"It is results that truly matter, not the bureaucratic way you get there," declared Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. She was addressing an April 7 meeting with state education chiefs at Mount Vernon, the estate of America's first president, George Washington, just south of Washington, D.C.

The announcement was portrayed as a major policy shift for the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in its implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The department now will permit greater flexibility to states in the implementation of the law, Spellings said--provided states can demonstrate student achievement through improvement on NCLB-mandated annual assessments.

Spellings said the new NCLB guidelines, called "Raising Achievement: A New Path for No Child Left Behind," represent a fairer and more flexible approach to implementing the law. Under the new policy, states seeking additional flexibility in the implementation of NCLB requirements will receive credit for progress made regarding NCLB reforms already under way.

Spellings outlined the kinds of credit ED would consider giving states when determining how flexible it would be in negotiating state education plans.

First, she said the pillars, or "bright lines," of the NCLB are non-negotiable: annual testing to determine student achievement; reporting assessment results by student subgroups (children with disabilities, the economically disadvantaged, minority students, and English-language learners); developing ways to increase parental involvement in education; and taking proactive measures to ensure that highly qualified teachers are in the classroom.

Second, she said states must demonstrate they are taking measures to guarantee that students are learning and that assessment scores and graduation rates are on the road to improvement.

Third, Spellings said states must have an "overall sound" state education policy. She suggested they "harness the power of technology" to implement sound education plans. Examples include "providing web-based tools to align curricula, instruction, and funding," using ED's Teacher-to-Teacher eLearning courses, and creating a statewide electronic database of student and school statistics.

Spellings gave an example of this new "common-sense" approach in ED's revised policy for working with states on improving services to children with cognitive disabilities. Under current NCLB regulations, up to 1 percent of students with academic disabilities are permitted to take tests that are specifically designed for their abilities. Spellings said ED is now willing to accommodate larger percentages on a state-by-state basis, "as long as the state is working to best serve those students by providing rigorous, research-based training for teachers, improving assessments, and organizing collaboration between special-education and classroom teachers."