Joint Organizational Statement on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act

List of 156 Signers Updated December 13,2011

The undersigned education, civil rights, religious, children’s, disability, and civic organizations are committed to the No Child Left Behind Act’s objectives of strong academic achievement for all children and closing the achievement gap. We believe that the federal government has a critical role to play in attaining these goals. We endorse the use of an accountability system that helps ensure all children, including children of color, from low-income families, with disabilities, and of limited English proficiency, are prepared to be successful, participating members of our democracy.

While we all have different positions on various aspects of the law, based on concerns raised during the implementation of NCLB, we believe the following significant, constructive corrections are among those necessary to make the Act fair and effective.

Among these concerns are: over-emphasizing standardized testing, narrowing curriculum and instruction to focus on test preparation rather than richer academic learning; over-identifying schools in need of improvement; using sanctions that do not help improve schools; inappropriately excluding low-scoring children in order to boost test results; and inadequate funding. Overall, the law’s emphasis needs to shift from applying sanctions for failing to raise test scores to holding states and localities accountable for making the systemic changes that improve student achievement.

Recommended Changes in NCLB

Progress Measurement

1. Replace the law’s arbitrary proficiency targets with ambitious achievement targets based on rates of success actually achieved by the most effective public schools.
2. Allow states to measure progress by using students’ growth in achievement as well as their performance in relation to pre-determined levels of academic proficiency.
3. Ensure that states and school districts regularly report to the government and the public their progress in implementing systemic changes to enhance educator, family, and community capacity to improve student learning.
4. Provide a comprehensive picture of students’ and schools’ performance by moving from an overwhelming reliance on standardized tests to using multiple indicators of student achievement in addition to these tests.
5. Fund research and development of more effective accountability systems that better meet the goal of high academic achievement for all children

Assessments

1. Help states develop assessment systems that include district and school-based measures in order to provide better, more timely information about student learning.
2. Strengthen enforcement of NCLB provisions requiring that assessments must:
   • Be aligned with state content and achievement standards;
   • used for purposes for which they are valid and reliable;
   • Be consistent with nationally recognized professional and technical standards;
   • Be of adequate technical quality for each purpose required under the Act;
   • Provide multiple, up-to-date measures of student performance including measures that assess higher order thinking skills and understanding; and
   • Provide useful diagnostic information to improve teaching and learning.
3. Decrease the testing burden on states, schools and districts by allowing states to assess students annually in selected grades in elementary, middle schools, and high schools.

Building Capacity

1. Ensure changes in teacher and administrator preparation and continuing professional development that research evidence and experience indicate improve educational quality and student achievement.
2. Enhance state and local capacity to effectively implement the comprehensive changes required to increase the knowledge and skills of administrators, teachers, families, and communities to support high student achievement.

Sanctions

1. Ensure that improvement plans are allowed sufficient time to take hold before applying sanctions; sanctions should not be applied if they undermine existing effective reform efforts.
2. Replace sanctions that do not have a consistent record of success with interventions that enable schools to make changes that result in improved student achievement.

Funding

1. Raise authorized levels of NCLB funding to cover a substantial percentage of the costs that states and districts will incur to carry out these recommendations, and fully fund the law at those levels without reducing expenditures for other education programs.
2. Fully fund Title I to ensure that 100 percent of eligible children are served.

We, the undersigned, will work for the adoption of these recommendations as central structural changes needed to NCLB at the same time that we advance our individual organization’s proposals.

