Poll: Education law needs big changes

Almost half of likely Nevada voters said major changes need to be made to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the National Education Association teachers union.

Forty-six percent of those polled said the law needs major changes. Another 23 percent said the law needs to be repealed. Five percent of likely voters said the law is OK as it is.

The 2002 federal law requires a determination of all schools' performance based on the showing of students' standardized test scores from 37 subgroups. Subgroups can be defined by race, special education needs, primary language and income level. If one subgroup at a school fails, the school fails.

"There's an intensity of support for changing NCLB," said Andrew Myers, president of Myers Research & Strategic Services, one of two organizations that conducted the poll. "Almost one in four voters said the law should be repealed, and a near majority saying that it needs major changes is stunning. It speaks to the power of this debate."

Fifty-nine percent of those polled said they favored broader assessments of student progress that not only include test scores but also graduation and attendance rates, classroom performance, report cards and student enrollment in advanced programs.

The poll was based on 400 likely Nevada voters who were interviewed between June 27 and July 2.

Of the participants, 40 percent were registered Democrats, 41 percent were registered Republicans, and 19 percent said they were independent.

The poll has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Most of the poll's questions were focused on the federal law because it is up for reauthorization by Congress this year.

The poll also tackled issues such as how to improve teacher quality, close the learning gap between white students and minority students and how to improve accountability at schools.

Rebecca Neale, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Education, said the federal law has been an effective tool in public education.

She said President Bush submitted a proposal for reauthorization that includes a model in which schools can be deemed as passing if their students improve test scores from one year to another.

Pilot studies of the "growth model" are being done in nine states.

Neale said she knows the federal law might need tweaking.

"Five years ago, when No Child Left Behind was enacted, we passed the very best law we could," Neale said. "Now after five years, the president has evaluated how far we've come and where we have to go."

Neale said that while changes to the federal law might occur, some of its core principles will remain.

"One of the bright-line principles of the law is holding students accountable for student progress," Neale said. "We need to make sure students can read and pass math at proficient levels. The president will not back away from that."

The law dictates that all students must perform at standards set for their grade levels by the 2013-14 school year.