This letter to the editor by Kristine Cohn, Secretary's Regional Representative in Region V, appeared in the Northwest Indiana Times on April 30, 2007.

Your April 3 article on the No Child Left Behind Act ("No Child Left Behind Fails to Assess Students With Varying Capabilities") opens with a glaring error that calls into question the entire premise of the piece.

NCLB does not require "all but 1 percent" of students with disabilities at a particular school or district to take the same standardized test as their peers. It calls for all but 1 percent of the entire student population to take the test. This allows a significant portion of disabled students to be tested using an assessment that takes into account their significant cognitive disabilities. The difference is fundamental.

There is more good news. The U.S. Department of Education this month announced new rules allowing states to establish modified achievement standards and assessments for up to 2 percent of its student population. These alternate assessments are focused on an additional group of students with disabilities who are capable of achieving high standards, but who might not reach grade level in the same time frame as their peers.

The purpose of No Child Left Behind is not to make teachers turn "gray faster," but to help students gain the fundamental skills to obtain gainful employment and reach their full potential. To that end, more than $21 million in federal grants for technical assistance will be provided to help states develop these new, modified assessments. This is in addition to federal special education grants for Illinois and Indiana totaling $511 million and $257 million, respectively.

Nationwide, special education funding has increased 56 percent since 2001, when President Bush took office.

Founded on the principle that all children can learn and must be taught, NCLB was designed to combat the persistent achievement gap between the "haves" and "have-nots" of our society.

Too often, minority, low-income and disabled students were shuffled from grade to grade without achieving the fundamental skills needed to succeed as adults. They were victims of the "soft bigotry of low expectations," as the president put it when he signed NCLB into law over five years ago.

Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed has said the law "has resulted in educators focusing attention on those areas that need to improve the most."

Through the flexibility provided by this new regulation, testing will be better aligned with the needs of students with disabilities, and produce more meaningful results for educators and parents.

President John F. Kennedy once said, "Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation; but children have the equal right to develop their talent, their ability, and their motivation." That is the hopeful spirit behind the No Child Left Behind Act.

Kristine Cohn
Secretary's Regional Representative
Region V
U.S. Department of Education