Federal government won't budge on testing requirement

By NOREEN GILLESPIE
Associated Press Writer

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The federal government is considering compromises on some parts of the No Child Left Behind law, but not on requirements that students take standardized tests.

Ray Simon, an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, closed the door Wednesday on Connecticut's hope that it could avoid expanding its testing program to grades three, five and seven next year.

"That's really the cornerstone of the whole effort," he said.

Simon met with members of the state Board of Education, a day after the state received word from the federal government that it will have to expand its Mastery Test program to comply with the law next year.

State Education Commissioner Betty Sternberg had petitioned the federal government in January for a waiver to the expanding testing requirement, arguing that testing students every year, instead of every other year, will not give teachers a better picture of how students are performing.

"You have an extremely broad waiver authority," incoming Education Board Chairman Allan Taylor told Simon. "It could be done. We also understand it will not be done."

Connecticut has tested students in grades four, six and eight for the last 20 years. Board members argued that the state's tests are some of the best in the nation. But since the federal law passed, Tori Hendrix, a student member of the board, said she has seen a change in classrooms.

There are less projects and other creative lessons because teachers are worried about the test, she told Simon.

"When so much emphasis is put on testing and when the frequency of testing might be increased, it takes away from how teachers essentially teach," said Hendrix, a Thomaston High School senior.

While the government has essentially locked the door on easing any testing requirements, Simon told board members it is open to looking at other areas where it may be willing to be flexible.

Without promising changes will happen, he said the department was willing to listen to Connecticut's suggestions on changing the way schools are measured under the law. Right now, schools are judged on how classes perform from year to year, not how the same group of students perform over time throughout their school careers.

The department also has not stopped listening to Connecticut's suggestion that students who do not speak English should have a longer time to learn the language before being tested, or its concerns that some special education students are required to take tests that are too hard. Connecticut used to give those students out-of-level tests.

The testing decision comes as a new report from the department estimates the state will have a $41.6 million shortfall in funding to meet the federal law's requirements through 2008. Testing is the biggest expense.

Sen. Thomas Gaffey, co-chairman of the legislature's Education Committee, plans to discuss the report Friday at a public hearing. He is also pushing for the General Assembly to pass a resolution asking Congress to reform the law so that states like Connecticut, which already had a school accountability system in place, would be exempt.

He was critical of spending so much money on testing when the funding could go to other things, like remedial programs.

"That kind of a testing program makes no sense," he said.

Board members said they were heartened that the department was at least willing to listen to their concerns. Board member Janet Finnernan said she asked former Education Secretary Rod Paige during a visit to Connecticut last year if he would consider changing anything about the law, and she got a much different response.

"Nothing, because it's perfect," she said he told her.

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