It's no secret that some states and districts have threatened to decline federal Title I funding to avoid the accountability provisions of NCLB. That is, of course, their choice to make. The state of Nebraska, however, has taken a more underhanded route, working hard since the passage of the law to have it both ways by doing just enough to keep its federal funds while skirting the spirit of the accountability provisions. Education commissioner Douglas Christensen has been instrumental in this effort by helping to convince the feds to approve what Tracy Dell'Angela of the Chicago Tribune calls "the nation's most unorthodox assessment system, which allows school districts to use portfolios to measure student progress." Nebraska's approved plan, the state's 517 districts will "design their own assessment systems: a portfolio of teachers' classroom assessments, district tests that measure how well children are meeting locally developed learning standards, a state writing test and at least one nationally standardized test included as a reality check." According to Dell'Angela, federal officials approved this system because Nebraska's state constitution "guarantees local control over school accountability and the state was able to demonstrate that the assessments were valid and reliable." Unfortunately, not only is such an assessment regimen expensive and time-consuming, it also consists predominantly of subjective measures of student achievement and makes comparisons among districts all but impossible - meaning that a student who passes the reading assessment in one district might not be able to meet standards in another.
"Nebraska dodges NCLB test requirements," Washington Times, April 12, 2004
"Nebraska shuns state tests," by Tracy Dell'Angela, Chicago Tribune, April 5, 2004