Did the tail wag dog?

The jury is still out as far as how much some state rule changes in accountability plans for No Child Left Behind affected schools' performances last year.

In spring 2004 47 states asked the U.S. Department of Education to approve changes to their NCLB accountability plans, which softened rules to meet goals under the law. The department posted letters last October to 35 states on its Web site approving many changes requested. The Center on Education Policy analyzed those letters. More schools and districts stayed off state watch lists this year than past years but the question remains: Did students make greater academic gains this time around or did the softening of state rules make the difference?

"I believe teachers are trying very hard and raising test scores, and schools are doing better according to criteria under No Child Left Behind," says Jack Jennings. executive director of Center on Education Policy, an independent advocate for public education

But to the degree schools were removed from state watch lists due to the changes as opposed to academic gains, Jennings doesn't know if it's 5 percent, 20 percent or something else. He guesses that only a "minority" of schools was kept off watch lists due to recent changes in accountability plans.

The changes come about mainly because administrators are feeling intense pressure to raise test scores so they look for more flexibility under the law, Jennings says. "Most states feel the law is too rigid." he says. But parents are more apt to push for more strict measures so students are educated to their highest potential regardless of the school.

Pennsylvania, for example, had changes in its plan approved, claiming it originally had extremely ambitious accountability targets. Changes included using a confidence interval that is like a margin of error so that if student test results fall slightly below a target but within a window they are counted as having met the target. Twelve states used confidence intervals or changed the way they plan to use them to determine AYP, CEP reports.

Pennsylvania and 25 other states also adopted more lenient English language learner rules. counting the progress of former ELL for two years after they reach English proficiency and, thus, making it easier for the subgroup to show progress.

Under the proposed changes, 149 more Pennsylvania schools met math targets and 164 more schools met reading targets, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Ethan Cancell, special assistant to the state's education secretary, adds that every grade and subgroup showed a 3.8 percentage point gain in math, a true "success" story.

"We do think it's a better representation" of how students are doing, says Jeff Smink, director of federal relations for the state education department.