Parents and Community Leaders Respond to NCLB

On Thursday, September 29, 2005, the Public Education Network (PEN), in partnership with the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, held the first in a series of ten hearings that will be held nationwide to collect testimony on the impact that NCLB has had on families and communities. This is the second year that PEN has hosted the hearings, which are supplemented by a website on which they are also collecting public commentary. At the end of the series of hearings, PEN will compile the testimony into what is sure to be a powerful report on the real impact of NCLB implementation.

This is the second such hearing that has been held in New York City. Each year of NCLB implementation raises a host of new issues, as new requirements are phased in and new schools are labeled “in need of improvement” under the law. PEN was especially eager to focus on what PEN Senior Vice President Amanda Broun termed the “three-legged stool” of NCLB: testing, accountability, and communication.

The hearing featured two panels of high school students, one panel of parents, and one panel of community leaders. Each panel offered fresh insights into No Child Left Behind as it is being experienced and implemented in New York. After giving their testimony, panelists responded to questions from a panel of distinguished hearing officers: Fred Frelow, Associate Director of Working Communities for the Rockefeller Foundation; Elise Boddie, Director of the Education Group of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; Michael Rebell, Executive Director and Counsel for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, Inc.; Lee Daniels, Vice President of Research and Publications for the National Urban League ; and Roscoe Brown, Executive Director of the Center for Urban Educational Policy at the CUNY Graduate Center.

The students were outspoken in their frustration over unequal distribution of resources; though many of them went to specialized or small public high schools that receive attention and funding from the city and state, they all had seen a sibling, friend, or at times students in a neighboring school face large hurdles to achieving academic excellence. When asked whether it is possible for all students to achieve proficiency on the state tests, and if so, how schools might make it possible, one student replied that schools simply need to make obtaining an education less of a battle for students. As it stands they often face poor teaching, dismal classrooms, and, as one student put it, metal detectors that are a lot newer than the textbooks.

The panel of community leaders featured Wayne Ho, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families; Jennifer Cowan, Program Specialist for The After-School Corporation; and Kenneth D. Cohen, President of the Northeast Queens Branch and the Education Chair for the Metropolitan Council of the New York City NAACP Branches. These panelists were clearly passionate in their advocacy for children, and frustrated by the difficulties they faced in working with the enormous school system in New York City. Mr. Ho noted the challenges faced by parents who did not speak English, and the very limited capacity of the school system to deal with the diversity of languages and backgrounds of its students.

The speakers underlined the incredible resources that were going untapped in many communities due to a lack of communication and cooperation from local schools. Mr. Ho also noted that often community leaders have had little experience in education, and fail to understand school culture as much as school leaders fail to understand community groups, a combination that makes collaboration challenging. All three panelists also agreed that, even with the stringent reporting requirements of NCLB, they had difficulties obtaining specific information on NCLB test results from schools, and Ms. Cowan noted that The After-School Corporation, which is an approved provider of Supplemental Educational Services, often was prevented from getting into schools for weeks or months because they had not been informed which schools qualified for tutoring help.

The parent panel was the last to speak, but in many ways featured the most powerful testimony, from Victoria Bousquet of Brooklyn and Carol Rogers of the Bronx. Ms. Bousquet argued passionately that accountability and testing programs are a good idea only if they are preceded by appropriate resources and preparation, a point that Ms. Rogers echoed. Without a science lab, Ms. Rogers argued, it is ridiculous to expect a student to know and understand laboratory sciences.

The parents also took issue with the narrow focus of No Child Left Behind. Undeniably, both women agreed, having knowledge in academic subjects is important. But both expected much more from their children's education: self-esteem, social and communication skills, an appreciation for culture, and preparedness for college and job interviews. Their testimony on this topic was very compelling, and highlighted the seeming disconnect between school policies and the expectations that parents have for their schools.

Finishing with the parents was also appropriate for this hearing, as they discussed the power that parents have to push change and improvement at their children's schools, but emphasized the difficulty that working parents have gathering information and finding a way to make their voices heard. This is, seemingly, one of the largest failings of NCLB: schools have not properly communicated to parents the state of their schools, nor the options they have under the law.

Undoubtedly, the testimony from all of these panels will help PEN to create a powerful document of national voices for change in NCLB. The nine other panels will take place over the coming months in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Austin, Detroit, Orlando, Memphis, and cities in Massachusetts, California, and Ohio. As they did last year, PEN will produce a report that will not only offer helpful insight into the progress of NCLB on a local level, but will be a tool for lobbyists and advocates as NCLB's 2007 reauthorization date approaches.

Prepared by Nelly Ward, September 29, 2005