14 states ask US to revise some education law rules

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/25/education/25CHIL.htmlASHINGTON,

The no child left untested law

March 24 — Fourteen states asked the Bush administration on Wednesday for permission to use alternative methods for showing academic gains under the No Child Left Behind law.

The 14 states, most of which had their own systems for raising academic performance in place before the federal No Child Left Behind law took effect two years ago, charged that as currently written, the law would brand too many schools "in need of improvement," and thus squander limited resources.

The states, including Alaska, California and Connecticut, said that schools showing academic gains under their statewide system should escape the failing designation under the federal law, even if that progress falls short of the law's requirements.

They asked for permission to use "growth models," in which schools would avoid the federal law's remedies and penalties if they showed academic gains, even if those gains fell short of the amount required for all students to reach academic proficiency by 2014, as the law mandates.

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In addition to Alaska, California and Connecticut, the states that signed the letter were Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Utah and Washington.