High Schools in Need of Testing, Bush Says
Three years after he signed a landmark education law that strengthened oversight of elementary and middle schools, President Bush on Wednesday called for a mandatory battery of reading and math tests in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades. He also proposed $1.5 billion in federal aid for high schools. Bush's high school initiative fulfills a pledge from his reelection campaign to build on the No Child Left Behind law, even though the bipartisan coalition that helped him enact the measure in his first term has weakened amid controversy over its funding and implementation.
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 13, 2005

Spellings Promises To Fix No Child Left Behind Law
Margaret Spellings, who served as chief domestic policy adviser to President Bush during his first term, promised yesterday to iron out problems with the No Child Left Behind education law if she is confirmed as education secretary. Spellings, 47, appeared headed for swift and painless Senate confirmation as she answered questions from members of the education committee on the president's second-term education agenda.
Washington Post, Jan. 7, 2005

Ambiguous Yearly Progress
Every year schools face an annual day of reckoning. That's when officials find out if their school made Adequate Yearly Progress. AYP is the way the No Child Left Behind law attempts to hold schools accountable for the job they do. ... This demand for "success for all students" isn't just a lofty, rhetorical goal. It isn't an ideal we aren't expected to attain. It's a federal statute, and it's bristling with sanctions like funding penalties and losing local control of your school. It's also a pipe dream.
Rutland Herald, Jan. 5, 2005

U.S. Students May Neglect Native Language
As school districts in El Paso struggle to educate about 50,000 students who are limited in their English skills -- more than 30 percent of the student population -- bilingual education advocates say there isn't enough being done to help children retain and expand their Spanish skills. ... There are fewer than 1,000 students -- both Hispanic and non-Hispanic -- in El Paso enrolled in dual-language programs. The goal of those programs is to produce high-school graduates who can read, speak and write high-level English and Spanish.
El Paso Times, Jan. 4, 2005

Bush's Latest Brainchild Could Be Left Behind
At first glance, President Bush seems well-positioned to expand his No Child Left Behind program of academic standards, testing and accountability into the nation's high schools. He has larger Republican majorities in Congress. His nominee for Education secretary -- a top strategist behind the 2002 legislation creating the program in grade schools -- is expected to sail through a Senate confirmation hearing this week. Yet education analysts and some lawmakers warn that Bush could encounter stiff resistance -- from the left and the right -- when he tries to expand No Child Left Behind.
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 4, 2005

Language Skills Could Mean Extra Pay
Knowing a foreign language could earn federal civilian and military employees more money under a provision of the 2005 Defense Authorization Act. But Congress is still concerned that financial incentives will not be enough to ensure that enough people with critical language skills are retained in the defense and intelligence arenas. The House and Senate Armed Services committees want a report from the Pentagon by April 1 about how to meet short- and long-term needs for people who can work as translators and interpreters.
Federal Times, Nov. 24, 2004

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