The following editorial appeared Tuesday in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The Democratic takeover of Congress next year holds promise for much-needed changes in No Child Left Behind federal education rules. President Bush’s signature education bill comes up for reauthorization, and the new majority will have more power to direct the discussion.

Although the controversial NCLB has something for almost everyone to dislike, the spirit of the original law has merit. In 2001, NCLB passed with bipartisan support. The idea was to identify the schools and students that are falling behind, set ambitious goals and benchmarks for student learning, then support states and districts to help them catch up.

However, some of the law’s details have proved unrealistic and unreasonable. Funding failed to follow increasing testing, reporting and tutoring rules. Some of the best schools in the nation have been labeled “failing” because one or two students in a particular category did not meet a standard.

As the new Congress ponders NCLB, it should:

“Match mandates with money. Under federal law, states and school districts must test students and report results more often. And they are required to offer tutoring or transfers to struggling students – all with little financial help from Washington. In fact, as the number of NCLB rules grew, federal funding went in the opposite direction. On top of that financial gap, federal special education mandates have never been properly funded at the promised 40 percent level. Last year, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., introduced legislation that would fully fund NCLB (with modifications) and special education. Now such proposals may gain some traction.

“Assess progress, not just test scores. Evaluations of how well students and schools are performing should include a “value-added” component. That means federal rules should include a way to assess how much each student and school are improving year to year – not just compare the scores of this year’s fifth-graders with last year’s fifth-grade class.

“Refine “quality teaching” provisions. Under NCLB rules, many rural districts have trouble finding people to teach in every subject area. Another unintended consequence is that many schools had to fire competent educational assistants who either did not have an AA degree or could not pass a test. Some of those EAs were people who spoke the home language of immigrant students or had other special rapport with students.

“Make legitimate comparisons. Federal rules call for all states to develop their own tests and standards. Therefore some states have set low academic bars so they can appear more successful when they report test scores. To make any state-to-state or global comparisons meaningful, the feds must develop ways to make apples-to-apples student assessments.

“Copy success. Education research during the past two decades has demonstrated which education models work well for the most challenged students. Whether those models come from public, private, charter or alternative schools, the federal government should encourage the use of those proven methods. And states and districts must be motivated to speed up the closing or changing of schools that aren’t doing the job.