U-46 candidates talk No Child Left Behind reform

Five of six candidates for Elgin Area School District U-46 attended a Citizens Advisory Council candidate's forum last week at South Elgin High School.

Among the questions posed was one about future changes to the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Here are responses from challengers Kevin Echevarria and Gary Percy, and incumbents Donna Smith, Joyce Fountain and Dale Spencer. Challenger Ed Stade did not attend the forum.

Q. No Child Left Behind is coming up for reauthorization before Congress. What changes do you feel must be made?

Echevarria: The accountability factor needs work. We must approach testing differently. If you don't meet a certain standard under the current system, you fail. The growth that a student has made isn't taken into consideration.

Fountain: What I think we need to see is fewer unfunded mandates. I think an addition to that we need to acknowledge that a test on a certain day is not a full measure of competency. It certainly provides a snapshot. We need to look at additional models and modes of evaluation and assessment. The idea that academic success means improvement and moving forward needs to look at where students were, what type of gains they made. All of that needs to be part of a formal assessment.

Percy: As a member of (U.S.) Rep. Melissa Bean's advisory committee, I helped draft reforms we'd like to see in No Child Left Behind. A number of which centered around how you measure progress. A change in subgroup size, funding, growth-models and standards were among them. There's a lot of variations out there on what you can do. No Child Left Behind did focus the country's attention on the deficiencies in education, but a cookie-cutter approach is not the answer.

Smith: I do believe in No Child Left Behind's concept to have every student learn. I do like the idea of standards, knowing what a child should know at what grade level. One of the problems is, we don't acknowledge progress. If you improve 5 percent from one year to another, that's a great achievement. There needs to be more consistent testing. The state keeps changing the test. We have implemented the Measure of Academic Progress test in the district, that better focuses on students academic deficiency, and guides teachers instruction.

Spencer: Conceptually, No Child Left Behind is a great idea. But it definitely is a snapshot. Taking that test one time a year is different from what we've been working for on a current and consistent basis. Principals are frustrated that when it comes to almost making adequately yearly progress, but were stopped short because a few students in a subgroup didn't perform well because of a cookie cutter method. That's a microcosm of what's going on in our district.