Announcements

House Budget Committee Chairman Introduces and Marks Up FY 2013 Budget Resolution

NASSP Coalition Partner Committee for Education Funding “Strongly Opposes” this Budget

Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) of the House Budget Committee introduced his FY 2013 budget resolution this past week in Congress, and in a phrase, it is bad for education. Quoting a letter sent to House Budget committee members in response to Chairman Ryan’s FY 2013 budget resolution, Executive Director Joel Packer of the Committee for Education Funding, a coalition partner of NASSP, writes: “Because the Budget appears to increase defense spending to $554 billion in FY 13, nondefense discretionary spending [which includes education] would be subject to a $27 billion (-5.4%) aggregate cut.

Education programs have already suffered significant harmful cuts to both K-12 and higher education.…Since FY 10, funding for over 50 education programs has been terminated, cutting over $1.2 billion.”

The mark-up of the budget occurred on Wednesday evening. Three education amendments were offered and voted on but all were defeated on party line votes. One of the amendments was from Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA) to prevent FY 2013 cuts to federal education funding.

The Budget Resolution is expected to be on the House floor next week. Check back on our blog for updates.

The White House this week stated its opposition to Chairman Ryan’s budget as well with its analysis, The Ryan-Republican Budget: The Consequences of Imbalance. As stated in a White House blog post, “This week, the House Republicans released their 2013 budget. The budget would give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, while paying for it by ending Medicare as we know it and cutting the very investments we need to grow the economy and restore middle class security. We did the math and put a graphic together to help illustrate the importance of a balanced and fair budget.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan Defends President Obama’s FY 2013 Education Budget in House Hearing

On Thursday March 22, Arne Duncan was the sole witness to testify at a hearing held by the House Appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education on the President’s FY 2013 budget request. (For a summary of how the President seeks to fund education for FY 2013 along with NASSP’s reaction, go here). For excellent updates on the testimony, follow NASSP’s coalition partner Committee for Education Funding (CEF) on Twitter at @edfunding and find the tweets from March 22. As CEF Executive Director Joel Packer states, “Basically, Duncan was criticized by both parties for the emphasis on competitive grants and new programs over funding for existing programs like Title I, IDEA, Impact Aid, TRIO and GEAR UP.”

News

Poor Public Education is a Threat to National Security

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)–sponsored Independent Task Force report on U.S. Education Reform and National Security issued a report this week that said, “Educational failure puts the United States’ future economic prosperity, global position, and physical safety at risk.” “Human capital will determine power in the current century, and the failure to produce that capital will undermine America’s security,” the report states. “Large, undereducated swaths of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy.” Secretary Duncan cited this report in his March 22 testimony to the House appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (see Announcements section above) as a means to argue for increased investment (e.g. funding) in education for FY 2013 that President Obama proposes in his FY 2013 budget request.

Findings on the Implementation of School Improvement Grants

The Center on Education Policy issued this week two reports on implementation of the School Improvement Grant program:

State Implementation and Perceptions of Title I School Improvement Grants under the Recovery Act: One Year Later

Opportunities and Obstacles: Implementing Stimulus-Funded School Improvement Grants in Maryland, Michigan, and Idaho

According to a summary of the reports, these are the key findings:

• Participants in both studies expressed optimism but also raised concerns about certain aspects of the ARRA SIG program.

• Participants in the case study report, as well as some state survey respondents, said their schools faced significant challenges in replacing teachers and principals, as required by some of the SIG school improvement models.

• Participants in both studies cited the importance of state assistance to district and schools that are implementing ARRA SIG reforms.

• Both studies provided evidence that low-performing schools across the country are using some similar approaches to school improvement, although with varying levels of intensity, and are somewhat optimistic about these approaches.

The Center on American Progress (CAP) also issued a SIG report: Competing for School Improvement Dollars

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Speaks out Against Publishing Teacher Value-Added Scores

From a March 23 Education Week article: “Publishing teachers’ ratings in the newspaper in the way The New York Times and other outlets have done recently is not a good use of performance data, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview yesterday.

“Do you need to publish every single teacher’s rating in the paper? I don’t think you do,” he said. “There’s not much of an upside there, and there’s a tremendous downside for teachers. We’re at a time where morale is at a record low. … We need to be sort of strengthening teachers, and elevating and supporting them.”

So how does this square with Duncan’s famous endorsement, in 2010, of the Los Angeles Times‘ controversial project to publish a database of teacher “value added” ratings?

Duncan told me that while that project highlighted important data that at the time had been collected and unused by the district, its publication was “far from ideal.”

“What I was reacting to in L.A. was this mind-boggling situation where teachers were denied access to this data. The only way they could get it was through the newspaper,” he said. “There was clearly some level of dysfunction [in the district], that this was the only way they could get it.”

In Los Angeles, the city teachers’ union still hasn’t come around to using the data in a districtwide evaluation system, but such a system is now being piloted in some schools with teacher volunteers.

Duncan’s comments opposing the mass publication of this information echo others in the field—including philanthropist Bill Gates and Teach For America’s Wendy Kopp. While both are generally bullish on the use of such data as a component of teacher evaluations, they argue that its mass publication amounts to a shaming of teachers.” Read the rest of the article here.

Resources

NASSP Coalition Partner Committee for Education Funding Releases its Annual Budget Response to Obama’s FY 2013 Budget Request

From the committee website: CEF’s annual Education Budget Response is the most comprehensive source available on how vital federal education programs improve the lives of millions of Americans.

