Lake Washington School District Board of Directors is joining others in the state to ask Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
The board passed the resolution May 5.
The board’s resolution noted that the accountability provisions in the current law “unfairly and inaccurately reflect the academic progress of students, schools and school districts,” resulting in public schools being labeled as “failing” and subject to punitive sanctions. The district serves the Sammamish area.
The law called for all public schools to reach a level of 100 percent of students at standard in reading and math by 2014. Schools that do not meet the requirements face an escalating series of sanctions.
The Department of Education has offered waivers to compliance with ESEA to states since 2011. The state of Washington operated under a waiver, but the waiver was revoked because one of the required commitments was a teacher and principal evaluation system must use state assessments as a significant factor in determining performance levels. While a measure to meet that requirement was proposed in the last legislative session, it did not pass.
Without the waiver, the state once again will be subject to the original sanctions of ESEA. For Lake Washington, that will mean setting aside 20 percent of the Title I funds received from the federal government either for supplemental educational services or for transportation to allow students to go to other schools in the district.
Lake Washington’s total Title I budget is $1,632,863. The district will set aside 20 percent ($326,573) to be in compliance with the legislation.
“We will lose some great programs that are really helping kids,” noted board President Jackie Pendergrass.
“Under the waiver, we have been putting Title I money to use in kindergarten programs to make sure that students who are behind when they start school catch up with their peers early on in their academic career. That’s far more valuable than paying for an outside tutor or for a bus to take students to another school.”
