Local educators react to plans for revamping NCLB

School districts in the Rio Grande Valley are used to change, and however the federal government revamps its omnibus law that assesses student achievement, they will adapt.

Last week, the Obama administration proposed replacing the current benchmark in assessing schools’ success — Adequate Yearly Progress — with another system that would look at how well teachers are preparing students for college and the workforce, The Washington Post reported.

This comes a week after the Texas Education Agency announced the state’s plans to upgrade its accountability system with its new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR. That new system, which takes effect in the 2011-2012 school year, includes new tests for students in third through eighth grade and will require high school students to pass 12 end-of-course assignments — beginning with the graduating class of 2015, which is this year’s current seventh grade students — in order to receive a diploma.

"I think the focus is good," said Daniel King, superintendent of the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district. "Some of the changes being discussed (at the federal level), I call it democracy at work. We’re used to them changing it."

Texas has had accountability systems in place for its public schools since the 1980s. But when the federal No Child Left Behind Act took effect in 2003, schools had to adhere to two different, and sometimes conflicting, standards.

Though the state and federal governments look at the same standardized tests students take, they assess them differently. The federal government looks at how well students with limited English proficiency and those receiving services under special education.

"The focus on these (subgroups) is good, (but) is challenging because when (students) get to the secondary level, the LEP student only has (the test) available in English," King said.

Until last year, PSJA High School failed to meet federal benchmarks because its students with limited English proficiency were not scoring high enough on some of the standardized tests. But that campus met state requirements during that time and was given a "recognized" rating — the second highest in the state’s accountability system — by the state for 2009.

Having to comply with two different accountability systems is difficult and sometimes unfair, said Weslaco school district Superintendent Richard Rivera, because a school can meet and even exceed standards set by one entity and fail benchmarks in another.

But Rivera said he’s more concerned about the coming changes to the state’s accountability system because it will become harder for students to earn their diplomas.

"It is very difficult to change from one set of plans to another (but we) still have time with the seventh graders," Rivera said.