The Budget Response is a useful source for information on federal education programs, but there are resources even more valuable: the authors and contacts listed within, who invite you to find out more about the programs described here and the lives of the people these programs touch.

Initial Summary of Education Provisions in the President’s FY 2013 Budget, click here

• FY 2013 Response (1pg view PDF) and Powerpoint
• FY 2013 Response (2pg view PDF) and Powerpoint

Research

National High School Graduation Rate Increases

From a U.S. Department of Education e-mail blast on March 23: “According to a report released at the second annual “Building a Grad Nation” Summit, sponsored by America’s Promise Alliance, the nation continues to make progress at increasing graduation rates and decreasing the number of “dropout factories.”  The national high school graduation rate increased, from 72% in 2001 to 75.5% in 2009.  Twenty states made significant gains (+3 to +17 percentage points), with New York (+13) and Tennessee (+17.8) recording double-digit gains.  Yet, only one state, Wisconsin, had a graduation rate of 90%, and 10 states actually saw declines in their graduation rates during this period.  Meanwhile, the number of so-called dropout factories — high schools graduating 60% or fewer students on time — decreased, from 2,007 in 2002 to 1,550 in 2010, with the rate of decline accelerating since 2008.  Three states, Florida (-62), Georgia (-54), and Texas (-122), decreased the number of dropout factories by over 50.  Further, the South (-410) and suburbs (-171) recorded the largest declines in the number of dropout factories.  However, the Midwest (+33) and towns (+42) and rural areas (+33) recorded increases.”  FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO http://www.americaspromise.org/our-work/grad-nation/building-a-grad-nation.aspx.

Events

Note: NASSP lists these events because many are free and offer a webcast for those who cannot attend in-person (which would be most of our members!)

Please join the Center for American Progress for a special presentation:

Race to the Top: What Have We Learned So Far?

March 26, 2012, 10:00am – 11:30am EST

Admission is free.

RSVP to attend this event

Welcoming Remarks:
Tom Perriello, President, Center for American Progress Action Fund

Featured Presenter:
Ulrich Boser, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Featured Panelists:
Francine Lawrence, Executive Vice President, American Federation of Teachers
Lillian M. Lowery, Secretary of Education, Delaware
Joanne Weiss, Chief of Staff, U.S. Department of Education

Moderator:
Cynthia G. Brown, Vice President for Education Policy, Center for American Progress

With $4.35 billion at stake the Obama administration’s Race to the Top competitive grant program may be its most significant education initiative. Race to the Top promised to help states and districts close achievement gaps and get more students to be college and career ready by supporting several key reform strategies. Eleven states and the District of Columbia won grants in 2010, and since then, there has been much debate about the impact of the initiative.

Please join the Center for American Progress for a conversation with Race to the Top experts who grapple with the challenges of implementation and its implications on a daily basis. We will launch the conversation with a new report by CAP Senior Fellow Ulrich Boser that examines the progress in states and provides a sense of early successes and failures. We will expand on the discussion with a panel of distinguished policy and state leaders.

March 29: National Journal LIVE Policy Summit

Budget Review: Leading Policy Priorities for Sustained Growth

Thursday, March 29
Newseum Knight Broadcast Studio
555 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC

RSVP AT: http://njbudgetreview.eventbrite.com

JOIN THE CONVERSATION, TWEET USING HASHTAG #NJPNBUDGET

With the release of the House Republican’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget resolution, budgetary issues are roaring back to the front burner. Join National Journal for a policy summit that takes a substantive look at each of the leading budget proposals. Where might budgetary compromise and confrontation exist in the competing plans? What does each plan say about the political parties’ respective vision for the country? How are issues like entitlement reform or changes in the federal tax code addressed?  And finally, given the long-standing political impasse on budgetary issues, is passing a comprehensive budget still possible, or is the age of continuing resolutions the “new normal” in polarized Washington?

Moderated by:

Kristin Roberts, Managing Editor, Budget and Economy, National Journal

Keynote One-on-One Interviews:

Featuring:

• Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman, House Budget Committee

Followed by:

• Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Ranking Member, House Budget Committee

Panel Discussion:

• Steve Bell, Senior Director of Economic Policy, Bipartisan Policy Center
• Laura Peterson, Senior Policy Analyst, Taxpayers for Common Sense
• Ethan Pollack, Senior Policy Analyst, Economic Policy Institute

Green Ribbon Schools Award

On April 23, following Earth Day, Secretary Duncan will announce winners of the Department’s inaugural Green Ribbon Schools recognition award competition.  FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO http://www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools/.

Announcements

NASSP 2009 Breakthrough Schools Winner Presents on Capitol Hill

Kevin Lowndes, 2008 winner of the MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools Award and principal of Wheaton High School in Silver Spring (Montgomery County) MD, along with teacher Heather Carias, spoke at a Capitol Hill briefing this past Wednesday on the topic of school turnaround. Given that Congress is still undecided on its federal role in school turnaround, NASSP as part of the coalition Forum on Educational Accountability (www.edaccountability.org) wanted to shed light on how a practitioner like Kevin successfully created sustainable change in his school in order to provide an example to guide federal policymaking. While we do not have a video of the event to share, we invite you to read more about Kevin’s success story here.

Meet NASSP’s 2012 Digital Principals

As you recall, the Digital Principal Award is, according to the NASSP website, “an opportunity to honor principals who exhibit bold, creative leadership in their drive to harness the potential of new technologies to further learning goals. The award also allows us to showcase models of leadership that encourage the use of technology in instruction and for principals’ own professional use.”

