Editorial: Federal mandate helps educators keep focus

Public school administrators across the nation have plenty of reasons to take issue with No Child Left Behind, the federal law that, simply put, requires all students to be on grade level and holds educators accountable.

Recently, Iredell-Statesville Schools officials have been critical of the law, which sets achievement expectations for individual schools and districts, because it attaches labels and doles out sanctions, for lack of a better term, on entities that fall short.

I-SS is now classified as “a school district in improvement,” which is a politically correct way of saying it has not met all of the goals spelled out by NCLB.

The labeling, I-SS officials contend, is detrimental to schools, administrators and teachers who have dedicated their professional lives to helping children reach their academic potential.

Superintendent Terry Holliday said the new label — and the letter sent to 15,000 homes notifying parents of the district’s dubious distinction — sends the wrong message.

The district has made great strides in recent years — from reducing the dropout rate to improving SAT scores — and met 91 percent of the NCLB goals.

Those achievements, Holliday said, should be applauded, not slapped with a label that would lead the truly uninformed to believe I-SS schools are not making the grade.

The superintendent is right.

We also believe Holliday when he says that I-SS teachers and administrators would be focused on the underlying goals of NCLB even if it were not the law of the land. The district’s schools are filled with educators who put in long hours to help our students succeed.

But it would be naive to suggest that every teacher and every administrator in every school in every state was on par with I-SS. Having a federal law — with some bite — helps keep everyone’s eyes and attention focused on doing what is morally and ethically right.

In a perfect world, Congress wouldn’t have to tell educators that every child, regardless of their skin color, native language or the amount of money their parents have, is deserving of a shot at a sound education.

But our state and our nation’s history proves that, without federal intervention, many children would be left way behind.