NCLB co-author says he never anticipated federal law would force testing obsession

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, visited with EdSource Today staff shortly afterward announcing his retirement after 40 years in Congress. Credit: Lillian Mongeau, EdSource

Rep. George Miller, a leading architect of the No Kid Left Behind legislation, says he never predictable that the landmark education constabulary would ignite the testing obsession that engulfed the nation'south schools, leading to what some accept charged is a simplistic "drill and kill" approach that subverts real teaching.

EdSource sat down with Miller, D-Martinez, last week for a lengthy and wide-ranging conversation on his accomplishments, philosophy and hopes for the future of public education. The Contra Costa County congressman, who served equally chair or ranking minority member of the House Education Commission and the Workforce Committee since 1997, announced earlier this calendar month that after 40 years in the Firm of Representatives, he would not seek re-election when his electric current term expires.

In an animated discussion, Miller, 68, defended what has become one of the more controversial aspects of NCLB, testing and accountability. He said the purpose of the 2001 constabulary that he co-wrote with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Republicans Rep. John Boehner of Ohio and Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire was to inspire a broader discussion of how children learn and to hold states responsible for ensuring that all students were learning, particularly those at gamble of failing due to income, ethnicity, race and disability. To Miller, the most of import part of the law – which was championed by then President George W. Bush – was to require districts to publish data on how well students were doing.

"In this didactics system, if you're not counted, you lot don't count," Miller said.

Testing was intended as a way to mensurate schools' progress based on how well their students scored and to evidence schools where they needed to make improvements. Instead, said Miller "the mission became nearly the test."

"I don't believe you can bulldoze a car blindfolded," Miller said. "So all nosotros asked was, 'How are the kids doing in your test?' And it turned out to be a nuclear explosion, considering it wasn't in the involvement of the school district to tell the community how each and every child was doing on their examination."

He was particularly ruffled early later the law's passage in 2001 when school districts argued that they could never meet one of its central goals – having 100 percent of their students score expert or above by 2022 on state exams. At the fourth dimension, many schools had proficiency rates in the unmarried digits.

"School districts and states came in, in the beginning year, and waved the white flag, and said, 'We tin can never make the goal,'" recalled Miller. "Their proficiency was like 7 or viii pct. I said, 'Come up back when y'all're at 70 percent.'"

"I thought it was a legitimate question," Miller said: "'Is my son or girl in her quaternary-form form reading at her fourth-grade level? But let me know. Information technology'south non a big affair. And and then possibly I'll get them a mentor, a tutor, or something.'

"It turned out to be a firestorm."

Rep. George Miller (back row, second from right) watches as President Barack Obama signs the Affordable Intendance Human action in 2010. Miller said the moment was a high indicate of his career. Credit: Whitehouse.gov

Miller has besides go involved in a smaller testing conflagration in California. He'southward working behind the scenes, at the behest of U.South. Educational activity Secretarial assistant Arne Duncan, to assistance banker a waiver that would allow California to postpone state testing until the new test aligned to Common Core State Standards is operational. That exam is a year abroad, and is only for math and English arts. The congressman doesn't agree with the land'south position, but doesn't want California to face multimillion-dollar fines either – as Duncan has threatened. Instead, Miller wants California to use data from this leap's Common Core field tests, known as the Smarter Counterbalanced cess, to measure student progress.

"My position, I think, is that nosotros should excerpt the data (from the Smarter Counterbalanced field tests) that we can extract because information technology would be helpful. I think information technology would be helpful for teachers. If the kids in your classroom didn't thrive, what would you modify for next year?" Miller said. "And from what the people at Smarter Balanced say, they've developed a range of data that can be extracted, and supposedly, if this is a road examination, you've got to bring something back to clarify."

The congressman is also guarded about California's two near significant education reforms, Common Core Land Standards and the Local Control Funding Formula. He likes Common Cadre's focus on college and career readiness, but worries it may exist premature to establish a higher bar beyond the proficiency required past No Child Left Behind, given how many California high school students can't read well or exercise basic math, based on their scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and statewide exams.

He'southward more than skeptical virtually the Local Control Funding Formula, the historic alter in the way California allocates coin to public schools, particularly the local control part of it. He noted that districts had some local control until the 1970s, when a series of court cases found California'south method of school funding violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"That system wasn't really working very well for near kids, and it certainly wasn't working for poor or minority children," said Miller, adding that this time around the state must have accountability. "You've got to have some arrangement of determining how that local control is going."

Miller brushed bated speculation that he is retiring due to polarization between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill that has brought well-nigh legislation to a standstill. This includes reauthorization of NCLB, formally called the Elementary and Secondary Teaching Deed. He said chances are "slim" that the electric current Congress volition take action on the legislation, even though it should take been reauthorized in 2007.

In fact, Miller said his determination to leave Congress took root one day when he stood backside President Obama for a pecker signing that he had spent years working on. And it wasn't an education beak, it was the Affordable Intendance Human action.