The 2012 winners are Michael King of Dodge City (KS) Middle School, Patrick Larkin of Burlington (MA) High School, and Eric Sheninger of New Milford (NJ) High School. Read more about the winners!

Meet the principals through this short video here: http://video214.com/play/azHew0AtPVVitwZK1crTvg/s/dark

Update on FY 2012 Race to the Top Application

The U.S. Department of Education will not release the application for the FY 2012 Race to the Top competition (which is expected to provide most of the $550 million as grants to school districts instead of to states) until June.

Charter School Grants

Three states will split $54.8 million in the FY 2011 Charter Schools Program State Education Agency competition. Minnesota will receive a five-year grant while Massachusetts and New Jersey will receive three-year grants to aid the creation of new charter schools and the sharing of best practices among existing schools. Information about the Charter Schools Program can be found at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/csp/index.html.

House Budget Resolution for FY 2013

House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan (R-WI) will outline his FY 2013 Budget Resolution next Tuesday March 20 and will likely hold a committee markup on the resolution the following day, March 21. NASSP has worked very hard as part of the coalition Committee for Education Funding to meet with dozens of Congressional staff on this committee in the last few weeks to urge them not to cut education funding in this budget and instead to consider it as an investment. Chairman Ryan’s budget is expected to cut the nondefense discretionary caps (that includes education funding) by at least $19 billion. See: House GOP on track to produce budget and G.O.P. Split Over a Bid to Revise Budget Deal

News

Senators Propose to Create Online College Readiness Tracking Program

On Thursday, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a bill, called the “American Dream Accounts Act” intended to help low-income students navigate the path to higher education by developing online systems to track college preparation and that would be linked to college savings accounts.

According to an article from Congressional Quarterly, “Coons has talked to Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, about the bill, though not in great detail. The language is likely to be attached to other legislation as an amendment, worked into a broader education measure down the road or implemented by the Education Department on its own, according to his staff.”

Read more about the bill from Senator Coon’s press release here.

School Meal Automatic Eligibility Certification to Pilot in Six States

Beginning this summer, students eligible for Medicaid and who are attending K-12 public schools in six states will be automatically certi­fied to receive federally subsidized school meals. According to a March 16 article in Education Daily, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service will collaborate with Alas­ka, Illinois, New York, Kentucky, Florida, and Pennsylvania in the pilot, which will test and utilize direct certification of children and youth who already receive benefits through the Supple­mental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, and Temporary Aid for Needy Families.” This direct certification done electronically will replace the procedure families currently have to go through to fill out paperwork to qualify for the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs. This pilot program, authorized under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act will begin July 1 in the six states for the 2012-2013 school year.

The implementation timeline for the nutrition standards released in January is online at www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/Legislation/implementation_timeline.pdf.

Resources

New Tool Helps High Schools Boost FAFSA Completions

From the U.S. Department of Education blog, “Homeroom”: “As the cost of college continues to increase, financial aid becomes ever more important. While many factors are involved in the decision to attend college, there is a strong correlation between FAFSA completion and college enrollment.

Previously, high schools relied on self-reported surveys to estimate their FAFSA completion rate and that data can be inaccurate. For this reason, Federal Student Aid is providing high schools with current data about their FAFSA submissions and completions so that high schools can track their progress and help to ensure that their students complete a FAFSA. A completed FAFSA allows the Department to determine a potential student’s eligibility for federal student aid – a key factor in families’ college decisions.

The data included in the attached charts reflect the number of submitted and completed FAFSAs among applicants no older than 18 who will have received their high school diploma by the start of the 2012-2013 school year. The data is displayed in spreadsheets broken down by state that include the school name and city of the high school. Learn more about the data assumptions and view frequently asked questions.”

Click here to access FAFSA submission and completion data for every high school.

American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Releases Study on the Impact of the Economic Recession on Schools

“Weathering the Storm: How the Economic Recession Continues to Impact Schools” is the twelfth in a series of studies examining the impact of the economic recession on schools. The study is based on a survey of 528 school administrators in February 2012. This is a great resource for school leaders to get a better sense of school funding at the district level across the country.

Related studies and articles include:

New AASA Study Shows Little Relief in the Next Year

School Districts Wary of Federal Funding Fight

Research

In Case You Didn’t See This the First Time I Posted This…

“The Case of School Principals”

Last month, Stanford’s Eric Hanushek — who conducted many of the early economic analyses on teacher impact – presented a new research paper at a conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Educational Research. The findings show, in his words, that “principals matter.”

See the report: http://www.caldercenter.org/upload/CALDER-Working-Paper-32_FINAL.pdf

Events

March 20: The Center for American Progress (CAP) will hold a discussion on the federal government’s role in improving schools. You can view the webcast of this event on their website at www.americanprogress.org.

Participants: House Education and Workforce Committee ranking Democrat Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.; Cami Anderson, superintendent of the Newark Public Schools; Rayne Martin, executive director of Stand for Children-Louisiana; Paul Pastorek, chief administration officer, counsel and corporate secretary for EADS North America; Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at The Education Trust; Neera Tanden, president of CAP; and Cynthia Brown, vice president for education policy at the Center for American Progress Action Trust

Register to attend if you are near the D.C. area!

Announcements

Follow the NASSP 2012 Conference from Home!

The 2012 NASSP Annual Conference begins today, and even if you can’t be on-site for the live event, you can still follow all of the action on NASSP’s website.

