Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the chance the offer my recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This legislation is certainly among the most important the House will consider this year, and a matter of great personal importance to me, so I appreciate the chance to speak to you today and offer a few of my thoughts.
My district, the 29th District of California, encompasses over 125 public schools and eight school districts. The diversity of needs and of resources, just in my district alone, is staggering. We have school districts where the majority of students are economically disadvantaged; schools where ESL students make up a quarter or more of the student body. We have schools that are thriving despite these challenges and others that have faltered. All have been hampered by federal funding that has lagged far behind the commitments we made when the No Child Left Behind was first passed six years ago. From my seat on the Appropriations Committee, I am committed to pursuing greater federal support for education.
The legislation that you will be crafting over the coming weeks is crucial to the future of our nation. I want to impress on the Committee my support for the broad goals we set with the No Child Left Behind Act. The principle that every child deserves a quality education and a real chance in life is a bedrock one and one from which we must never waver. I am a strong supporter of accountability, as are most of the teachers, parents, and administrators I speak to and meet on a regular basis. But we all agree that accountability must be done right. We have to choose our metrics carefully, making sure that we incentivize good practices and set realistic goals. I believe that, several reforms of the original NCLB are necessary.
The first aspect I want to highlight is my support for metrics that take into account the full complexity of measuring student achievement and give states the ability to develop innovative systems to measure and track their progress. The need for this reform is particularly great for California’s schools, which have much higher proportions of at-risk subgroups than most states. I believe that the law should be changed to accommodate a growth model of student achievement.
The advent of sophisticated technologies to track students opens the door to a more nuanced approach to measuring academic progress. Such data will also allow schools and teachers to target interventions more effectively, recognizing students at risk of failing or dropping out and reaching out to help them before their problems become intractable.
We should reform the way we respond when a school fails to reach its proscribed level of Average Yearly Progress. For example, we should consider targeting supplemental educational services to the specific subgroups that failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress. Further, the emphasis should be on providing teachers with the tools to succeed, rather than rushing to classify them as failing and beyond hope.
Next, I want to touch on a point that I know you have heard a lot: The way in which have we measured participation rates is broken. Between parents who opt their children out of standardized testing and special education students, schools that are success stories are being penalized and classified as failing for reasons out of their control. I hope you will draft a bill that fixes the most punitive and distorting aspects of the participation rate requirements.
Finally, I believe that we should place an emphasis on parental involvement. All our efforts at the federal level will be for naught if we do not help parents invest their time and energy into furthering their children’s educations. One possible approach I want to highlight would be to expand the Parental Information and Resource Centers program.
The PIRCs would establish understandable and timely communications with parents, keeping them apprised of the success or failure of their child’s school. The PIRCs would help parents understand exactly why a school is failing, what the state is doing about it, and what options they have available to them to make the best choice for their child. By empowering parents with information, we will encourage them to take an active role in their children’s educational lives. Whether through PIRCs or some other avenue, keeping parents informed is a best practice that we should encourage through federal legislation.
Mr. Chairman, in addition to my testimony here today, I will be submitting some written materials from Parent Teacher Associations and School Districts within my district that I hope the you will consider. I thank the Committee for your attention. Please know that I stand ready and willing to assist you in any way I can.