The beginning of the 2004-05 school year brings us another year closer to the deadline for implementation of the No Child Left Behind legislation. But even as that deadline approaches, debate continues among educators, politicians, community leaders and the public concerning its implementation. Government leaders and proponents of NCLB often see educators as blocking needed reform: Educators see the legislation as mandating reform without understanding what is needed or how to bring it about.

		Jerry Longo is superintendent of the Quaker Valley School District. Anne Stephens has been superintendent of the Brentwood School District for two years. She previously headed the school reform program in Ohio and was the state's liaison with the federal government on No Child Left Behind. Both are board members of ASSET Inc.

At the same time, many educators do agree that NCLB embodies the attitude essential if our nation is to provide every child an opportunity to learn; to develop a highly skilled and well-prepared workforce to keep us competitive globally; and to educate an informed citizenry that understands what it takes to make democracy work.

In Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, intense pubic scrutiny of our schools has resulted in a variety of highly publicized reports, editorials and comments that invariably concentrate on "what's wrong" with our local schools and that reinforce the public's generally negative perceptions.

Yet, in all of the reports and news articles we've seen on the state of public education in Western Pennsylvania, we haven't seen a single reference to ASSET (Achieving Student Success through Excellence in Teaching), a local nonprofit, fee-for-service education reform organization.

ASSET began just 10 years ago quietly working with two school districts. It now serves students in grades K--8 in 44 school districts, private schools and charter schools in Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania. More than 75 percent of Allegheny County school districts use ASSET classroom materials and teacher professional development programs and ASSET is widely supported by area teachers, educational administrators and school boards. Additionally, it has achieved the seemingly impossible in bringing together governmental agencies, corporations and foundations in support of this promising education reform model.

ASSET is recognized as a national leader by its peers in this reform model, which is now in use in 10 states throughout the country and has been adopted as the statewide reform model in Washington and Delaware. The overall coordinating body is the National Science Resources Center, an organization created by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

The ASSET philosophy promotes learning science by doing science, much the way professional scientists conduct their work. Thus, every child in a classroom is engaged in experiments on a topic, such as the life cycle of butterflies or magnets and electricity, for nine to 12 weeks.

Each child would receive a larva and its food and would observe and note the changes every day as it evolves from larva to chrysalis to butterfly. Or each student wires a model house to ensure electrical conductivity and light to each room as the culminating activity of the unit. To ensure the support system for this multidisciplinary, hands-on, inquiry-based learning, ASSET supplies teacher professional development and curriculum materials.

Why does ASSET work?

It is teacher-based. Teachers teach teachers. Teachers are both the targets and the agents of change. Their leadership is essential to bring about a new culture in education and to enhance the quality of the classroom experience for students. The bottom line simply is that teachers must trust and respect any effective educational reform movement, if it is to work -- and they trust and respect ASSET.

Despite assertions to the contrary, there is compelling research that demonstrates that students from resource-poor districts can learn if their classroom experience is right. ASSET ensures a leveling of the playing field. Students in Quaker Valley and in Duquesne, in Brentwood and in Wilkinsburg have the same classroom opportunities.

Preliminary research indicates that performance in both reading and math at ASSET schools is improving faster than at non-ASSET schools. ASSET's teaching impacts all academic subjects and brings continuity, contingency and connectedness to the classroom. It provides a consistency of style and a rhythm of teaching from grade level to grade level that builds to a crescendo.

The ASSET model works because it is research-based, offers a sound curriculum, and develops skilled teachers comfortable with questioning and reasoning methods in the classroom. In that environment, students and teachers share the spirit of discovery that produces measurable signs of success.

ASSET has teachers working together with teachers in other districts in ways we've not seen before in our collective professional experience. It is the only program that offers something close to a standardized classroom experience in Allegheny County and southwestern Pennsylvania schools and has captured the imagination, trust and respect of teachers throughout the region. ASSET is a bridge-builder between districts.

The beneficiaries are the more than 63,000 students in over 180 schools who experience the ASSET model daily. And more than 3,000 teachers in ASSET classrooms prove on a daily basis that education reform adopted for teachers by teachers is the most effective way to improve the students' classroom performance, leave no child behind and meet our national educational goals.

It has been said that "good is the enemy of great." If we become complacent in our achievements, we tend not to do the other things that we must do to move forward. ASSET is a daily reminder not only of what those things are, but how we can bring them about. We suggest that in ASSET, this region has an organization with the potential to assume a major role in education reform locally and nationally.

We invite our city's and county's governmental, corporate and community leaders to join us and thousands of other educators to take a good look at ASSET, as we together strive to ensure the finest education possible for all of our children.