On Thursday of this week, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings appeared before the House Education and Workforce Committee. The hearing, which CEC President-elect Jamie Hopkins attended, was convened to hear testimony from Secretary Spellings and two other witnesses on the state of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.

While Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) stated that the focus of the hearing would not be on the Department’s efforts to assist students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Ms. Spellings announced two initiatives for NCLB flexibility that the Department is undertaking for displaced students. She said that the Department is providing flexibility to schools that have taken in displaced students by allowing those schools to count displaced students as a new subgroup or group for adequate yearly progress reporting purposes. In addition, Ms. Spellings said that schools in states that were greatly impacted by the hurricanes could, “using their good judgment” and following new Department of Education criteria, exercise the delay provisions of NCLB without seeking a waiver from the Department.

Secretary Spellings also stated that for those school districts and states that were affected by the hurricanes, the Department would provide $7,500 per student for this year only.

Spellings said that while NCLB is working it is still a work in progress that needs fine-tuning. For example, she said, according to the nation’s latest report card, high standards and accountability in the classroom are paying off. The secretary claimed that scores for African-American and Hispanic students are at an all-time high, particularly in the early grades and that more progress has been made in the last five years than the first 30 previous 30 years combined.

However, Secretary Spellings conceded that there are shortcomings in NCLB. She cited the situation in the 2003-2004 school year in which 2 million students were eligible for tutoring services, yet only 10 to 20 percent of those students actually received the services.

To read the full text of Ms. Spellings testimony before the House Education and
Workforce Committee, go to http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2005/09/09292005.html

Two other witnesses, Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman, Superintendent of the Richmond, VA, public school system, and Kati Haycock, Director of the Education Trust, also provided testimony at the hearing on Thursday.

To read the statement from Dr. Jewell-Sherman, go to http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/109th/fc/spellingsnclb092905/jewell-sherman.htm

To read the statement from Ms. Haycock, go to http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/109th/fc/spellingsnclb092905/haycock.htm

To read Chairman Boehner’s opening statement at the hearing, go to http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/109th/fc/spellingsnclb092905/osboehner.htm.

© 2005 ConnSENSE Bulletin