for two years don't have the classroom space
to transfer students to better schools as the law requires, Harvard's
Orfield says. 10 School Districts That's the case in Washington, which has 33,000 public school students,
says Carol Jackson, administrative officer for the city's public school
system. Of 15 high schools in the district, only three aren't listed as needing
improvement, and students are not eligible to transfer because they
have specialized admissions policies. ``You can't transfer them from one public school that isn't making
progress to another,'' Jackson says. The Harvard group studied 10 U.S. school districts -- including those
in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York -- in the last school year and
found that none of the schools could afford to pay for all of the transfer
requirements and that no district was able to approve all transfer requests.
``If the transfers are to be really valuable, they should be to genuinely
better schools, and to do that would require including suburbs and providing
voluntary transfers across district lines,'' Orfield says. In New York, where 1,049 schools statewide failed to make adequate
progress during the first year of the law, high- performing Scarsdale
found its middle school listed with a similar designation again this
year. `All About Excellence' Berkovits says parents won't be deterred. Superintendent McGill, who
says he supports the philosophy behind the parents' boycott, says failure
to meet the law's requirements isn't a reflection on the quality of
Scarsdale schools. ``This is a very rigorous place academically and a school district
that is all about excellence,'' McGill says of the suburb, 20 miles
(32 kilometers) north of New York. Scarsdale, with a tax base of $6.5 billion, spends $21,712 per student
compared with an average of $11,500 in the rest of the state. The average
SAT score for Scarsdale students is 1,262 (1,600 is a perfect score)
compared with the national average of 1,026. ``If this law says that our schools are failing, I think it means the
system is broken -- or poorly designed,'' McGill says. `Kid in a Corner' Springfield, a community of 23,677 about 12 miles southwest of Philadelphia,
is also fighting the law. At a meeting with his administrative staff in July, Superintendent
O'Brien broke the news that while scores rose in every school, the district
would be cited as ``in need of improvement,'' a label that would make
the district look like it was failing. The label came because the collective test scores of students with
disabilities didn't rise enough during the past three years, O'Brien
said. ``This is like putting a kid in a corner for performing poorly,'' says
O'Brien, a 30-year veteran of the Springfield school system. The law has the potential to dismantle public education in the U.S.,
he says, and he raises his voice to explain how the district's failure
under the law would be publicized in local newspapers. ``It's part of
the public humiliation part of this law,'' O'Brien says. ``I think it's
absolutely wrong.'' Appealing the Label In his national radio speech on Aug. 21, Bush said the law is intended
to remedy, not punish. ``We are leaving behind the broken systems that
shuffled children from grade to grade even when they were not learning
the basics,'' Bush said. Mack Johnson, a school administrator in Springfield and a parent of
children in grades four and 10, says he dislikes both the law and the
failure label. ``It's a shame this will tarnish good intentions, good
people and a good district,'' Johnson says. ``I am absolutely offended
that we are on this list.'' Springfield -- a community where brick homes with landscaped yards
bear American flags and the median household income is $75,000 -- is
proud of its schools and on top of what needs to be done to improve
student performance, O'Brien says. He estimates he and his staff spent more than 90 hours at the end of
the 2003-2004 school year appealing the failure label, only to be told
by state officials in July that the district hadn't made adequate progress
a second time under the rules of the law. O'Brien says the law is costing the district $800,000 to $1.6 million
for additional staff, tutoring, special education teachers, classroom
materials and data management. Less Science and History On an 86-degree July day, Springfield third-grade teacher Sandy O'Connor
packs up summer school books and describes the stress she and her students
feel during the week-long tests that are now mandatory under the law.
``It takes a lot of time away from other subjects,'' O'Connor says.