Visit www.nassp.org/Conference2012 to watch daily wrap-up videos and interviews with attendees and presenters.

View real-time tweets from participants on the ground in Tampa, and join the conversation by sending your own tweets with the special conference hashtag #nassp2012.

Check out the photo gallery smugmug from the NASSP Conference in Tampa provided by Lifetouch.

Read daily conference highlights from the all-new Leading Schools Blog, www.LeadingSchoolsBlog.org, discussing such session topics as the Common Core State Standards, education technology, urban schools, and much more.

Education and the Workforce Committee Changes: The following members of the House Education and the Workforce Committee will not be on the Committee in the next Congress:

• Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI) – retiring
• Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) – deceased
• Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) – retiring
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) – defeated in primary
• Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) – running for Senate
• Rep/ Todd Platts (R-PA) – retiring

Go here to see Secretary Duncan’s statement about the passing of Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ).

FY 12 SEED Grants Announced: This week, Education Secretary Arne Duncan “announced the award of nearly $24.6 million for three grants to improve student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of teachers and principals. Funded under the Supporting Effective Educators Development (SEED) program, projects are awarded to the National Writing Project, New Teacher Center, and Teach for America.”  See: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/education-department-awards-246-million-grants-support-teacher-and-principal-dev.

News

New Data from U.S. Department of Education Highlights Educational Inequities Around Teacher Experience, Discipline and High School Rigor

From a U.S. Department of Education press release: “Minority students across America face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school curricula, and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

In an event at Howard University attended by civil rights and education reform groups, federal education officials today released new data from a national survey of more than 72,000 schools serving 85% of the nation’s students.  The self-reported data, Part II of the 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), covers a range of issues including college and career readiness, discipline, school finance, and student retention.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the CRDC findings are a wake-up call to educators at every level and issued a broad challenge to work together to address educational inequities.

“The power of the data is not only in the numbers themselves, but in the impact it can have when married with the courage and the will to change.  The undeniable truth is that the everyday educational experience for many students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise.  It is our collective duty to change that,” Duncan said.

Among the key findings are:

• African-American students, particularly males, are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than their peers.  Black students make up 18% of the students in the CRDC sample, but 35% of the students suspended once, and 39% of the students expelled.
• Students learning English (ELL) were 6% of the CRDC high school enrollment, but made up 12% of students retained.
• Only 29% of high-minority high schools offered Calculus, compared to 55% of schools with the lowest black and Hispanic enrollment.
• Teachers in high-minority schools were paid $2,251 less per year than their colleagues in teaching in low-minority schools in the same district.”

Read the rest of the press release and access the website containing all of the data here.

States Are Getting Creative about Seat Time Requirements

According to the National Governors Association, 36 states have adopted policies for districts or schools to be able to offer credits based on student competency in subjects students’ rather than based on the traditional “seat time” requirements. Getting more creative about seat time requirements can help students not only advance faster through grades, but can help struggling or out-of-school students catch up if they are afforded more attention from teachers when the proficient students can advance. From an Education Week article, “Perhaps no state has gone as far as New Hamsphire in moving away from seat-time requirements. In 2005, it became the first state to do away with the Carnegie unit, according to the International Association of K-12 Online Learning, or INACOL, a Vienna, Va.-based group that supports expanding online education options.

The state gave districts until the 2008-09 academic year to award students credits based on their mastery of course-level competencies, though some districts have yet to make the change. (“N.H. Schools Embrace Competency-Based Learning,” Feb. 8, 2012.)” Read the rest of the article here.

House Budget Committee Prepares for FY 2013 Budget Resolution for Impact on Education Funding

Chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan (R-WI) has stated that he plans to mark up the House FY 2013 budget resolution the week of March 19, and House Republicans are eager to cut funding below FY 2012 levels. According to an article from The Hill publication, “Republicans on the House Budget Committee have intensified their push to overcome differences and produce their 2013 budget resolution, meeting almost daily. The GOP wants to be able to pass a budget without reaching out to any conservative Democrats, so it must find a way to resolve differences on discretionary spending and entitlements within the party conference…. The GOP is most deeply divided over whether discretionary spending caps in the August Budget Control Act should be in the budget or whether spending should be cut more deeply.” NASSP staff has been very active in advocating to preserve and ideally to increase education funding for FY 2013, and have met with several staff in House budget Congressional offices to deliver this message as part of the coalition Committee for Education Funding. Read the rest of the Hill article here and stay tuned for more updates here.

Research

Teacher Job Satisfaction Hits Its Lowest Point in Decades

According to the MetLife survey of the American teacher, teacher satisfaction is at its lowest point since 1989. As Education Week reports: “the survey finds that 44 percent of teachers are “very satisfied” with their jobs, down from 59 percent in 2009. The last time job satisfaction dipped as low was in 1989.

The report is based on telephone interviews of 1,001 U.S. public school teachers conducted last fall by Harris Interactive on behalf of MetLife Inc. (The MetLife Foundation provides funding to Education Week Teacher to support its capacity to engage teachers interactively in professional community.)

In another indication of declining morale, according to the report, 29 percent of teachers say they are likely to leave the teaching profession within the next five years—up from 17 percent in 2009.”

Read the rest of the article and access the report here.

Resources

Resource for Teachers and School Leaders on Common Core Implementation

The Common Core State Standards have tremendous implications for all educators. Are you familiar with each of them? Marzano Research Laboratory will walk you through the major considerations of the CCSS during a FREE four-part webinar series. Prepare to align and implement seamlessly. Register today!