"I ran in 1974 on national health care and ending the war in Vietnam, and when he signed the (Affordable Intendance Act) bill … if I wasn't on the phase behind the president, I probably would have jumped up and downward. It was just a physical reaction, similar, 'Whoa, We just did it! Information technology's the police.' And I started thinking, 'Well, Jesus. You're standing here on top of Mt. Everest, you know. At that place ain't no up.'"

Hither are some additional excerpts from the interview with Miller:

NCLB reauthorization

No Child Left Behind, the name given the to the Unproblematic and Secondary Education Deed during President George West. Bush's administration, received strong bipartisan back up when it first came to Congress in 2001. That harmony has since ended and reauthorization of the federal education law is now seven years overdue.

EdSource: What is the likelihood that No Kid Left Behind will exist reauthorized this session?

Miller: I recollect information technology's pretty slim. Nosotros have probably less than 90 legislative days left in this session of the congress, and this is a controversial result, certainly, inside the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives. We did laissez passer out the bill that our commission wrote, on a partisan vote, and I think that beak will have a very difficult time in merging with the Senate. At that place's very little support for the Republican-passed bill.  … I don't know if you can hammer out the differences at this stage. But the Senate is standing to piece of work on it, so if nosotros go a breakthrough there, that would probably wait more like a bill that you could pass and have the president sign. I think the House (Republican) bill has no merit, no legs, in the legislative process.

EdSource: What are the prospects of reauthorization beyond this twelvemonth? Is information technology possible that this will just continue for years, not being reauthorized?

Miller: Well, information technology's quite conceivable that that could exist the case. I retrieve that's unfortunate, because No Kid Left Backside is just so outdated. … I recollect the Race to the Top (a competitive $4.35 billion federal program for school innovation) plan has … been very important (in giving) districts or states that really want to get to the hereafter a chance to go, with some assurances most equity, about the use of data.

Testing and accountability

Miller is a strong proponent of testing, but says states went to the extreme after No Child Left Behind became law by putting all their efforts on teaching to the test instead of focusing on irresolute teaching methods to amend educatee learning.

EdSource: When you lot started out with No Child Left Backside, didn't you take some expectation that this would have had more of an impact on closing the achievement gap? What happened?

Miller: To me, (it) was the failure to capeesh how the organization would revert to a default position that the test became principal, as opposed to learning. So all of these different things were used to attempt to get kids over the hurdles, "drill and impale," or still you wanted to do information technology, and we dropped everything else out.

In some cases, because of a lack of resources, (schools) reverted to this very simplistic approach. It turned out to be a disaster. But information technology was followed for over a decade, even when it was proving that nada was going on.

EdSource: Can you mistake districts for getting examination-conscious when "proficiency" became the merely measure? Isn't it natural that that'southward how they will respond?

Miller: That's why nosotros said, "Whatever test you lot're giving, only let us know, how are the kids doing on that examination, and are they good?" … I thought it was a legitimate question. "Is my son or daughter in his or her quaternary-grade class reading at his or her fourth-grade level?" Just let me know. It's not a big thing. And and so perhaps I'll go them a mentor, a tutor, or something. Information technology turned out to be a firestorm. … And now yous've seen this come full circle, and people said, "We're never going to go that proficiency standard if we don't figure out how kids acquire, because, obviously, what we're doing is non working."

But remember, at that place were people who believed that drill and impale could atomic number 82 to learning. And there were people who were drilling and killing and saying "This is absolutely wrong. But that was the policy."

The mission became well-nigh the test.

EdSource: Are you lot saying that the extreme focus on testing wasn't the intention of NCLB?

Miller: Sure, it wasn't the intention, just I didn't anticipate that that's what happened. In many instances, we probably didn't anticipate how poorly so many schools were doing.

From right, Rep. George Miller, Secretary of Educational activity Arne Duncan and Rep. Tim Bishop, D-NY, meet with student representatives in 2009 nearly HR 3221, the Student Aid and Financial Responsibleness Human action. Credit: Rep. George Miller Flickr stream

Common Core

EdSource: What exercise y'all think of the goal of Mutual Core State Standards of getting students college and career ready, when we haven't reached the proficiency goal yet?

Miller: Permit me enquire you this: In the existing system, given the level of proficiency, (what are) your chances of achieving college and career readiness? They may desire to dismiss proficiency, but nosotros have pretty good enquiry on what happens if a child is non starting to read at a pretty adept level in 3rd and fourth class, what happens to them in tenth grade, and the kinds of decisions they brand?

And then Mutual Cadre doesn't say you just become to read the final affiliate of the volume. Mutual Cadre says you lot've got to understand all of the chapters in the process; and then you'll end up with enough flexibility in your understanding of concepts that you'll exist able to pursue dissimilar careers or higher choices, or the mixture of both.

Simply, again, if you tin can't write, and you tin't empathise concepts, and you can't do basic, fundamental mathematics, your chances in this evolving economic system are pretty express. There's got to be some benchmark somewhere along the line, considering if I show upwardly as a freshman at San Francisco State and I tin only read "Jack and Jill," I'yard not going anywhere.

