The View from Rockland

The community in Rockland County is working together to come up with proposed changes to No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This may be the only community-wide effort in the United States to closely study the lengthy law and recommend detailed changes to it. Under the Rockland County plan, which is discussed in this article, the tests in the accountability system would measure students' progress based on portfolios of work and grades for classroom participation, as well as scores on mostly multiple-choice exams. However, testing would occur less frequently, and schools would be graded based on results for 4th and 8th graders, not the larger group the currently falls under the NCLB system.