NCLB Commission Starts Gathering Testimony

Having all the nation’s teachers meet the definition of being “highly qualified” is an admirable goal, but the No Child Left Behind Act’s current teacher-quality provisions make it hard to retain well-trained teachers, especially in schools serving poor and minority children, witnesses said last week in California at the first hearing called by an independent panel working to improve the law.

“This isn’t about money, this is about how we treat the people who do the work,” said Don Iglesias, the superintendent of the 32,000-student San Jose Unified School District. Teachers are working hard, he added during the hearing that was also webcast, but especially in low-performing schools, they are not receiving recognition for their efforts to improve performance.

Those thoughts were echoed by Pixie Hayward-Schickele, a 2nd grade teacher from the 35,000-student West Contra Costa Unified district and the chairwoman of the California Teachers Association’s working group on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. She testified that the No Child Left Behind law, the 4-year-old overhaul of the ESEA, has taken the joy out of teaching with its emphasis on reading and math...