1. Advancement Project
2. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
3. American Association of School Administrators
4. American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA)
5. American Association of School Personnel Administrators (AASPA)
6. American Association of University Women
7. American Baptist Women’s Ministries
8. American Civil Liberties Union
9. American Counseling Association
10. American Dance Therapy Association
11. American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
12. American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA)
13. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
14. American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
15. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
16. American Humanist Association
17. American Music Therapy Association
18. American Occupational Therapy Association
19. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
20. American School Counselor Association
21. Americans for the Arts
22. Annenberg Institute for School Reform
23. Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
24. Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
25. ASPIRA
26. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
27. Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
28. Association of Education Publishers
29. Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO)
30. Association of Teacher Educators
31. Big Picture Company
32. Business and Professional Women/USA
33. Center for Community Change
34. Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking
35. Center for Parent Leadership
36. Center for Policy Alternatives
37. Change to Win
38. Children’s Aid Society
39. Children’s Defense Fund
40. Christians for Justice Action–UCC
41. Church Women United
42. Citizens for Effective Schools
43. Coalition for Community Schools
44. Coalition of Essential Schools
45. Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
46. Communities for Quality Education
47. Consortium for School Networking
48. Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders
49. Council for Exceptional Children
50. Council for Hispanic Ministries of the United Church of Christ
51. Council for Learning Disabilities
52. Council of Administrators of Special Education, Inc.
53. Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform
54. Disciples Center for Public Witness
55. Disciples Home Missions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
56. Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)
57. Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (DLD/CEC)
58. Education Action!
59. Education Law Center
60. Educate Not Incarcerate
61. Episcopal Church
62. Equal Partners in Faith
63. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
64. Every Child Matters
65. FairTest: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing
66. Forum for Education and Democracy
67. Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
68. Gender Public Advocacy Coalition
69. Hmong National Development
70. Holmes Partnership
71. Indigenous Women’s Network
72. Institute for Language and Education Policy
73. International Reading Association
74. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
75. International Technology Education Association
76. Japanese American Citizens League
77. Jobs with Justice
78. Learning Disabilities Association of America
79. League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
80. Mental Health America
81. Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic justice of the United Church of Christ
82. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
83. NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF)
84. National Alliance of Black School Educators
85. National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education (NAAPAE)
86. National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE)
87. National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)
88. National Association for the Education and Advancement of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese Americans (NAFEA)
89. National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities (NAEAACLD)
90. National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
91. National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS)
92. National Association of Pupil Service Administrators
93. National Association of School Nurses
94. National Association of School Psychologists
95. National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
96. National Association of Social Workers
97. National Baptist Convention, USA (NBCUSA)
98. National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents
99. National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development
100. National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE)
101. National Conference of Black Mayors
102. National Council for Community and Education Partnerships (NCCEP)
103. National Council for the Social Studies
104. National Council of Churches
105. National Council of Jewish Women
106. National Council of Teachers of English
107. National Education Association
108. National Education Taskforce
109. National Federation of Filipino American Associations
110. National Forum on Information Literacy
111. National Indian Education Association
112. National Indian School Board Association
113. National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
114. National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA
115. National Pacific Islander Educator Network
116. National Parent Teacher Association (PTA)
117. National People’s Action
118. National Reading Conference
119. National Rural Education Association
120. National School Boards Association
121. National School Climate Center
122. National School Supply and Equipment Association
123. National Science Teachers Association
124. National Superintendents Roundtable
125. National Training & Information Center
126. National Urban League
127. Native Hawaiian Education Association
128. Network of Spiritual Progressives
129. Organization of Chinese Americans
130. People for the American Way
131. Parents for Public Schools
132. PFLAG National (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)
133. Presbyterian Church (USA)
134. Progressive National Baptist Convention
135. Promise the Children
136. Protestants for the Common Good
137. Protestant Justice Action
138. Public Education Network
139. Rethinking Schools
140. Rural School and Community Trust
141. Save Our Schools
142. Service Employees International Union
143. School Social Work Association of America
144. Social Action Committee of the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations
145. Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
146. Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
147. Stand for Children
148. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
149. United Black Christians of the United Church of Christ
150. United Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Concerns
151. United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
152. United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
153. USAction
154. Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church
155. Women of Reform Judaism
156. Young Men’s Empowerment Network

(List of 156 signers updated December 13, 2011)

We encourage national organizations to sign the Joint Statement.

Email the endorsement to monty@fairtest.org. Send your organization’s name, along with contact person and that person’s email, phone and address, as well as organization’s website.

We also encourage state and local organizations to endorse and use the Joint Statement, but we are not adding such groups to the list of signers.