Reflections on U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling's Visit to the Valley

By Susan Carlson, Executive Director, ABEC
April 2007

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings

The Arizona Business & Education Coalition (ABEC) received an unexpected but welcomed phone call from the U.S. Department of Education in mid-March 2007 asking for assistance. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings (pictured right) wanted to visit Phoenix and meet with a small group of business leaders to discuss NCLB, reauthorization and workforce preparation. Her office asked ABEC to convene such a group, limited to 17-20 attendees.

On April 3, 2007, Secretary Spellings visited Arizona to seek advice and met with business and education leaders convened by ABEC. Our informal discussion included top representatives from Tucson Electric Power, Motorola, Intel, State Farm, Quarles & Brady, Ensynch, Boeing, Sumco, Rock Creek Innovations, BASIS Charter School, the Arizona School Boards Association, and public school district superintendents.

We told Secretary Spellings that ABEC believes that the vision, principles and transparency of NCLB need to be retained and that reauthorization of the Act must remedy existing obstacles to its success. Secretary Spellings described the reauthorization process as a "journey" forward, informed now by the experiences of the past five years of implementing NCLB and that the presence and pressure of this federal law has enabled these important conversations to take place.

An ABEC concern includes the particular challenges with our vast and ever expanding population of English Language Learners. Achieving a "highly performing" rating for schools highly impacted by English Language Learners is nearly impossible since this group is tested under NCLB after just one year in this country, in English. The result under the current system is almost always a failing grade, labeling the school as "underperforming" and demoralizing students, school staff and the community.

Secretary Spellings stated that two thirds of our English Language Learner students are U.S. citizens and that 85 percent of these children have been here for five years or more. She maintained that these students should be proficient in English by the 3rd grade and take their academic tests in English each year from that point forward. That sounds like good policy; and there's no doubt for that to be successful, children must be able to speak Engish; but, it's not the reality we face here in Arizona. Our non-English speakers are primarily Hispanic, many first-generation Americans. Other states allow their English Language Learners three years of testing in their native language and then testing in English. Requiring that our English language learners be tested in English each year puts Arizona in a losing position.

Arizona's schools also struggle with the special education student testing objectives of NCLB. Some students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP's) require testing accommodations that invalidate their scores and consequently cause their school to fail in the special education category. In addition, special education teachers need to be "highly qualified" in all areas, yet there is insufficient federal funding to support these specially qualified teachers and aides making compliance with NCLB that much more difficult. Secretary Spellings said that while we can be nuanced about accountability, federal assessments must be valid, reliable and comparable and therefore not include special accommodations.

Regarding 21st Century workforce readiness, we told the Secretary that every student must be prepared to go on to post-secondary education, and to do that, we must first close the achievement gap. ABEC's Arizona Academic Scholars Initiative, already adopted by 91 schools in 8 districts with Pima County soon coming on board, provides a rigorous ninth to twelfth grade curriculum focusing on the middle 50 percent of students. Secretary Spellings commended the Scholars Initiative and said that nationally, there is a pretty severe lack of alignment between the programs eligible for $900 million in SMART grants and the federal requirements. ABEC's Scholars Initiative meets the federal requirements. ABEC will work with participating school districts to alert students to these grants.

Arizona's economic vitality demands that we provide the resources and commitment to allow public schools to compete. ABEC believes that NCLB makes educators accountable and that appropriately modified, it should be the rallying call for improved 21st century education.