Events

FY 13 Appropriations: Listed below are the scheduled House and Senate appropriations hearings on education. Access these sites to view the webcast and read the witness testimonies once these hearings have occurred:

Senate appropriations subcommittee on education: http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/ht-labor.cfm

House appropriations subcommittee on education: http://appropriations.house.gov/Calendar/?EventTypeID=316

• 3/22, 10 AM;  2358-C Rayburn; House Labor- HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing;  FY 13 Department of Education Budget; Witness: Secretary Arne Duncan
• 3/27,10:30 AM;  2358-C Rayburn; House Labor- HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing – K-12 Education; Witness: TBA
• TENTATIVE; April 24; 2 PM; 124 Dirksen; Senate Labor- HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing;  FY 13 Department of Education Budget; Witness: Secretary Arne Duncan

Announcements

House ESEA Bills Approved: The House Education and the Workforce Committee this past Tuesday approved the two ESEA bills introduced by Chairman Kline (R-MN) on strictly partisan lines with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats voting no. Ranking Member George Miller (D-CA) offered two substitute bills to completely replace Kline’s bills, but they were defeated.  Rep. Thompson (R-PA) offered an amendment to eliminate “number weighting” under the Title I formula but this was defeated by a vote of 16-22. For more coverage of this markup see NASSP’s blog post here or go to markup of the Student Success Act and markup of the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act.

Second Deadline of ESEA Waivers: The Department announced this past week that “Twenty-six new states and the District of Columbia have formally submitted requests to the U.S. Department of Education for waivers. These states join the 11 states that applied in November in the first-round (and already gained approval) to implement their own accountability systems in exchange for certain reforms articulated by the Obama administration. Refer to the Resources section below for useful materials on ESEA waivers. Also see this Education Week article for more coverage.

NASSP Responds to High School Shooting in Ohio

NASSP official statement: “NASSP expresses its condolences to the community of Chardon High School in Chardon, OH, and especially to the families of slain students Daniel Parmertor, Russell King, Jr., and Demetrius Hewlin. NASSP School Safety Specialist Bill Bond has been in regular contact with Chardon Principal Andy Fetchik and providing guidance as the school community works to recover from this tragic event. View additional NASSP resources on school climate/safety.”

News

Principal Turnover Severely Hurts School Performance

A RAND Corporation study released last week found that, not to anyone’s surprise who knows the critical role of the principal in student achievement, principals who leave a school within one or a few years leave behind a school that performs worse years after their departure. As the Education Week article states, “However, the answer is not as simple as just allowing or encouraging those principals to remain in place…In some cases, the solution is to give folks more time,” Ms. Ikemoto said, but policymakers should make sure they’re selecting the very best candidates for those positions from the start.” Read the rest of the article here.

U.S. Department of Education Launches Effort to Strengthen Accountability for Students with Disabilities

From a March 2 Department of Education press release: “The Department of Education announced new steps to help close the achievement gap for students with disabilities by moving away from a one-size-fits-all, compliance-focused approach to a more balanced system that looks at how well students are being educated in addition to continued efforts to protect their rights.

While the Department has effectively ensured access to educational resources for students with disabilities, not enough attention has been paid to educational outcomes, which have not sufficiently improved. This is partly due to the fact that federal policy has focused more on procedural requirements and not enough on critical indicators like increasing academic performance or graduation rates for students with disabilities.

“For too long we’ve been a compliance-driven bureaucracy when it comes to educating students with disabilities,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We have to expect the very best from our students—and tell the truth about student performance—so that we can give all students the supports and services they need. The best way to do that is by focusing on results,” Duncan said.” Read the rest of the press release here: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-announces-new-effort-strengthen-accountability-students-disabilities.

For more information about the work of the Department’s Office of Special Education Programs, see http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/index.html

Weigh in on Theory of “Cage-Busting Leadership”

Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute is seeking input from school leaders like yourselves on stories that illustrate either:

“A] the ways in which you’ve been hemmed in by federal/state laws or regulations, district policies, employee contracts, IT/HR/finance operations, established routines, or stagnant cultures, or
B] the ways in which you, or your colleagues, have found ways to escape or explode those constraints.”

Mr. Hess may use some of these stories in his next book tentatively titled Cage-Busting Leadership, and centered on the premise that “It is true, as would-be reformers often argue, that statutes, policies, rules, regulations, contracts, and case law make it tougher than it should be for school and system leaders to drive improvement and, well, lead. At the same time, however, it is also true that these leaders have far more freedom to transform, reimagine, and invigorate teaching, learning, and schooling than is widely believed.” Read the rest of his musings on this topic and learn how to weigh in with your thoughts here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rick_hess_straight_up/2012/02/cage-busting_leadership.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Walt+Gardner+Reality+Check.

Research

CBO on ARRA: On February 22, CBO released Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October 2011 through December 2011. “CBO estimates that, compared with what would have occurred otherwise, ARRA will raise real GDP in 2012 by between 0.1 percent and 0.8 percent and will increase the number of FTE jobs in 2012 by between 0.2 million and 1.1 million.”