She says she can't work individually with students in small groups and
has to cut back in areas such as social studies, geography, science
and history. ``The test should not be driving classroom instruction,
but it is,'' she says. Frank McNight, principal of Springfield's middle school, says that
the law is a sincere effort to increase student achievement and that
he doesn't believe it's aimed at districts like Springfield, where the
vast majority of students are doing well. ``What I think is unfair is that students with learning disabilities
are held to the same standard as students without disabilities,'' he
says. Not a Failure Rina Vassallo, director of teaching and learning in Springfield, fears
that consecutive ``needs improvement'' labels could shut down Springfield's
public schools and open the door to private management. ``This system
has been around since the early 1900s; I went to these schools,'' she
says. In March, six Pennsylvania superintendents testified before a U.S.
Senate subcommittee on behalf of 138 of their colleagues, outlining
their opposition to the law and their need for more funding. A total
of 336 of 501 Pennsylvania superintendents signed a request seeking
changes to the law, says James Weaver, president of the Pennsylvania
State Education Association. Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Francis Barnes tried to soften
the stigma of a school district's being considered a failure under the
law in a news release on Aug. 24. ``It's important to point out that if a school does not meet annual
yearly progress, it is not necessarily a failing school,'' he said.
Barnes said that in the 2003-2004 school year, there was a 20 percent
increase in Limited English Speakers Tomalis says educators have misinterpreted what the law says. ``Even
our best schools have room to improve,'' he says. ``We are not saying
these schools are failing.'' In Reading, most of the buildings are aging and overcrowded, and with
so many schools deemed in need of improvement, there is no place to
transfer students, says Superintendent Melissa Jamula, 51. In August, after a three-judge state court panel ruled against the
district's appeal of the state's decision to label six schools as ``needing
improvement,'' Jamula found herself scrambling to offer parents choices
where none exist. Because the district has just one high school, Jamula instead will
try to satisfy the law by offering extra tutoring. ``Neighboring districts
are not going to want to take our kids, who are the poorest and scored
the lowest,'' she says. ``They'll pull down their scores. The question
is, How is this law going to help these kids when they have nowhere
to go?'' Smaller Classes Unless an appeal by the Reading School District to the state Supreme
Court is successful, the ruling guarantees years of failure for Reading
students, where 15 percent of the students are limited English speakers,
Jamula says. The district had asked the state to allow the newest immigrants to
take the exams in Spanish. ``We've had kids taking these tests who are
in tears, because they don't understand what is on this test and are
barely speaking English,'' Jamula says. Jamula credits the school system both she and her parents attended
with providing an excellent education for her son, a graduate of Pennsylvania
State University in College Park, and a daughter, a senior at Yale University
in New Haven, Connecticut. She says she knows what is needed to improve student performance: all-day
kindergarten, smaller classes, an extended school year, better technology
and money to make teacher salaries more competitive. She says those
goals aren't easy to accomplish with a budget of $132 million for 17,000
students. In Scarsdale, the same students who boycotted the eighth- grade exams
are applying to the most-competitive colleges in the U.S., including
Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Yale.
In Belleville, Reading and Springfield, school officials are more concerned
with the stigma of failure, along with a sense that the law is undermining
public education and hurting the students it's intended to help. Education secretary
calls No Child Left Behind start of new era Camille Ricketts, Paige's assessment came even as critics argued that the law is too
rigid and provides too little money to reach the goals set for the nation
when it was enacted in 2001. "There is clear evidence of success, noticeable patterns of change
and upbeat reports from a variety of sources," he said. "Simply
stated, the law is working, and we are at the beginning of a new era
in education." The law marks the largest government involvement in elementary and
secondary education to date. It's designed to ensure that U.S. schoolchildren
have qualified teachers, are able to pass multiple standardized tests
and can attend schools of their choosing. Since its passage, however, the Bush administration's measure has come
under attack from various quarters. On Friday, a collection of educators and politicians pointed to troubling
flaws in the law, including the government's failure to provide $27
billion that was originally promised. Among the law's critics are the
Campaign for "The act replaces real teaching with hours of test preparation,"
said Angela Valenzuela, a professor at the University of Texas and editor
of the new book "Leaving Children Behind." "Principals
are rewarded for delivering high scores even if it means pushing out
students who don't perform well." Robert Borosage, the co-director for Campaign for America's Future,
said the law punishes teachers and students but provides no new funding
or other resources to bolster education locally. "The administration is issuing failing grades to schools without
providing kids with what they need," he said. "They have declared
