Miller’s NCLB Priorities Spark Fresh Debate

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., discusses his priorities late last month for the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act. At right is Debra Silimeo of Hager Sharp Communications.

Key congressman offers support for ‘multiple measures’

By Mark Walsh and Alyson Klein

The chairman of the House education committee has pledged to seek significant revisions to the No Child Left Behind Act, but education lobbyists say it’s still too early to say whether such plans will result in major changes to the types of measures states may use to gauge student achievement under the law.

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., says he would like to allow states to be able to use so-called multiple measures to assess student progress under the law, giving graduation rates as one example. But the question of including alternative measures in the bill to reauthorize the main federal K-12 law has become a major point of discussion, as lawmakers work to craft a bipartisan measure.

In what some observers viewed as a subtle softening of his staunch support for the NCLB law’s accountability system, Rep. Miller late last month signaled that he had come to agree that the statute was in...