Americans grow skeptical as school reform takes toll

A key to the success of the law is how the public interprets failure to meet NCLB standards for adequate yearly progress - a growing problem nationwide.

Asked who is to blame if large numbers of public schools fail NCLB requirements, the public is split: 45 percent say the public schools are more to blame; 43 percent say they would blame the law.

But among those claiming to know a "great deal" about NCLB, 61 percent say the law is more to blame for poor results than the public schools.

Most public school parents still say they know little or nothing about the law.

"If they do not change that law, it's not if every urban school in Indiana will fail, it's when they'll fail," says Dr. Rose, who is also a consultant to the Indiana Urban Schools Association.

In Indiana, special education accounts totally or in part for more than three quarters of the failures of schools to meet new federal standards, he says.

"When we started polling about the new law, many thought that greater familiarity with the law might bring more approval. That does not appear to be the case," says Rose. With failure rates expected to continue to rise as the law takes hold, public opposition is expected to grow even more, he adds.

The poll released last week by the National Center for Education Information signals that teachers share public concerns about the new law. Eight-one percent of teachers surveyed say that compliance with NCLB is the most serious problem facing them.

They also strongly oppose using academic progress of students as measured by test scores to determine whether a teacher is qualified to teach.

But teachers recruited into the profession by other routes - a group that now accounts for a third of new hires - are more open to performance-based measures, adds Emily Feistritzer, president of the education information center. These new recruits come to teaching after pursuing other professions, rather than through teacher-education programs.

"Usually the people entering teaching through alternative routes are more in favor of testing for students and using accountability measures than the profile of the traditional teaching force," she says.

Most Americans disagree with key parts of President Bush's education reforms, says a new Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll:

- 79% would rather see extra efforts to improve current schools than options for pupils to transfer to better performing ones.

- 68% don't think a single test provides a fair picture of how well a school is doing.

- 62% say that test scores of special education students should not be used in determining school performance.

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