mission impossible before they have even started." In contrast, Paige cited improvements in Georgia, New York and Delaware
as proof that the law is working. He said 78 percent of schools in Georgia met the state's testing goals
in the last school year, up from 64 percent the year before. In New
York, state education officials said that more than 1,000 schools improved
on statewide English and math tests. And in Delaware, students performed
the "best ever" on the most recent tests, Paige said. According the education secretary, the law prompted local officials
to provide free homework help to 112,000 low-income students nationwide
and reading help for 1.4 million students across the country. Paige said Colorado and Nevada also are making strides in improving
performance among less affluent students. In one low-income elementary
school in Colorado, tests scores are up. Another such elementary school
in Nevada that had been underachieving for years was designated the
first "high achievement" school in its county, Paige said. "The percentage of African-American and Hispanic fourth-graders
who know their reading and math basics increased substantially more
between 2000 and 2003 than in the previous eight years combined,"
Paige said. Effect of No Child Left Behind Act may take some time to calculate
Beth Cohen, The Reporter The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 has been in place for almost two
years‚ and some parents of special needs students said they’re
already seeing their children progress in their tests and classroom
learning. Robert Shields‚ director of curriculum and instruction service
at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit‚ said his staff has
been swamped since the inception of NCLB because they now have to ensure
that school districts are getting all the information they need about
the provisions of the federal law. “There’s so much information coming forward from this and
a lot of the reason is because the act took effect so quickly‚”
he said. Besides helping school districts with professional development‚
Shields said the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit also serves students
and helps create individual education plans for them. Shields said he also sees the NCLB Act as being a positive federal
initiative. “I look at it as an opportunity to improve our practice‚”
he said. The U.S. House Subcommittee on Education reform was scheduled to discuss
the NCLB legislation at a field hearing on Sept. 21 in Bensalem‚
but it was canceled. It is unclear when the congressional hearing‚
concerning the importance of including students with disabilities in
state accountability plans‚ will be rescheduled‚ said Josh
Holly‚ media relations director for the House Committee on Education
and the Workforce. Regardless of what federal lawmakers intended with the NCLB Act‚
parent Maureen McGovern said she believes more needs to be done to help
special needs students progress. “President Bush made this wonderful law and it sounds good in
print‚ but he didn’t put any money behind it‚” she
said. Now everyone locally is struggling to implement the mandated provisions
of NCLB‚ said McGovern‚ whose learning-challenged son attends
a state-approved private school. Previously‚ her son‚ Dan‚ attended public schools in
the North Penn School District‚ but he struggled because classes
sizes were larger and teachers did not have as much time to give him
the individual attention he needed. “If he reads a book himself‚ he would have a hard time processing
it‚” McGovern said. “But if a book is read to him‚
he comprehends it better because he’s an auditory learner.” After fighting with the school district for two years‚ McGovern
said North Penn now pays for her son to attend the Pathways School in
Norristown. “The difference between when he started four years ago and now‚
is like night and day‚” she said. After the NCLB Act took effect‚ McGovern said she was concerned
the school district would stop paying the private-school tuition because
the federal government mandated changes under NCLB but didn’t provide
funding to support those changes. “The state came through with funding about a year ago‚”
she said. McGovern said she believes her son has benefited in some ways from
the NCLB Act because he now receives more intense attention and there’s
more focus placed on helping him with his individual learning disability. McGovern said she believes the intention of No Child Left Behind is
good in that all efforts are made to ensure all children progress. Dan has an individual-education plan‚ and because of his learning
disability‚ the state mandates that certain accommodations be made. When he takes a standardized test‚ someone will read him the test
so he understands what to do‚ and he does get more time than regular
education students to complete the test‚ she said. Barb D’Silva‚ president of the North Penn Special Education
Council‚ said it’s going to take time for parents and educators
to see true results from changes influenced by the NCLB Act. “The No Child Left Behind Act is a long-term initiative‚
which requires that all children be academically proficient by 2014‚”
she said. D’Silva‚ whose 13-year-old special needs son attends public
school in the North Penn School District‚ said she’s glad
that NCLB has prompted more dialog among school officials about how
to help special-needs children become more proficient. “There’s more of a recognition now that there have been low-expectation
of these students in the past‚” she said. “Change is
coming‚ but change is slow.” The focus now is on getting children who are entering school for the
first time more proficient on standardized tests and other measures
of assessment. NCLB likely won’t do much to help children already
in the system‚ particularly those who are older and in higher grades.
