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Hearing on Accountability, No Child Left Behind, Monday, May 22,2006

Greetings All:

Here is some important information.

Stephanie

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2006



Contact: Jennifer W. Adams
Phone: 202/736-3858(O) OR 202/285-4268(C)

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR:

MONDAY, MAY 22, 2006 @ 9:30 AM EST
Commission to Hold Third Hearing in Atlanta
Improving Achievement for All Students:
Is NCLB Accountability Producing Results?

Washington, DC---Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy
Thompson and former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes announced the third
in a
series of hearings on the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This
hearing will help inform the Commission's recommendations on how NCLB
should hold schools accountable for student achievement and whether
existing adequate yearly progress requirements are effective. The
hearing will take place on Monday, May 22, 2006 at 9:30 AM EST and
will be held at
the Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Commission on No Child Left Behind is an independent, bipartisan
effort to improve the No Child Left Behind Act and ensure it is a
more useful force in closing the achievement gap that separates
disadvantaged
children and their peers. The Commission will uncover the successes
of NCLB, as well as provisions which need to be changed or
eliminated. The Commission, after a year of hearings, analysis and
research, will report
to Congress and the Administration in early 2007 with its
recommendations.

WHAT: Hearing on Accountability

WHO: Commission on No Child Left Behind
WITNESSES : Dr. Kathy Cox, Superintendent, Georgia Department of
Education Mr. John Winn, Commissioner, Florida Department of
Education Mr. J. Alvin Wilbanks, CEO/Superintendent, Gwinnett County
Public
Schools, Georgia Mr. Lester McKee, Executive Director for Research
Planning and Accountability, Atlanta, Georgia Public Schools Ms.
Merchuria Chase Williams, PhD., President, Georgia Association of
Educators
**Additional witnesses may be announced**

WHEN: Monday, May 22, 2006 @ 9:30 AM EST

WHERE: The Ferst Center for the Arts at Georgia Tech, 349 Ferst
Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0468
**THE HEARING WILL BE LIVE ON THE INTERNET AT: www.nclbcommission.org
<http://www.nclbcommission.org/> **

BACKGROUND:
The No Child Left Behind Act ushered in a new public discussion over
how to hold our schools accountable for increasing student
achievement and closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged
children and their peers. NCLB's adequate yearly progress (AYP)
provisions required States to set up an accountability plan that
would ensure that all children reach state standards by the end of
the 2013-2014 school year. These plans have required schools to meet
increasing levels of student achievement, by subgroups of
disadvantaged children. The lists of schools which have not made AYP
have generated significant discussion
among policymakers, researchers and the general public. The question
for the Commission at this hearing is whether the existing system of
AYP is the best way to assess which schools are meeting state
standards
and which, and how many, schools should be identified as not meeting
such standards.

AYP BACKGROUND:
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) is a State developed measure of
progress for all school districts and schools in the State. After
the passage of NCLB, States had to define AYP in a manner that
requires progress by
disadvantaged subgroups of students, as well as the overall student
population with the express purpose of narrowing of the achievement
gap.


States must define AYP so that all students are expected to improve
and that by 2014 all students will achieve at the State
defined "proficient" level on State reading and math academic
assessments. In addition, in order for a school to make AYP, 95% of
each subgroup must participate in the assessments.

When NCLB was passed, states set the starting point, or
achievement "bar," to reach 100 percent proficiency. States were
free to choose where to set the initial bar based upon the lowest-
achieving demographic subgroup, or the lowest-achieving schools in
the State, whichever was higher. Once the initial bar was
established, NCLB required the States to gradually increase the
threshold of the percentage of students who must obtain proficiency
in equal increments. The thresholds must be raised at least once
every three years.

Schools and districts that fail to meet their AYP goals are
determined to be 'in need of improvement.' Once this determination
is made, a series of escalating reforms and eventually sanctions are
imposed to enable the school or district to meet AYP.

ALTERNATIVE ACCOUNTABILITY MODELS - MEASURING GROWTH: Much attention
has been focused on whether the existing AYP requirements are the
best way to assess the impact our schools are having on student
achievement. Many policymakers have advocated for models which track
growth in student achievement, either on an individual student
basis, or
grades of children. At the last hearing by the Commission,
Commissioners learned that most States do not have all of the pieces
in place to track the academic growth of individual children from
year to year, creating a possible barrier to the adoption of a growth
model based accountability system.

The U.S. Department of Education is presently evaluating whether to
approve the use of growth models by States under a recently announced
growth model pilot program. At this hearing, the Commission will
examine the aspects of existing and proposed growth model systems and
their impact on closing the achievement gap.

DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:
Any persons or organizations wishing to submit written comments for
the hearing record may do so by sending such comments electronically
to nclbfeedback@... please include 'Hearing Testimony'
in the subject line. Written comments can also be sent through the
U.S. Mail to: The Commission on No Child Left Behind, One Dupont
Circle, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036. ALL WRITTEN COMMENTS
MUST BE RECEIVED BY COB May 30, 2006. Written comments mailed to the
Commission must be accompanied by an electronic version on computer
disk. Those submitting comments must clearly identify themselves
with a valid mailing address and clearly indicating any affiliations
the comments represent.

Submissions will be included in the record of the hearing at the
discretion of the Commission. The Commission will not alter the
content of your submission, but does reserve the right to format it
accordingly. Submissions must be no longer than 10 pages in length,
including any attachments.

The Commission on No Child Left Behind is funded by the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the
Joyce Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
Carnegie
Corporation of New York, and the Spencer Foundation. This document is
published to communicate the results of the Commission's work. The
findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in the
Commission's documents are entirely those of the author(s) and should
not be
attributed in any manner to the donors.