U.S. Set to Ease Some Provisions Of School Law
Education Sec Rod Paige will announce changes to implementation of No Child Left Behind law that local educators and state lawmakers have attacked as arbitrary and unfair, but says administration will resist effort to amend law itself; administration will change policy that says teachers must have degree or otherwise be certified in every subject they teach, requirement that is especially unpopular in rural areas where teacher shortages are acute; will offer more flexibility on regulations governing required participation rates on standardized tests; hundreds of schools have been placed on academic probation because one or two students performed below qualifying threshold; some requirements of law will force schools to undertake costly remedial measures, which state officials say they cannot afford, although Paige contends law is amply funded; photo; graph (M)