“For kids who are in 10th grade‚ it will be hard in two years
for them to be better in PSSAs‚” D’Silva said. “The
key now is to be looking at the elementary school students so that by
2014 they become more proficient.” Since NCLB took effect‚ D’Silva said she’s been able
to convince school officials to try a different method for helping her
son with reading comprehension. The method outlined in his Individual
Education Plan wasn’t working‚ and D’Silva said she spoke
with other special-needs parents about an alternative method. “I’m very hopeful‚” she said. This year‚ her son’s school created special time to enable
teachers to help him with reading comprehension. “When it comes to reading there’s different components‚”
D’Silva said. “One type of kid can’t read the word‚
and then there’s the other kind of kid who can read the word but
not understand what it means.” D’Silva said both types of kids have traditionally been placed
in the same class and teachers don’t always have time to deal with
both. D’Silva said her son can read‚ but he doesn’t comprehend
it. This year‚ the school set aside special time to help him learn
how to imagine and visualize‚ which should improve his reading
comprehension skills. “The teachers mean well‚ and they really do try‚ but
there’s so many other issues on a teacher’s plate‚”
she said. “The parent is the child’s best advocate.” Drawing Attention to Schools 'House parties' aim to mobilize guests in cause of education -- and
against new federal law. Duke Helfand, LA Times The house party in the Hollywood Hills was billed as a nonpartisan
"mobilization" to cast attention on the nation's troubled
public schools. Actress Helen Hunt, commentator Arianna Huffington and others chatted
about the need to hire more teachers and restore arts education as they
sipped Merlot and nibbled potato pancakes with smoked salmon. But behind the house party, and scores of others around the country
organized last week by the National Education Assn., was a not-so-subtle
message: President Bush and his signature education law, the No Child
Left Behind Act, are failing the nation's schools. Leaders of the nation's largest teachers union made no effort to hide
their disdain for the 2-year-old education law, which has come under
fire from liberals and conservatives alike for its reliance on testing
and its sometimes rigid rules about teacher qualifications, among other
things. "This law is practically impossible to implement. We told them
it's not going to work," NEA President Reg Weaver told about 100
producers, screenwriters, directors and others assembled Wednesday night
on a backyard patio in the Hollywood Hills. Bush's reelection campaign fired back, accusing the NEA and other organizations
involved in the effort — including the liberal online advocacy
group MoveOn.org — of politicizing education. "We wish the NEA would commit itself to improving student achievement
rather than hosting political rallies," said Tracey Schmitt, a
spokeswoman for Bush's reelection campaign. Organizers of the National Mobilization for Great Public Schools staged
about 3,700 house parties in all 50 states. The organizers — including the NAACP National Voter Fund, the
U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, the Campaign for The idea, they said, was to reengage teachers, parents and others in
public education in hopes of elevating the issue in the minds of voters
and politicians. The house parties were a first step. At the events, guests were urged
to sign petitions calling on Congress and the president to increase
school funding. They were encouraged to call members of Congress later
this month to demand the same. And they were advised to register friends
to vote. The idea of greater involvement in education made for lively conversation
at "I'm very concerned about making sure everyone is educated and
about the social issues that relate to education — not just test
scores but diversity itself," said Cathy Kornblith, a former private
investigator who volunteers at a nearby high school. Some of the partygoers assailed the No Child Left Behind Act. "I think it's a farce," said Rodolfo Cancino, who taught
middle and high school for 35 years. "They have certain expectations
… and yet they aren't funding [the schools] anywhere near to adequately." In Barbara Kerr, president of the California Teachers Assn., rephrased
the law into a joke, to the delight of the guests. "California schools need help from No Child Left Untested,"
she told the crowd, which erupted in applause. "All of us know
that No Child Left Behind is hurting our children's self-esteem. It's
making our next generation one-dimensional." The state and national teachers unions have waged a sometimes vitriolic
campaign against the education law since it went into effect in 2002.
