School Board Straddles Line On Fight Over No Child Left Behind

The Loudoun School Board March last week a resolution indicating it would test its lower-level Limited English Proficiency students as requested by the U.S. Department of Education, but that the county school system would actively lobby Congress to allow alternative assessment methods.

While Curriculum Committee Chairman J. Warren Guerin (Sterling) and the school system's Assistant Superintendent of Instruction Sharon Ackerman made assurances that students would be tested as requested by the U.S. Department of Education, the resolution wasn't as specific.

The resolution states the school system will measure performance "in an educationally appropriate manner to determine their progress toward such proficiency."

The resolution goes on to state that the school system will report on "student and school performance in relation to the Virginia Accreditation Standards and the school Board's own adopted student Achievement Goals."

Loudoun's public schools found themselves in the middle of a public fight between the U.S. Department of Education and Virginia's Department of Education. Loudoun, like many of its public school colleagues in Virginia, have used what is called the Stanford English Language Proficiency test as a proxy test for the grade level Standards of Learning reading tests in grades three through eight for students who have been in the country less than one year.

The problem, according to the U.S. Department of Education, per a column in the Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, is that the SELP test has been determined to not meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind in the areas of technical quality and alignment.

Virginia's school districts then were stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Many Virginia educators, including Loudoun Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick and Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sharon Ackerman believe that measuring English assessment at grade level, as required by NCLB, for students who have only been in the country one year is unfair to those students. Loudoun and other jurisdictions had previously been allowed to use the SELP test as a proxy, but after a peer review by the federal branch, it was determined the test didn't meet criteria.

The Virginia Department of Education reached out to the state's Congressional delegation. In a letter signed by each member of the delegation to Spellings requested a one-year extension for using the SELP. In a response, Spellings essentially said no.

"Virginia is the only state still requesting to use an inappropriate and unapproved assessment for LEP students," Spellings wrote to Sen. John Warner (R-VA).

Ackerman originally presented a resolution to school board members-which was virtually identical to resolutions passed by Fairfax, Prince William and others-that said the school system "may" test Level 1 and 2 LEP students with the approved test. The board's Curriculum Committee Chairman J. Warren Geurin (Sterling) wanted to go in a different direction and a resolution he drafted changed the "may" to "will."

The concern on Geurin's behalf was that if the school system essentially opted out and bucked Spellings and the U.S. Department of Education, then federal funding for the county's schools would be in jeopardy. The resolution passed by the school board was dubbed a compromise between Geurin, Chairman Robert F. DuPree (Dulles) and Catoctin District representative Mark Nuzzaco.

"We were embroiled in an argument between the state Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Education on whether the U.S. Department of Education would approve a proxy test," Geurin said. "That decision has been made. They will not approve the continued use [of SELP]. A host of educators across the state were mightily ticked off and had a compelling desire to speak up. The folks at the state Department of Education worked closely with Senators Warner and Webb and the Congressional delegation to convince Department of Education to change their minds, those attempts have failed. At issue is should we thumb our nose? To his credit Chairman DuPree and members of the board showed us the path of working on language we could agree on and not language that ticked each other off. It's not what I started with certainly and not what Dr. Hatrick and Sharon Ackerman started with. But we are going to express ourselves."

While the school system essentially decided to fall in line, it made clear it would not stand silent. The resolution states "should the U.S. Department of Education continue to reject the use of alternative assessment methods as advocated by state and local educators ... Loudoun County Public Schools will work with other affected school districts and states to urge the United States Congress to enact immediately legislation to expressly permit local school districts to continue to use such alternative assessment methods as they deem appropriate until such time as Congress considers further changes" to No Child Left Behind.

The resolution passed 7-1-1 with Joseph Guzman (Sugarland Run) voting in opposition and Bob Ohneiser abstaining from the vote.

The discussion Tuesday was supposed to be in the form of an information item, but the rules were suspended to allow a vote on the item after 11 p.m. Tuesday evening, something Guzman noted in his dissent.