Alabama officials want to freeze No Child Left Behind requirements

MOBILE, Alabama -- State school leaders want to freeze the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act at its 2011 levels, rather than have to endure sharp increases in how many students must pass standardized tests over the next couple of years.

But instead of applying for a waiver, as a majority of states have done, Alabama may try a different tactic. The state school board is considering asking for a special exception to freeze the test standards where they are. That way, the state would not have to lay out a formal plan for how it will continue to prepare and evaluate students. The Obama administration is requiring such plans of schools asking for the waiver.

"Essentially, this buys us some time," said state schools spokesman Michael Sibley. "Hopefully, with whatever administration is in place in the fall, we'll see some movement when it comes to No Child Left Behind."

No Child Left Behind — which George W. Bush signed into law in 2002 — requires that 100 percent of students read and do math at grade level by 2014. That includes all groups of students, broken down by race, economic background, even special-education status.

Each year, the number of students who must pass the tests increases, and, therefore, the number of schools meeting standards decreases. 

With reading tests administered in the spring of 2011, for example, 88 percent of third-graders had to pass for a school to be labeled as meeting standards. That goes up to 92 percent in 2012, 96 percent in 2013 and 100 percent in 2014. 

In August, Alabama announced that 27 percent of its public schools were not meeting academic standards. Many of the schools — including 27 of the 38 that failed in Mobile and Baldwin counties — missed the mark solely because special-education students' test scores were too low. 

Nationwide, about 38 percent of schools fell short of the standards this year, according to The Associated Press. 

Mobile County schools Superintendent Martha Peek said she thinks it would be fair to freeze the standards. 

"We haven't seen any information that we're going to be living in a perfect world in 2014," Peek said, adding that the 100 percent goal is "unrealistic." 

Keeping the standards where they are currently, she said, "lets us continue to work in a productive way to assure student learning." 

Critics have said that No Child Left Behind over-emphasizes standardized test scores and too harshly penalizes schools that do not meet standards — requiring that students be offered transfers to better performing schools and that some schools be re-staffed. But proponents have said the act has made schools examine their test scores more carefully, making sure that it's not just the average student who is passing, but all groups of students. 

Since the act became law, educators have said the 100 percent goal by 2014 was unattainable, and most thought the act — which should have been up for reauthorization in 2007 — would be revised by now. But it seems to have been placed on a back burner and so far has hardly been a topic during the 2012 presidential race. 

The state currently uses the Alabama Reading and Mathematics Test in grades three to eight and the Alabama High School Graduation Exam to rate its schools. 

The school board is scheduled to vote on the matter at a meeting in Montgomery on May 10, and officials hope the federal government will answer quickly, before June 20, as the state goes through the lengthy process of rating its schools over the summer. 

The state typically announces which schools have met the standards during the first week of August. 

Eleven states that applied for waivers under an earlier deadline were given waivers: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Twenty-six additional states and the District of Columbia have submitted applications for a waiver during a second round.