They have argued that the Bush administration has underfunded the reform,
also complaining that the measure takes a one-size-fits-all approach
to teaching students with myriad abilities — accusations the Bush
camp denies. Education analysts saw much of the same rhetoric in last week's mobilization,
even as union leaders insisted that their effort was merely designed
to foster greater public input into one of the nation's most pressing
domestic policy matters. "The idea that it's nonpartisan doesn't pass the laugh test,"
Tom Loveless, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the
Brookings Institution in Washington, said of the house parties. "If they really wanted it to be nonpartisan, they would have scheduled
it in December," after the presidential election. The NEA has endorsed
Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee. For some guests, particularly at the Hollywood Hills get-together,
the union message about No Child Left Behind rang true. Many said that
federal and state policymakers must make public schools their top priority
and ensure that teachers and classrooms receive adequate resources to
get the job done. Even so, most people seemed less focused on politics and more interested
in the plight of schools, especially after hearing from one speaker,
a Los Angeles mother, who told of the decrepit conditions in her children's
school. David Silverman, an animation director on "The Simpsons"
television show, said he was moved by the school stories — and
that he planned to find his own way to contribute. "It seems obvious
the more you have uneducated people, the more you'll have crime,"
he said. "And crime is an expensive operation." As the evening wound down, satisfied union leaders declared victory
— at least initially. Weaver, the NEA president, said he was proud to have brought so many
people together to talk about "something actually important."
And that, he said, was education. Gifted students
often left behind EDUCATION: Olivia Clarke, NWI Times Like many 11-year-old boys, Jason Kalbac likes video games and dislikes
homework. But unlike most fifth-graders, he's learning at higher academic levels. Jason is enrolled in Lake Central Community School Corp.'s Merit Program.
Fourth- and fifth-graders in the program study at a grade or two above
their level. Jason, for example, studies sixth- and seventh-grade material. "I actually learn things instead of waiting for everyone to catch
up," he said. "All my friends in the merit program understand
where I'm coming from." In education today, much focus gets placed on students who do not meet
state standards and are classified as falling behind under the federal
No Child Left Behind law. But many people question where this law and
education as a whole leaves gifted students. High-achieving students often have as many needs as struggling students.
Yet the money, legislation and respect do not always exist to help them. Nationally, talk of gifted and talented education recently reached
the pages of the Sept. 27 issue of Time magazine and in a study released
Sept. 20 called "A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's
Brightest Students." Both discuss whether gifted students should
receive more opportunities to skip ahead to a more challenging grade. About 87,000 Indiana students in 2002-03 were identified with high
abilities, according to the Indiana Department of Education's latest
numbers. While Indiana offers more support for gifted programs than
other states, it does not mandate districts offer gifted education.
Indiana funds gifted programs through state dollars, and only about
$4.8 million in grant money is available for districts to use. With his slightly disheveled hair and strong opinions, Jason sat recently
with a glass of milk and described what school is like for him. He got bored in a regular class. The good teachers challenge him with
creative in-class projects instead of worksheets, he said. He and his
classmates try to ignore the teasing from other students. "We need the challenges. We can't just be left behind," Jason
said. His mother, Diana Kalbac, said gifted children may be extremely intelligent,
but emotionally they are still kids. "I love when he's engaged and asking questions," said Kalbac,
co-founder of the Lake County Alliance for the Gifted. "I like
the fact that he is a kid first." Some gifted children get wrongly labeled as having learning or emotional
disabilities when they instead may need more attention, she said. On
the flip side, they may have disabilities that get overshadowed by their
intellect. Students in special education and students in gifted and talented programs
may represent different sides of the educational spectrum, but their
needs can be similar, Kalbac said. Both groups need extra help excelling. They may experience similar emotional problems and trouble relating
to other kids. "We are leaving behind our brightest learners," she said.
