Congressman supportive of NCLB Commission’s report on education law

      The bipartisan 15-member Commission on No Child Left Behind, led by former governors Tommy Thompson, R-Wis., and Roy Barnes, D-Ga., Tuesday issued a report, Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation’s Children, which reviews the success of the NCLB law and recommends improvements.

      The commission, which was created by the non-partisan Aspen Institute, determined that while NCLB has made important strides toward strengthening standards-based education and holding schools accountable for ensuring that students learn, the existence of 50 different sets of academic standards, state assessments and definitions of proficiency create tremendous variability across our nation in the subject matter our students are learning. For example, comparisons of student proficiency on state assessments and student proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as “the nation’s report card,” show wide variation in student learning across states.

      “Our children deserve a high-quality education that will prepare them for the jobs of the future, regardless of where they live,” said Ehlers, a member of the House Education & Labor Committee. “Their parents deserve to know that we are doing all we can to ensure that this happens.”

      Beyond NCLB recognizes the need for voluntary model standards at the national level. Ehlers, with Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., introduced the Standards to Provide Educational Achievement for All Kids (SPEAK) Act (H.R. 325). The bill calls for the National Assessment Governing Board to create voluntary education content standards for science and math, and gives states incentives to adopt the standards.

      “I’m very pleased that the commission calls for voluntary national standards, and takes an approach similar to the SPEAK Act,” said Ehlers, who also has introduced the Science Accountability Act (H.R. 35), which holds schools accountable for ensuring that students learn science, as NCLB already does for math and reading. “I applaud the commissioners for recommending that student performance in science become part of the school’s adequate yearly progress calculation. Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects are directly tied to our national economy and we must do all we can to ensure that all our students are equipped with at least a basic understanding of STEM subjects.”

      Beyond NCLB contains several additional recommendations that Ehlers hopes will be reviewed during upcoming Education & Labor Committee hearings on the reauthorization of the NCLB Act.

      More information about the commission and its report is available at www.nclbcommission.org.