[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 16 (Thursday, February 3, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself and Ms. Snowe):
  S. 280. A bill to provide for flexibility and improvements in 
elementary and secondary education, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the No Child 
Left Behind Flexibility and Improvements Act. I am pleased to be joined 
in this effort by my colleague from Maine, Senator Snowe. Our 
legislation would give greater local control and flexibility to Maine 
and other states in their efforts to implement the No Child Left Behind 
Act, NCLB. It provides common sense reforms in the statute while 
retaining elements to help ensure transparency and accountability.
  Since the enactment of NCLB 9 years ago, I have had the opportunity 
to meet with numerous Maine educators to discuss their concerns with 
the law. In response to their concerns, Senator Snowe and I 
commissioned the Maine NCLB Task Force to examine the implementation 
issues facing Maine under both NCLB and the Maine Learning Results. Our 
task force included members from every county in our State, and had 
superintendents, teachers, principals, school board members, parents, 
business leaders, former State legislators, special education 
specialists, assessment experts, officials from the Maine Department of 
Education, and was chaired by a former Maine commissioner of education 
and a dean from the University of Maine's College of Education and 
Human Development. In other words, it was a broad-based commission that 
brought a great deal of expertise, experience, and perspective to the 
task force's work.
  After a year of study, the task force presented us with its final 
report outlining recommendations for possible statutory and regulatory 
changes to the act. The task force recommendations highlighted the need 
for greater flexibility for the Maine Department of Education and local 
schools in order to address various implementation concerns facing 
Maine. The legislation we are introducing today would make significant 
statutory changes designed to provide greater local control to Maine 
and greater flexibility to all States in their implementation efforts, 
not just Maine.
  First, our legislation would provide greater flexibility to states in 
the ways that they measure student progress in meeting state education 
standards. Current NCLB law has proven to be too restrictive. Our 
legislation would permit states to use additional models to more 
accurately track the progress of all students over time. Specifically, 
it would allow States to use a cohort growth model, which tracks the 
progress of the same group of students over time. It would also permit 
the use of an ``indexing'' model, where progress is measured based on 
the number of students whose scores improve from, for example, a 
``below-basic'' to a ``basic'' level, and not simply on the number of 
students who cross the ``proficient'' line. Even if a school is unable 
to meet the trajectory targets set by the NCLB time-line, a school 
would not be identified as failing to make AYP provided it demonstrates 
improved student achievement according to these additional models. We 
would also require the Secretary to provide examples of these models to 
give practical assistance to States in the design of these systems. 
While the trajectory goals set in the statute are certainly valuable, 
our legislation seeks to clarify that States should be granted greater 
flexibility in the design of different accountability systems provided 
that they are consistent with the principle of improved student 
performance.
  Second, our legislation would provide schools with better notice 
regarding possible performance issues, allowing schools a chance to 
identify and work with a particular group of students before being 
identified. It would expand the existing ``safe-harbor'' provisions to 
allow more schools to qualify for this important protection. The 
changes made in our bill are in keeping with what assessment experts 
and teachers know--that significant gains in academic achievement tend 
to occur gradually and over time. In addition, the legislation 
addresses my concern about the statute's current requirement that all 
schools reach 100 percent proficiency by 2013-2014 by requiring the 
Secretary of Education to review progress by the States toward meeting 
this goal every three years, and allowing him to modify the time-line 
as necessary.

  Furthermore, the Task Force report raised important concerns that in 
some schools, special education students fear that they are being 
blamed for their school not making adequate yearly progress. Our 
legislation would allow the members of a special education student's 
Individual Education Plan, IEP, team to determine the best assessment 
for that individual student, and would permit the student's performance 
on that assessment to count for all NCLB purposes. This legislative 
change is also based on principles of fairness and common sense. Many 
times, it simply does not make sense to require a special needs student 
to take a grade-level assessment that educators and parents know he or 
she is not ready to take. Many special education students are referred 
for special education services precisely because they cannot meet 
grade-level expectations. Allowing the IEP team to determine the best 
test for each special needs student will bring an important improvement 
to the act while still ensuring accountability.
  Finally, our legislation would provide new flexibility for teachers 
of multiple subjects at the secondary school level to help them meet 
the ``highly qualified teacher'' requirements. Unfortunately, the 
current regulations place undue burdens on teachers at small and rural 
schools who often teach multiple subjects due to staffing needs, and on 
special education teachers who work with students on a variety of 
subjects throughout the day. Under the bill, provided these teachers 
are highly qualified for one subject they teach, they will be provided 
additional time and less burdensome avenues to satisfy the remaining 
requirements.
  While it has been some time since Maine's Task Force issued its 
report, its findings and recommendations remain valid. Our legislation 
is still necessary to provide greater flexibility and common sense 
modifications to address those key NCLB challenges identified in Maine. 
Our goals remain the same as those in NCLB: a good education for each 
and every child; well- qualified, committed teachers in every 
classroom; and increased transparency and accountability for every 
school. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle on these issues during the upcoming NCLB reauthorization 
process.
                                 ______