parent power  By Dr. Jo Lynne DeMary 

To NCLB or Not to NCLB?

Q. The General Assembly passed legislation that would give up Virginia’s involvement in No Child Left Behind. With local and state budgets strained to keep up with needed services, why would we want to pass up any federal funding?

A. Virginia’s accountability standards pre-date No Child Left Behind. Subsequently, there are requirements in the federal law that go beyond or conflict with Virginia’s program.

Rather than have two accountability programs, the State Board of Education has asked the federal government for waivers so the state, districts and schools do not have to comply with all parts of NCLB. In some cases, these waivers have been denied.

Thus with nothing else left to do, the General Assembly is asking the State Board of Education to recommend to them whether Virginia should withdraw or not, based on the pending reauthorization of NCLB and any changes that might be considered. If the Board recommends withdrawal, a plan for doing so must be developed and submitted to the governor and General Assembly by June 30, 2009.

The General Assembly has threatened to withdraw from NCLB for several years. Fortunately, they passed a bill that placed this decision in the hands of the State Board, but the assembly put a timeline on the decision. It is unlikely that the state is going to walk away from $350 million a year, but the threat of pulling out makes for interesting debate both in Virginia and Washington.

Q. I read an article this week stating that homework is a complete waste of time for young children. If that is the case, why do my elementary students have so much work to do at home? We spend a lot of effort in the evening trying to get our son to finish his homework.

A.  The study you reference by Harris Cooper entitled “Does Homework Improve Academic Achievement?” was looking at the relationship between amount of homework and how well young students do on national tests. The results are not surprising. The issue in this case is not how much homework, but the nature of the assignments and their relationship to the content on the national test. After all, teachers plan a curriculum based on local and state guidelines.
As a parent, you want to focus on those activities that primary age children should be doing at home to reinforce learning at school. Reading books, studying spelling words and their meanings, and reinforcing numeracy skills in mathematics are all worthwhile activities.
It is also important to express an interest in what your child is learning at school. As summer approaches, consider planning day trips or even vacations that incorporate topics he enjoyed learning about this past year.

Jo Lynne DeMary was superintendent of public instruction for Virginia and is currently director of the Center for School Improvement at VCU. She believes that parents empowered by knowledge are the best partners in their children’s education.

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