Resources

Useful Resources for ESEA Waivers:

U.S. Department of Education: Website devoted to the waivers including press releases, fact sheets, summaries, and more: http://www.ed.gov/esea/flexibility

Council of Chief State School Officers: State ESEA flexibility map coloring states by status (applied, applications pending, not applied) as well as “state innovations and specific details found in NCLB flexibility requests”: http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Programs/ESEA_Flexibility.html

National Governors Association: Press release linking to a news issue brief outlining the opportunity for states through ESEA waivers to “reinvent” their accountability systems: http://www.nga.org/cms/home/news-room/news-releases/page_2012/col2-content/states-have-opportunity-to-reinv.html

White House Education Blueprint: In conjunction with the President’s speech this week to NGA which focused on the importance of education, the White House released: Education Blueprint: An Economy Built to Last. It includes sections on Higher Education Access and Success: Securing America’s Economic Competitiveness, Reforming K-12 Education to Prepare All Students for College and Career and Common Purpose: Investing in Our Students and in Our Future.

National Skills Coalition Budget Analyses: The National Skills Coalition last week issued its analysis of the President’s FY 13 budget.

Republican Presidential Candidates and the Budget: Last week, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released a new report that “analyzes how the policy proposals put forth by Speaker Newt Gingrich, Congressman Ron Paul, Governor Mitt Romney, and Senator Rick Santorum will affect the federal budget. The report, Primary Numbers: The GOP Candidates and the National Debt attempts to measure the debt impact of each candidate’s platforms as they have presented them to date.”

Events

Senate HELP Hearing: On March 8 at 10 AM in 430 Dirksen, the Committee is holding the following hearing: The Key to America’s Global Competitiveness: A Quality Education. Go here to view the witness list and to access the witness testimonies and webcast once the event has taken place.

Occupy the DOE: Two organizations, Save Our Schools and United Opt Out are planning a series of events on March 30-April 2 called Occupy the DOE (Department of Education).  NASSP is not involved in activity, but we wanted to share the information for those NASSP members who may be interested: http://unitedoptout.com/occupy-the-doe-in-dc-schedule-march-30th-to-april-2nd-2012/

Announcements

House Education Committee to Mark up ESEA Bills Next Week

Chairman Kline (R-MN) of the House Education and Workforce Committee will mark up on Tuesday (at 10 am EST) his two bills to reauthorize ESEA. The Student Success Act (HR 3989) addresses accountability, and The Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act (HR 3990) addresses teacher quality. The committee markup should be interesting to watch given that the Chairman introduced these bills in a partisan manner, or without the support of the committee’s Ranking Member Rep. George Miller (D-CA) who finds faults with many of these bill’s provisions and will likely offer sweeping amendments to Kline’s bills. Be sure to follow NASSP Government Relations staff on Twitter for live markup updates: @akarhuse and @kingston_m. Access follow-up materials including the webcast and opening remarks here: http://edworkforce.house.gov/.

ESEA Waiver Update

From the U.S. Department of Education website: “The second submission deadline to request ESEA Flexibility is February 28, 2012. As of February 21, 2012, 26 States and D.C. have submitted the intent to request ESEA Flexibility for the second window.”

News

U.S. Department of Education to Monitor Subgroup Accountability in NCLB Waiver States

Now that 11 states have been granted NCLB waivers from the first round of applications, the Department of Education is issuing implementation letters to these states outlining how it will monitor states’ progress on their approved accountability systems, with a significant focus on their fidelity in monitoring subgroup performance. Specifically, the department will “make sure the states are providing “transparency” around subgroup performance—especially in states that are using a “super-subgroup.” It’s also watching how Tennessee approves new “annual measurable objectives” (or AMOs), and how New Jersey and Georgia are implementing their new, not-yet-final grading systems.” Read the entire article-and more about the department’s monitoring plan-here.

School Leaders Generally Find Common Core Resources Lacking

From an Education Week article published online 2/24/12: “As states and districts begin the work of turning common academic standards into curriculum and instruction, educators searching for teaching resources are often finding that process frustrating and fruitless.

Teachers and curriculum developers who are trying to craft road maps that reflect the Common Core State Standards can find themselves in a dispiriting bind: Their current materials fall short, and there is a dearth of good new ones to fill the void.

“Teachers are struggling, and very few people are helping. Almost nothing is available for them to use,” said Aaron Grossman, a former 5th and 6th grade teacher in Nevada’s Washoe County district who now works at the district office writing curriculum.

Many school leaders are finding a rough road as well.

Greg Netzer, the principal of Van Horn High School in Independence, Mo., said he hasn’t heard much from his district about new curriculum. Teachers at his school have banded together to search for material to inform course development and meet weekly to discuss and share what they’ve found.

“There seems to be very little out there, or it’s just not in places we can find it,” Mr. Netzer said. “To say we are prepared for common core would be a misconception.”

Read the rest of the article here.

New York City Department of Education Releases Individual Teacher Performance Rankings

On Friday, the city’s education department released individual performance rankings of 18,000 public school teachers as measured by their students’ gains on the state’s math and English exams over five years and up until the 2009-10 school year. Obviously this is a highly controversial move and one that is being challenged by the United Federation of Teachers through a campaign they are launching to discredit this use of ranking teachers. Still, others feel that more transparency on teacher performance is needed, though publishing individual teacher names and scores may go too far. Read Bill Gates’ take on the issue as expressed in his New York Times op-ed here.

Research

Report on School Crime and Safety

As shared by the U.S. Department of Education: “Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2011,” a new report issued jointly by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, examines crimes occurring in school, as well as on the way to and from school, and presents data on safety at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, and principals.  The report covers topics such as victimization, bullying, school conditions, fighting, weapons, and availability and student use of drugs and alcohol.  One significant finding: the total crime victimization rate of students at school declined from 43 victimizations per 1,000 students in 2009 to 32 per 1,000 students in 2010.  FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2012002.

