[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 30, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5701-S5702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DODD:
  S. 3558. A bill to improve the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, 9 years ago I and many of my colleagues 
supported the No Child Left Behind Act because every American child 
deserves an education that opens up opportunities for success and 
prepares him or her for the 21st century economy.
  Today, because the high hopes we had for this law have not been 
realized, I rise to reintroduce the No Child Left Behind Reform Act.
  The objective of the law we passed nearly a decade ago was the right 
one. Students, parents, teachers, principals, and other stakeholders 
all agree that educators and schools should be held accountable for the 
results they are getting on behalf of our children.
  But instead of rewarding excellence, No Child Left Behind has turned 
out to be a law that punishes our schools, further straining those that 
already were in need of help. At times, the law has been implemented 
rigidly and with little regard for what is actually going on in 
schools. The previous administration's repeated failure to live up to 
funding promises has robbed our efforts to improve our education system 
of the resources that would make success possible.
  We can have accountability without a regime of draconian punishments 
for schools that fall behind. What we cannot have is an inflexible and 
unfunded mandate that fails school districts, teachers, and, worst of 
all, the very students whose futures are at stake.

[[Page S5702]]

  Although the legislation I am introducing today does not deal with 
the issue of funding, I do want to note that it simply will not work if 
we treat education as anything less than an urgent budget priority. 
This administration has made a solid commitment to education funding, 
and I was pleased to see that commitment bear fruit in the form of 
funding through the Recovery Act.
  I am also heartened to see that the administration supports 
comprehensive reform of No Child Left Behind. Reform does not mean 
repeal. The fundamental aim of the law was right. Accountability is as 
important now as it was when we passed the law.
  The two main reforms my legislation makes are designed to enforce 
accountability with measures that accurately reflect student 
performance and to encourage better teacher performance without the 
imposition of mandates that make it harder to ensure that students are 
taught by qualified and dedicated educators.
  First, my legislation will allow schools to be given credit for 
performing well on measures other than test scores when calculating 
student achievement.
  Test scores are important measures of what students know. But they 
are not the only, or even necessarily the best, measures of how much 
progress a school's student body has made. Dropout rates, participation 
in advanced placement courses, individual student improvement over 
time--these are metrics that can tell us not just where students are, 
but how far they have come.
  Unfortunately, current law only allows these measures to show how 
schools are failing, not to reflect how schools are succeeding. When 
more kids are taking advanced courses or fewer are dropping out, a 
school is doing something right--and it should receive credit for doing 
so.
  Second, my legislation reforms the teacher certification process.
  The next student, parent, or, indeed, teacher I meet who does not 
believe educators should be highly qualified will be the first. But 
under the current law, ``highly qualified'' is poorly defined.
  For instance, a high school science teacher could be required to hold 
degrees in biology, physics, and chemistry to be considered highly 
qualified. In small schools where there may be only one 7th or 8th 
grade teacher teaching all subjects, these teachers could similarly be 
required to hold degrees in every subject area.
  The result is a shortage of teachers and a surplus of confusion.
  My bill will allow states to create a single assessment covering 
multiple subjects for middle school teachers and allow states to issue 
a broad certification for science and social studies.
  No Child Left Behind was supposed to challenge our schools to do 
better. Instead, it has become an obstacle to progress, a struggle that 
often distracts from the business of education. As we reauthorize the 
law--and we should--we must reform it so that it encourages students, 
educators, and school administrators to do better instead of punishing 
them when they fall behind.
  Every American child deserves to be taught by a great teacher in a 
great school. Until we reach that goal, we must always dedicate our 
time and resources towards helping students succeed. Until our laws are 
moving us towards that goal, we must continue to reform them.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important 
legislation.
                                 ______