"It's time to take a stand, and I do take a strong stand." Ten-year-old Collin Henson takes classes with other fifth-grade gifted
students at Munster's Eads Elementary School. He said he likes this
year much better because he feels more challenged. "It is an OK amount of homework," Collin said. "Last
year the work was too easy and I was getting bored." One myth is that gifted students do not need extra help because they
will learn on their own, said Cheryll Adams, board president of the
Indiana Association for the Gifted. Teachers do not always have the
resources available to help, Adams said. Jerry Schecter, a clinical psychologist in Skokie, Ill., will speak
at a local event Tuesday about gifted students. Schecter, also a school
psychologist for the gifted, said No Child Left Behind does not pressure
schools to help gifted students. In a regular classroom, gifted students can spend at least 80 percent
of their day waiting for something new to be taught, Schecter said. "Socially, there is a lot of pressure to be average," he
said. "The higher up on the IQ scale, the more difficult it is
for kids to fit in." Teachers in Duneland School Corp. can help their gifted third- through
sixth-graders feel engaged by offering them extra enrichment activities,
said Claudia Trzeciak, gifted and talented director. A gifted child
doesn't necessarily want to work as a teacher's helper or accelerate
to the next grade, Trzeciak said. They want to be challenged, she said. "I think there is sometimes a tendency to assume they will manage,"
she said. "We have tried very hard to not forget them. Funding
forgets them." Ailing school eyed for state takeover Megan Tench, The State Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll plans today to recommend
the first state takeover of a school, the harshest action possible against
academically struggling schools. The Matthew J. Kuss Middle School in Fall River was one of four schools
labeled underperforming in 2000 for lagging test scores and management
problems. Under the state's Education Reform Act of 1993, schools that
don't improve risk being taken over by the state. If the state Board of Education goes along with Driscoll, it would
be the most dramatic step yet in Massachusetts' school accountability
push. The state would appoint a principal who would have complete control
of the Kuss Middle School, including deciding whether to dismiss teachers
or change the curriculum. The Fall River superintendent and School Committee
would have no say in running the school and would have to carry out
all the state's orders. The state would stay in charge until the school
improves. "This is very serious," Heidi B. Perlman, spokeswoman for
the state Department of Education, said yesterday. "Things at the
Fall River school have progressed to the point where the state has to
step in." In a written recommendation to be presented to the state education
board today, Driscoll said Kuss Middle School deserves the "chronically
underperforming" label because it has failed to boost MCAS test
scores in math and English, has not followed a state-approved plan to
improve student performance, and has not developed a sound plan to guide
needed changes for this school year. The board plans to discuss the
recommendation today and vote on it next month. Fall River Mayor Edward Lambert yesterday said he hopes to persuade
the education board to let him and his staff make changes at the school,
starting with firing the principal, before any state takeover. The school's principal for the past two years, Richard Cochran, declined
to comment. He replaced Darlene Devaney after she left the city for
personal reasons. The Fall River school superintendent, Richard D. Pavao, said he agrees
with Driscoll that Kuss Middle School has not improved, but said plans
to turn the school around are already in the works, including an application
to make it a Horace Mann Charter School. Such a change would give the
school's staff greater control over the curriculum and the school's
budget would be monitored by a governing board. Pavao said he met with Cochran yesterday to discuss the upcoming changes
at the school. The Kuss Middle School is one of four on the underperforming watch
list up for review by the state Board of Education. The others are Roosevelt
Middle School in New Bedford, the Arlington K-8 School in Lawrence,
and the John J. Lynch Middle School in Holyoke. They were targeted in
2000 because more than 60 percent of eighth-graders failed the Massachusetts
Comprehensive Assessment System in math, English, and science in 1998
and 1999. To graduate from high school, 10th graders are required to
pass the tests. After the schools were put on the list, state intervention teams of
business people and educators were sent to evaluate each school and