Sustained Positive Effects on Graduation Rates Produced by New York City’s Small Public High Schools of Choice

Between fall 2002 and fall 2008, the New York City school district closed 23 large failing high schools (with graduation rates below 45 percent), opened 216 new small schools of choice, or SSCs (with different missions, structures, and student selection criteria), and implemented a centralized high school admissions process that assigns over 90 percent of the roughly 80,000 incoming ninth-graders each year based on their school preferences. In June 2010, MDRC released a report on the effectiveness of 105 of the 123 new SSCs, based on a large and rigorous study that took advantage of lottery-like features in New York City’s high school admissions process, and includes data on 21,000 students from four cohorts who entered ninth grade between fall 2005 and fall 2008. This policy brief extends the analysis by a year, adding information on high school graduation rates for the 2006 cohort and providing a fifth year of follow-up for the 2005 cohort.

http://www.mdrc.org/publications/614/policybrief.pdf

Resources

Want to Better Understand the Potential Impact of President Obama’s FY 2013 Budget Request on Federal Education Funding? (That Will Impact the 2012-2013 school year). Check out any of these resources below!

The National Governors Association has compiled a list of policy provisions contained within the budget that affects major state programs. This list of provisions highlights significant levels of new funding, changes regarding program implementation, and other important non-funding related program changes.

First Focus released a detailed analysis of the Budget’s investment in America’s children.

PPT Slides From Tuesday’s Webinar on FY 2013 Federal Education Funding

CEF Webinar: The FY 13 Education Budget and Sequestration

Slides: Download slides in PDF format at www.acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Publications_and_Online_Media/files/CEF-FY13EducationFunding-Feb2012-Final.pdf.

Links shared during this presentation:

• Committee for Education Funding: www.cef.org. CEF is the oldest and largest education coalition, representing more than 90 national organizations and institutions from PreK through graduate education.
• CEF on Twitter: @edfunding

Events

Monday February 27: What States and Nonprofits Are Doing to Encourage Early High School Graduation, 1 pm EST

A handful of states are offering students scholarship money for college if they graduate from high school early. And nonprofit organizations are piloting a new approach to curriculum and testing that give students a chance to wrap up their high school studies early. Such initiatives can give high-achieving students an incentive to work hard by taking summer school or online classes to wrap up their requirements a semester or two early. For others who are burned out on high school, an early exit enables them to avoid the senior slump and puts them on a fast-track to their career path.

The policies can save education dollars along the way-less instructional dollars spent by states and tuition savings for families. While some are concerned that students might be exiting the system before they are ready, others say by rewarding proficiency over seat time, students will leave high school college- and career-ready. Join us for this online chat to learn more about the challenges and merits behind this movement.

Guests:

·         Pat Garofalo, Republican from Minnesota and sponsor of the Early Graduation Achievement Act that passed in the state legislature last year.

·         Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, a Washington organization that is piloting an early high school graduation project in select high schools.

Caralee Adams, contributing writer, Education Week, will moderate this chat.

Click hear to listen to the live conversation:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/events/chats/index.html?intc=intst

Announcements

President Obama Releases FY 2013 Budget Request, Signals Education as a Priority

From NASSP’s Principal’s Policy Blog: This past Monday, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, which outlines his spending priorities for certain programs and purposes for the next fiscal year, which will provide funding for the 2012-2013 school year. NASSP is happy to see the President’s continued investment in education: a proposed increase to the education budget of $1.7 billion, 2.5% above fiscal year 2012 levels. This proposed increase is especially significant given that the President in contrast proposed reducing the defense budget by 1%, while non-security discretionary programs across all other agencies only received an overall increase of $2 billion. Clearly, the President is fighting for investing in education, and on behalf of NASSP members we applaud this direction. Read the rest of the blog here.

Read more about the President’s education budget from the Department of Education here.

President Obama Announces $5 Billion Proposal to Strengthen Education Profession

From NASSP’s Principal’s Policy Blog: As part of his FY 2013 budget proposal, President Obama has requested $5 billion through the American Jobs Act for a new initiative to elevate teachers and school leaders. Known as Recognizing Education Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching or “RESPECT,” the one-time competitive grant program would support states and districts “that commit to pursuing bold reforms at every stage of the teaching profession.”

“Our goal is to work with teachers and principals in rebuilding their profession and to elevate the teacher voice in federal, state and local education policy,” said US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a press release announcing the proposal. “Our larger goal is to make teaching not only America’s most important profession, but also America’s most respected profession.” Read the rest of the blog here.

Read the U.S. Department of Education press release here: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/obama-administration-seeks-elevate-teaching-profession-duncan-launch-respect-pro.

New Mexico ESEA Waiver Approved

Secretary Duncan announced this Wednesday that NM was also granted its ESEA waiver, so all 11 states that applied have now been approved. In addition, ED set September 6 as the deadline for the third round for states to submit waiver requests. See: Department of Education Approves New Mexico’s Request for Flexibility from No Child Left Behind and 3rd-Round Waiver Deadline Set, Short-Term NCLB Relief Offered

News

House Education and the Workforce Committee Holds Hearing on ESEA Bills

On Thursday, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) held a hearing on two ESEA bills he formally introduced the same day: The Student Success Act (HR 3989) that addresses accountability, and The Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act (HR 3990) that addresses teacher quality. Chairman Kline drafted and introduced these bills in a partisan manner and without the participation and support of Ranking Member George Miller (D-CA) and other Democrats after talks apparently broke down at a certain point. As a result, the committee members were divided on the appropriate federal role in education, and it did not seem as if consensus will be reached soon. NASSP has heard that Chairman Kline would like to mark up the bill in the committee the week of February 27, which would give Rep. Miller (D-CA) and any other members the chance to offer as many amendments as they would like to the bill. It remains to be seen, however, if the committee can find enough of a common ground to approve these two bills. Access the witness testimony, remarks by the Chairman and Ranking Member, and the hearing video here.

