Memorandum

Last week, the Department of Education released final regulations for No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which cover Title I and provisions concerning accountability, parental options and teacher quality. After the consideration of comments filed during the comment period, these regulations are expected to provide states and districts with final guidance in implementing NCLB. Many education organizations urged DOE to give greater flexibility to states and districts in implementing NCLB. But the finalized regulations reaffirm most of those proposed in August.

The new regulations have been criticized as inflexible and unreasonably burdensome. In particular, the requirement that students exercising choice must be transferred to higher performing schools even if they have no capacity, has raised concerns. Critics warn that the requirement could lead to overcrowding and diminished achievement in better schools. The requirement may also force districts to shift funds from programs such as technology to pay for the extra teachers and facilities upgrades in well performing schools.

Here is a summary of the various regulations by subject:

Adequate Yearly Progress

• The new regulations require states to submit evidence to the secretary for peer review that thoroughly describe the state’s accountability system and demonstrate how AYP provisions have been integrated. Furthermore states may continue to use current accountability systems if those systems integrate adequate yearly progress as defined in the statute and regulations into its system.
   
• Students with disabilities will not be excluded from state accountability systems. Grade level academic content and achievement standards that apply to all public schools and public school students in the state will be applied to alternate assessments for students with disabilities. However, the Department expects a Notice of Public Rulemaking Making (NPRM) in order to develop a policy for exception for students with severe cognitive disabilities.
   
• States are required to use other indicators other than graduation rates to determine whether or not a school or LEA has made adequate yearly progress.

School Improvement

•  Maintains the previous language requiring a LEA to count as a “full school year” of improvement any year in which a school is identified for school improvement after the beginning of the school year. Also, SEAs must make assessment data available for a given school year to LEAs “in such time as to allow for the identification” for improvement prior to the beginning of the next school year.
   
• The regulations maintain that until a restructured school makes AYP for two consecutive years, the LEA must continue to offer public school choice options and make available supplemental educational services to eligible students enrolled in the school. Significantly, an LEA may not use lack of capacity to deny an eligible student the opportunity to transfer to another school not identified for improvement.
   
• SEAs and LEAs are responsible for ensuring that supplemental educational service providers made available to parents include some providers that can service students with disabilities with any necessary accommodations, with our without assistance of the SEA or LEA.
   
• States may require that supplemental service providers, as a condition of approval, demonstrate that their instructional strategies are based on scientifically based research.
   
• A LEA is required to spend an amount equal to 20 percent of its Title I, Part A allocation on choice-related transportation and supplemental services, unless a lesser amount is needed to meet parental demand. Within the 20-percent amount, an LEA has discretion to determine the allocation of resources to choice-related transportation or supplemental education services, provided that it spends at least one-quarter of the total or an amount equal of 5 percent of its Part A allocation on each activity.

Teacher Quality

• Regulations specify that teachers pursuing certification through alternative routes must receive high-quality professional development that is sustained, intensive, and classroom-focused in order to have a positive and lasting impact on classroom instruction, before and while teaching; participate in a program of intensive supervision that consists of structured guidance and regular ongoing support for teachers or a teacher mentoring program; assume functions as a teacher only for a specified period of time not to exceed three years, and demonstrate satisfactory progress toward full certification as prescribed by the state.
   
• Reaffirms the goal of having all teachers of core subjects highly qualified by 2005-06, which also includes limited English proficiency and students with disabilities teachers.