its plans to improve test scores. In addition, each school received
an additional $25,000 a year to revamp its curriculum. After two years, a school's status is reviewed by state officials,
who decide whether to keep the school on the underperforming list, or
take it off the list. Schools remaining on the list get another review
every two years and can be declared chronically underperforming if significant
improvements are not made. Driscoll said the Roosevelt was the only school that made enough progress
in math and English to be removed from the warning list this year. Attendance
exceeded the state's target of 92 percent and school leaders have provided
a clear and specific set of expectations for staff and students, he
said. Both Lynch Middle in Driscoll will recommend to the education board today that the state
continue to work with school leaders in Holyoke School Superintendent Eduardo Carballo said plans are underway
to improve test scores, including the hiring of three additional math
teachers and expanding math classes to 70 minutes a day, with an additional
30 minutes daily to address struggling students individually. There are 24 schools on the warning list. In November, the education
board also put two school districts -- Education Entrepreneurs Gather in Paul H. Seibert, School Reform News With a theme of "Education for Tomorrow: Entrepreneurs Transforming
K-16 Education," the 14th annual EDVentures Conference of the Education
Industry Association (EIA) was held on the Northwestern University campus
in Evanston, Illinois on August 4-6, 2004. A range of general session
speakers included top education policymakers, leaders in school reform,
and advocates for tutoring practitioners. Dr. Gene Hickok, deputy secretary of education for the U.S. Department
of Education, who spoke at last year's conference in "The principles behind No Child Left Behind are beginning to challenge
the education industry as we have known it," said Hickok, noting
the law "makes it difficult to close your eyes to a problem." The school board in Roberti spent a year leading a team of private managers in reforming
the management systems of the St. Louis Public Schools, saving the district
from bankruptcy, putting it on a sound financial footing, rationalizing
operations in its 113 schools, and creating a framework for long-term
success for its 37,000 students. The turn-around effort may well be
the most dramatic example to date of a public-private partnership in
American education. "While A subsequent general session speaker, Dr. Michael Bakalis, agreed with
Roberti's assessment, saying, "This kind of mismanagement is rampant
in public education." Bakalis is president and CEO of American Quality Schools, a nonprofit
organization that operates charter schools in Steve Cony, president of Communications Counselors LLC, brought a change
of pace to the conference with a humor-laced presentation on promoting
educational services. If you want to be a successful educational entrepreneur,
he noted, you need clients. He then gave an account of "How to
Get Heard, How to Get Believed, and How to Get Chosen," delivering
thousands of dollars' worth of promotional consultation in a 45-minute
session. A pre-conference session also provided four hours of free legal advice
from Fisher and Phillips LLC, one of the country's foremost legal firms
specializing in school and business law. Attorneys Suzanne Bogdan and
Jane McFetridge reviewed the "Ten Major Legal Concerns for the
Education Executive." EIA was founded by Chris Yelich, Wayne Jennings, Senn Brown, and the
late James Boyle in 1990 as the American Association of Education Practitioners
and Providers. The group's mission was "private ventures for the
public good," and its aim was for members "to put the needs
of students at the center of the business plan." The first EDVentures
Conference was in 1991, when 16 people attended. This year, there were
350 attendees. With more than 800 corporate and individual members, EIA is now the
leading professional association for private providers of education
services, suppliers, and other private organizations who are stakeholders
in education. While about 10 percent of EIA's members are large, multi-national
corporations like Edison Schools, most are small business owners, with
some 60 percent operating local tutoring services. The growth and transformation of EIA over the past 15 years has been
due in no small measure to its executive director during that period,
Chris Yelich. This year's conference marked a transition of leadership
for EIA as she stepped down and ceremonially delivered the "keys
to the office" to Steve Pines, who was named executive director-elect
in January after a national search for Yelich's replacement. Another
transition for EIA is the move of its headquarters from
Illinois State Board of Education |