Read NASSP’s perspective on these bills here.

Finally, read an Education Week analysis of the hearing here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/02/22/21esea.h31.html?tkn=MTNFcszfdThFvzrdqOs0aDJe7CRZR3Dm6EDw&cmp=clp-edweek.

Brookings Institution Report Claims the Common Core Will Have Little To No Effect on Student Achievement

Excerpt from the report: “Common standards will only affect variation between and among states (analysts use the grammatically suspect “between-state” as shorthand for this kind of variation). Achievement variation existing within states is already influenced, to the extent that standards can exert influence, by the states standards under which schools currently operate. Within state variation is four to five times larger than the variation between states. Put another way, anyone who follows NAEP scores knows that the difference between Massachusetts and Mississippi is quite large. What is often overlooked is that every state has a mini-Massachusetts and Mississippi contrast within its own borders. Common state standards only target the differences between states, not within them, sharply limiting common state standards’ potential impact on achievement differences.” Read the full report here and read the Education Week summary here.

NASSP strongly supports the common core state standards, as expressed in a position statement awaiting its final draft format: http://www.nassp.org/tabid/3788/default.aspx?topic=Common_Core_State_Standards_and_Assessments_in_K_12_Education

U.S. Secretary of Education Appears on the Daily Show with John Stewart

From a Washington Post article that appeared February 17, 2012: “Jon Stewart tried to engage Education Secretary Arne Duncan on “The Daily Show” Thursday night, but the effort was an exercise in the futility of conversing with someone who won’t deviate from his talking points.

Duncan was so programmed that Stewart was even unable to get the basketball-playing secretary to have some fun talking about the New York Knicks’ new hero, Jeremy Lin.

When Stewart jokingly asked Duncan whether, having graduated from Harvard, it was “a disappointment” that he “ended up as just the secretary of education” and not as an NBA superstar, Duncan’s only response was about how great a role model the hard-working Lin was for young people.

Stewart surely knew at that point he would get nothing from Duncan, but he made a polite effort anyway, because he had time to fill and, perhaps, because he knew his mother, a teacher who apparently can’t stand Duncan’s policies, would be watching.. Read the rest of the article here.

Research

Calder Releases Report on the Effect of Principals on Student Achievement

Titled “Estimating the Effect of Leaders on Public Sector Productivity: The Case of School Principals”, the report’s abstract states: “Although much has been written about the importance of leadership in the determination of organizational success, there is little quantitative evidence due to the difficulty of separating the impact of leaders from other organizational components – particularly in the public sector. Schools provide an especially rich environment for studying the impact of public sector management, not only because of the hypothesized importance of leadership but also because of the plentiful achievement data that provide information on institutional outcomes. Outcome-based estimates of principal value-added to student achievement reveal significant variation in principal quality that appears to be larger for high-poverty schools. Alternate lower-bound estimates based on direct estimation of the variance yield smaller estimates of the variation in principal productivity but ones that are still important, particularly for high poverty schools. Patterns of teacher exits by principal quality validate the notion that a primary channel for principal influence is the management of the teacher force. Finally, looking at principal transitions by quality reveals little systematic evidence that more effective leaders have a higher probability of exiting high poverty schools.” Access the report here.

Resources

Want to Know What’s on the Department of Education’s Agenda for FY 2012-2013? The Department recently released their priority goals for fiscal year 2012-2013:

FY 2012-13 Priority Performance Goals. The goals are the following:

• Improve outcomes for all children from birth through third grade.
  By September 30 2013, at least nine states will implement a high-quality plan to collect and report disaggregated data on the status of children at kindergarten entry.
• Improve learning by ensuring that more students have an effective teacher.
  By September 30th, 2013, at least 500 school districts will have comprehensive teacher evaluation and support systems and a majority of States will have statewide requirements for comprehensive teacher and principal evaluation and support systems.
• Demonstrate progress in turning around the nation’s lowest-performing schools.
  By September 30th 2013, 500 of the nation’s persistently lowest-achieving schools will have demonstrated significant improvement and serve as potential models for future turnaround efforts.
• Make informed decisions and improve instruction through the use of data.
  By September 30th, 2013 all states will implement comprehensive statewide longitudinal data systems.
• Prepare all students for college and career.
  By September 30th 2013, all states will adopt internationally-benchmarked college- and career-ready standards.
• Improve students’ ability to afford and complete college.
  By September 30th, 2013, the Department will develop college scorecards designed to improve consumer decision-making and transparency about affordability for students and borrowers by streamlining information on all degree-granting institutions into a single, comparable, and easily-understandable format, while also helping all states and institutions develop college completion plans.

Events

Tuesday February 21, 2-3 pm EST: Want to Know More About What Is At Stake for the Fiscal Year 2013 Federal Education Budget? Attend this free webinar hosted by NASSP coalition partner Committee for Education Funding. This information is important for school leaders to know-we strongly encourage you to attend!

Register at: http://eo2.commpartners.com/users/acte/session.php?id=8479