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Senate survey finds educators not happy with No Child Left Behind

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DENVER ” The federal education reform law No Child Left Behind is unrealistic and underfunded, according to Colorado educators responding to a survey conducted by U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar as Congress gets ready to decide whether to reauthorize the law.

Some 1,600 teachers, 119 principals, 90 administrators and 117 parents responded to the survey sent out last summer, Salazar said Monday.

Results indicate that those responding found the law’s nationwide goal of 100 percent proficiency in math and science by the 2013-14 school year was not achievable. It also found educators favored charting student academic growth over time, versus the law’s comparison of the same grade levels year after year.



Passed by the Republican controlled Congress and signed into law Jan. 8, 2002, the law requires students in most grades to take annual assessment tests and requires districts to make “adequate yearly progress.” It’s up for renewal this year with Democrats in control of Congress.

Colorado Education Association spokeswoman Deborah Fallin said Monday that teacher union members “support accountability,” but “it’s clear that between CSAP and the federal law the pendulum has swung too far. “The CSAPs are Colorado’s assessment tests.”



Results of the survey are also contained in a letter the Colorado Democrat said he sent to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who is now chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which drafted the law.


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