Hollow criticism on NCLB rules

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is not Dr. No.

State lawmakers itching to bail out of the No Child Left Behind Act portray Spellings as unsympathetic to requests for wiggle room in its accountability and achievement requirements.

They gloss over the fact that Virginia has already been given substantial leeway.

One of the most significant allowances permits Virginia schools to exclude test results for racial and disability sub-groups with fewer than 50 students when calculating academic progress.

The scores are included in overall locality and statewide charts, but the large subgroups in Virginia mean some schools meet federal requirements because they don't count racial minorities or children with learning disabilities.

The 50-child cut-off is the largest permitted under NCLB. Most states are required to count any subgroup of 30 or more.

The difference between 30 and 50 might seem esoteric, but it cuts to the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act. The law was designed to make sure students of all races and disabilities are learning, not just occupying a desk.

Spellings has approved far more changes in Virginia's academic plan than she has refused. The recent standoff is whether and how to test children who have recently moved to the United States and have limited English skills.

Virginia wants those children to be exempt from two rounds of reading assessments instead of the one allowed under the law. In addition, it wants to use a different reading test than the one required by the federal government.

State leaders fear the youngsters will be frustrated if they're forced to take tests in English before they have even a rudimentary grasp of the language.

That's a legitimate concern and Spellings acknowledged as much last week during a visit to Richmond. She admitted education experts haven't yet "cracked the code" on how best to test children with limited knowledge of English. But, she added, the only way to figure that out is to make schools accountable for those children's early progress, and emulate those that are successful.

Spellings is not hiding from her critics. Virginia is the 19th state she's visited, and she made a point to participate in a program hosted by the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, many of whose members are sympathetic to the changes the state is seeking.

There are no bad guys on either side of this argument and there is no Dr. No. There are simply disagreements about how to reach a goal that everyone supports: schools in which every child is learning.