Dear Congressman Ferguson

September 2007

Dear Congressman Ferguson,

As an elementary school teacher and a resident of New Jersey, I have great interest in the current congressional debate over the reauthorization of President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. I think several positive outcomes have resulted from the current NCLB legislation, including increased numbers of highly qualified teachers teaching in our nation's classrooms, as well as increased availability of information for parents and family members. But, I do have some concerns about the NCLB legislation. I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on the current policies, as well as several of the President's suggestions for changes to the proposed reauthorization of NCLB.

First, the current bill calls for annual assessments in order to monitor student progress. Due to this requirement, New Jersey students are now required to complete at least one full week of standardized testing every year in the elementary grades 3-6. As an early childhood educator, I find these annual standardized assessments to be very developmentally inappropriate. Research has shown that rubrics, project based assessments, and ongoing anecdotal observations are better methods to monitor the progress of young students. This is due to the developmental levels of these students, which is impacted by issues such as age, attention span, and ability to perform on paper and pencil tasks. It is hard for our young students to be enthusiastic and interested in school when they are required to devote so much of their academic time to preparing for and taking a developmentally inappropriate standardized test every year. I strongly urge you to consider changing this requirement to allow for non annual assessments that are not standardized in order to meet the developmental needs of our younger students.

These required annual assessments were created for the purpose of demonstrating that all students can read and do math at grade level by the year 2014. This goal was set in the current NCLB Act in order to increase accountability. As an educated person, I realize that this is statistically impossible. Additionally, this requirement doesn't take into account the differentiated needs of special education students and English Language Learners, as well as students that just have a bad day on the day of the test. This section of the NCLB legislation needs to be examined and reworked in order to represent a goal that is attainable, rather than a goal that sounds good.

The newly proposed reauthorization of NCLB also calls for the allotment of many additional resources, including tools to close the achievement gap in math and science, resources to prepare high school students for higher education in schools serving low income families, and tools for under performing schools. I think that all of these programs would have positive benefits to students and teachers. But, I certainly hope that Congress reviews these recommendations to ensure that FEDERAL (not state or local) funds can provide for these services. A new program is only as good as the money that is invested into it. If the federal government cannot pay for the services that it mandates, it isn't really fair to require states and local towns to fund these programs.

Additionally, the newly proposed reauthorization of NCLB recommends many funds and scholarships that allow for students to attend private, charter, and religious schools. As a taxpayer, I am strongly opposed to tax monies being used to fund these types of programs. Private, charter, and religious schools do not have the same accountability as public schools. They can refuse students, teach religious ideas, and opt out of mandated accountability programs. Therefore, private funds (not public tax monies) should be used by the students that choose to attend these programs.

There are some positive aspects to the NCLB Act. But many of the current policies, as well as the policies proposed in the reauthorization, need to be examined and altered. I urge you to consider my suggestions, as well as those of other educators when you place your vote.

Thank you.
Ellen Johnson