There has been much ado about the new federal education bill signed into law last week by President Bush. As a former school board member in Colorado's (and the U.S.) fastest growing county, I see some real strengths in the bill, but I am very skeptical of any claims that a particular law will ensure that "no child is left behind."

Let's look first at the law's strong points. It provides significant additional federal funding for public schools, aimed primarily at low income students who need help the most. It requires reading and math tests for every third through eighth grader. It requires teachers to be proficient in their subject areas and lets schools spend federal funds on teacher training, recruitment and raises. In addition, the bill puts new resources into tutoring students and into assisting failing schools.

So, why am I skeptical? Because no matter how great a school's teachers may be, no matter how much money is put into a failing school, no matter how often schools test students, schools alone cannot make up for the social problems of poverty, drugs, malnutrition and poor health.

It's fine to compare test scores among the majority of our schools that are successful. Most parents can use them to decide where to live or to choose a particular school for their children. But, test scores are of limited value in the failing schools that populate so many of our inner cities.

Testing in a failing school can help diagnose students' academic strengths and weaknesses. It can help identify teachers who need training. It's far less valuable, however, in identifying a failing school or monitoring its progress. For example, many poor schools have student turnover of 75% or more in one school year. So, students taking the tests each year are different from the ones who took it last year and the ones who will take it next year. How do you measure progress when each year the students are different? Yet, test scores are our basis for evaluating schools.

Nor can testing tell us which students come to school hungry or stoned or beaten or scared. Schools can't fill the void in a student's life left by neglect or abuse. Schools can't force parents to care about their children's education. Tests, however, can help schools develop strategies for overcoming at least some of the reasons children fail.

For example, in failing schools, students can be tested at the beginning, middle and end of the year. Teachers can monitor each student and adapt learning methods throughout the year to meet each child's needs. In addition, schools can take students' progress reports and test results directly to parents in their homes where they are more comfortable and accessible. Besides getting parents involved in their children's education, this would help parents inform a new school of their children's educational needs and achievements.

Some successful inner city schools move teachers with their students from grade to grade rather than changing teachers each year. Schools would need to put additional resources into teacher training to make this work, but that would be well worth the investment. Of course, this presupposes that most children will be staying in the same school.

Other schools put several grades in one classroom so that achievement levels rather than age determine a student's placement. Teachers can spend less time dealing with widely varying academic levels and focus, instead, on their students' common needs. Schools can work with community organizations, as envisioned in the education bill, to reach out to families by tutoring students in their homes. And, as a number of students have told me, better counseling would help students tremendously in managing academic, social and family problems more effectively.

Society's problems become a school's problems. And children become the lasting victims of our failure to deal with society's woes. While schools are key to aiding these students, we must look to the causes of failure beyond schools. Then, schools can more effectively target their reforms to help the students who need it the most.