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June 16, 2003
No Child Left Behind
By Susan McLester, Editor in Chief
Dear Administrators,
Welcome to our annual Leadership Guide. Although throughout the year our editorial content addresses issues, concerns, and topics from multiple perspectives and district roles — including teachers, managers, coordinators, and administrators — this special June issue is dedicated solely to you.
As always, our challenge as editors is to ensure that we are focusing on the problems and solutions in your areas of highest concern. When we asked our advisory board and other consultants in the field for topics to address, they confirmed what we'd observed: It's all about No Child Left Behind. Ever since the passage of the far-reaching act in January 2001, educators — especially leaders — have been scrambling to get a handle on what it means for them and how to deal with its mandates, deadlines, and requirements. The problem is not a dearth of information. NCLB-related data comes at us all from a wide variety of sources: the state and federal governments, product and service vendors, education organizations, consumer news channels, parents, community, and the Web, to name a few. No, the problem lies rather in how to wade through it all, how to distill it down to key areas that can be identified, planned for, and implemented. In the following pages we aim to help you do this with a compendium of tips, ideas, and resources from experts in a variety of areas.
The three pieces we've chosen to focus on include management challenges involving staff, information, and the bottom line. You'll note that in this issue, as in previous issues this year, we call on the expertise of the business world in dealing with some of these challenges. Rusty Weston's article from Optimize magazine, "Managing in a Downturn," offers numerous practical strategies for working with personnel during tough times. And Gwen Solomon's "Great Expectations, Limited Resources," references consortia and total cost of ownership, among other solutions, as ways to increase efficiency in school settings.
Lexia Learning CEO Jon Bower also suggests taking a businesslike approach when he offers tips on long-term considerations districts should be taking into account before applying for Reading First funds and describes how partnerships can expedite the application process under scaled-back staffing conditions.
The bottom line is, of course, something school leaders must be concerned about more than ever today. Innovative strategies for dealing with the sweeping cutbacks we're experiencing now can be found throughout the magazine, in particular in Susan Brooks-Young's "Funding on a Tight Budget." We have also reprinted, courtesy of Riverdeep, a quick description of funds available through current federal grant programs. For the first time in several years, we are not publishing our grants directory in the pages of the magazine; however, you may still access this freshly updated database online at www.techlearning.com/grants.html.
Among other current hot topics of great concern to administrators right now are the new teacher quality and certification requirements. In "Are Your Teachers 'Highly Qualified'?", executive editor Amy Poftak brings you up to speed on the legislation surrounding this and details some solutions districts are applying to this problem.
Have we been able to cover all aspects of NCLB in this one issue? Absolutely not. But we sincerely hope you'll find this a useful, practical tool and starting place for increasing your understanding of the legislation and managing more effectively under it.
As we reiterate in several places throughout this issue, today's convergence of a down economy, unprecedented budget cutbacks, new NCLB accountability requirements, and more stringent standards for teacher certification make it a tougher time than ever for education leadership. We recognize the mounting challenges you're facing as school leaders. And we salute and support you.
Please let us know if we're covering the areas you feel need the most attention. E-mail us at techlearning_editors@cmp.com. As far as we're concerned, this is just the beginning of the discussion.
Susan McLester
Editor in Chief
Read other articles from the June Issue
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