I recently testified before the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind. As I told the commissioners, the AFT has looked to the experiences of our members to gauge the true impact NCLB is having on teaching and learning. One of the ways we have done this is through town hall meetings with AFT members and officers of the national union. The common theme that emerged from these forums is that the law must be changed to reflect commonsense classroom experience and research-based education practices. We will continue to share the lessons learned from the frontlines with members of Congress as the reauthorization process moves forward.

Members tell us that the adequate yearly progress (AYP) provision is an inadequate measure of a school’s real progress. Students at thousands of schools have shown tremendous improvement but, under AYP, their schools still have been labeled as “failing.” NCLB’s accountability system needs to be changed to give schools credit for meaningful progress. AYP also should distinguish between schools that need intensive intervention and those that need only limited help, so that schools with the greatest needs get timely assistance while schools that are improving aren’t unfairly penalized.

In addition to the demoralization AYP has caused students and school staff, AFT members have expressed concern about the excessive testing required under NCLB. Tests are a necessary tool for measuring student learning. But the layering of assessments, class time lost to drill-and-kill test preparation, and curriculum narrowed to only those subjects tested have become serious issues. Worse, many of these assessments often are not aligned with the curriculum taught in schools all year. If schools are to be judged based on test scores, the tests should measure what is being taught.

The AFT wants to be a constructive partner in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. Classroom professionals know that struggling schools and students need real assistance, not sanctions. AFT members have a long record of collaborating to turn around schools in need of improvement. Solid research as well as our own experiences point to a number of strategies that have increased student achievement in many previously low-performing schools.

Schools must provide massive early intervention for children who are behind in learning to read, starting in kindergarten or first grade. Reading problems compound over time, and if we don’t address them early on, kids lose the ball game in the first inning.

We need a renewed commitment to providing adequate facilities, safe and orderly school environments, and the instructional supports students need to succeed. Too many educators and children are forced to teach and learn in dilapidated school buildings, often under unsafe conditions and without the basic materials they need. Until shameful conditions such as these are addressed, it will be difficult to close the achievement gap.

Resources must be marshaled to provide competitive compensation and other incentives to attract well-qualified teachers to low-performing schools—and keep them there. And we should hold elected officials and school leaders accountable for ensuring that the conditions necessary for all students to learn are in place.

NCLB has been used by some to advance ideological agendas including unproven approaches, such as private-management interventions and diverting funds to supplemental educational services, with no record of effectiveness. The reauthorization process is a chance to move away from ideology and return to the law’s stated goal of fostering the conditions that improve student achievement.

As reauthorization approaches, we will continue to make your voices heard on these and other issues. But the national union can only do so much. AFT members must make their positions clear by supporting and voting for political candidates who understand our concerns and will work to make the changes teachers, students and parents need in this law. We all must hold leaders and regulatory bodies to their obligation to adopt and implement laws that truly advance higher achievement for all children. Visit www.aft.org/CountMeIn for ways you can be a part of this important cause. I hope we can count you in.