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S. C. R. No. 1 As Introduced
As Introduced
| 128th General Assembly | | Regular Session | | 2009-2010 |
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Cosponsors:
Senators Fedor, Turner, Stewart, Smith, Miller, R., Roberts, Cafaro, Sawyer
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
| To urge the President and the Congress of the United
States to amend the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 to ensure more flexibility and to fully fund
the appropriations authorized in the Act.
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BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF OHIO
(THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING):
| WHEREAS, On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed
into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), which
applies to all states that accept federal Title I education funds
and aspires to reform primary and secondary education in the
nation by prescribing increased accountability of schools through
regular student testing and high teacher qualification standards;
and |
| WHEREAS, NCLB mandates that every public school make adequate
yearly progress toward the goal of 100% student proficiency on
tests in mathematics and reading and language arts by
the end of
the 2013-2014 school year; and |
| WHEREAS, NCLB requires that an entire school or school
district be identified as failing to make adequate yearly progress
in any school year in which the school or district as a whole or
any one of the following subgroups within the school or district
fails to make such progress: (1) students with disabilities, (2) a
major racial or ethnic group, (3) economically disadvantaged
students, or (4) students with limited English proficiency; and |
| WHEREAS, It will be extremely difficult for 100% of all of
the identified subgroups of students to make adequate yearly
progress in each of the measured areas, since those students are
identified by federal law as belonging in a subgroup because of
significant educational challenges that are above and beyond the
challenges encountered by other students; and |
| WHEREAS, Failure by any subgroup in any given year to meet
any one of the state's proficiency expectations for that year in
the federally mandated academic areas will result in
identification of the school or district as a whole as failing to
make adequate yearly progress; and |
| WHEREAS, This unreasonable standard will wrongly identify
many of our successful public schools and districts as "failing";
and |
| WHEREAS, Adequate yearly progress subgroup standards make it
more difficult for larger and more diverse schools and districts
to meet federal standards because they must meet more performance
targets than schools and districts that are more homogeneous,
smaller in size, and have wealthier students; and |
| WHEREAS, NCLB imposes significant financial costs on states,
school districts, teachers, and paraprofessionals for staff
development, certification upgrades, coursework, school
improvement strategies, choice-related transportation and private
tutoring, as well as the unavoidable costs and dislocation that
would arise in the event of mandatory school restructuring and
staff dismissals; and |
| WHEREAS, In 2004, the Superintendent of Public Instruction
submitted to the General Assembly a detailed financial analysis of
the projected costs of compliance for the state and for each
school district with the No Child Left Behind Act, which estimated
the cost to Ohio of complying with the Act will reach $1.447
billion annually in fiscal year 2010; and |
| WHEREAS, Although many of the provisions of NCLB reflect
noble goals, especially regarding closing the achievement gaps
between subgroups of students, the President and the Congress of
the United States have failed to fund NCLB in a manner that makes
these goals fully attainable; now
therefore be it |
| RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 128th General Assembly
of the State of Ohio, urge the President and the Congress to amend
the No Child Left Behind Act by doing both of the following: |
| (1) Adopting more common-sense and flexible requirements and
assessments for special education students and students for whom
English is a second language; and |
| (2) Adopting more equitable requirements for schools and
school districts; and be it further |
| RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 128th General Assembly
of the State of Ohio, urge the President and the Congress to
appropriate full funding for NCLB at the authorization levels
called for by NCLB itself; and be it further |
| RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit duly
authenticated copies of this resolution to the President of the
United States, to the members of the Ohio Congressional
delegation, to the Speaker and Clerk of the United States House of
Representatives, and to the President Pro Tempore and Secretary of
the United States Senate. |
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