EdSource: So yous're a little skeptical?

Miller: No, no, no, no. All I'm saying is, you can't wait until college to find out whether you're on track.  And then I like the concept of "college and career," because I think it reflects more than what a workplace looks like today. Sort of higher never ends, and the career is ever evolving.

Teacher evaluations and tenure

School administrators in California accept almost 2 years to determine whether a new instructor will be granted tenure. Miller is among the critics of that system, who say that's not plenty time to make a well-informed decision about someone. He is a potent proponent of evaluating teachers' effectiveness and using pupil test scores every bit a measure of teachers' competency.

EdSource: Do you lot really think that linking instructor evaluations to pupil test scores will make a difference? This is such a fundamental outcome that it'due south become the fundamental stumbling block in terms of federal-land relations.

Miller: I think information technology's a autograph, manufactured consequence to proceed these reforms abroad from the schoolhouse door. … From the very start, this was a question of whether or not teachers wanted to be the architect of the system, or they just wanted to be the tenant. If you went back to Medicare, doctors chose to fight it at every turn, and they became the tenants of the system instead of those who were designing the organization.

In fact, teachers unions have agreed to it in many parts of the country, then apparently information technology'southward not the death knell (for instructor evaluation systems). But I think it's important. Without whatever evaluations, later a few years, parents will tell other parents, 'Don't allow your child get Mrs. Smith or Mr. Smith. You lot don't want your kid in Mr. or Mrs. Smith's 3rd-grade form.' And the evaluation has already taken place because that (instructor) apparently didn't work out for a lot of students.

EdSource: California has ane,000 schoolhouse districts and these evaluation contracts are negotiated commune by commune. Practically speaking, is it possible to practice in a state the size of California?

Miller: Of course it's possible. All your preconditions are excuses to stay in the 19th century. Information technology's all possible. People are evaluated on the jobsites all the time today. Like it or non, employers want to know, "How are you doing? Is there value added through your participation in this enterprise?" And I don't recollect that in something as important every bit education, that the personnel should be exempt from this.

Rep. George Miller greets a immature constituent at a 2022 boondocks hall coming together in Lafayette. Credit: Rep. George Miller Flickr stream

EdSource: Would y'all change the tenure organisation? Would you bit it?

Miller: No, but these are just logical questions that people enquire in everyday life and everyday employment. You want to know how these people are doing. But to say we want to rent them permanently, only we don't want to know how they're doing, is but a really bad conclusion for the child, for the parents, for the taxpayers – right upwards the calibration, a existent bad decision.

Early childhood education

In November, Miller introduced the "Strong Start for America'due south Children Deed" to improve access to full-solar day preschool for low-income children. During his nearly xl years in part, Miller too supported legislation to fully fund Head Beginning.

EdSource: Practise yous expect Gov. Brown to pick upwardly on national movement and get frontward with an expansion of early education?

Miller: The governor is going to move forward on early learning …  with the employ of these federal monies coming through existing programs. … Early Head Offset is going to be used to handle role of that load, just as the schools and transitional kindergarten are all used to manage part of that load.

Other governors are running out way ahead of this, so I think there'southward a mode to do this. There's a lot of infrastructure in early learning in California; some of it can be ameliorate quality, some of it can be better coordinated, some of information technology may need different leadership, and then I don't think any of that'due south a barrier. And I call back especially if yous really expect at the data on what it ways to have those quality programs in terms of the future education of those children, (there is) a growing consensus on that function of it.

Just the question is, are you lot going to insist upon quality? Are you going to insist upon skilled people delivering these services? You're going to accept to deal with it somehow. Yous're going to have to deal with the question of pay to make this attractive, then you don't simply have this constant revolving door. The children deserve better than that, and the results will exist better. …You've got to make the investment at present, and the investment pays off later. Information technology'southward every flake as fundamental in terms of the economy of this state or the nation.

What's adjacent?

Miller was first elected to Congress in 1974 with a group of first-time lawmakers known equally the "Watergate Babies," who ran on a platform of cleaning up Washington in the wake of the scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. He said he is leaving now not because Capitol Colina is in a land of gridlock, but because 40 years is long enough.

EdSource: In two years, what might we expect you to be doing?

Miller: I tin't answer the question. I don't accept that kind of program. I know that this stage is closed. I retrieve I have some talent, and we'll run into whether or non it works in some other environment, and we'll just accept to run across. People have been very kind, talking about all kinds of different things, only I take not focused on any of them. The response to my retirement was more than I would take ever imagined, and I can merely tell you lot that I've happily spent my time returning phone calls to people that have been then very, very nice in their comments, and that'southward what I've been doing since we got habitation from Washington.

Kathryn Baron is a senior reporter at EdSource. Contact her and follow her on Twitter @TchersPet.Sign upwards hither for a no-cost online subscription to EdSource Today for reports from the largest educational activity reporting team in California.

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Source: https://edsource.org/2014/rep-miller-says-he-never-anticipated-nclb-would-force-testing-obsession/56665

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