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© 2011 National Association of Secondary School Principals - All rights to the intellectual property contained herein, including copyrights, trademarks, and service marks, are reserved by NASSP.
Announcements:
President Obama delivered his third State of the Union address on January 25 and called for three things in particular that he says are critical to “winning the future”: innovation, EDUCATION, and infrastructure. Of Obama’s key statements on education, he said, “Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you feel the impact.” He also explicitly called on Congress to “fix” No Child Left Behind (though he didn’t request a timeline), and to model it after the Race to the Top competitive grant program that allowed more flexibility for states to implement innovative changes in teacher evaluation, tenure, and technology, among other things.
President Obama is expected to release his Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request the week of February 14. Stay tuned for news from NASSP on this, and what it means for education. One thing in the budget we can expect is an investment in STEM funding, based on Obama’s remarks in the State of the Union and the following statement from the White House: “The President’s plan will invest $80 million to expand promising and effective models of teacher preparation, which will help train 10,000 more effective STEM teachers per year… The President’s plan will invest $20 million in research that will improve our understanding of how to best recruit, prepare and retain the best STEM teachers.”
Last week I mentioned that Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has declared he wants to abolish the Department of Education because he sees no place for federal involvement in education. Sen. Paul sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and actually just introduced a bill reflecting his desire to eliminate federal education funding: www.randpaul2010.com [pdf]. This bill (S. 162) eliminates funding for all Department of Education programs except for maintaining $16.256 billion for Pell. This bill suggests that the federal government de-fund Title I, IDEA, Impact Aid, career/technical/adult ed, teacher quality programs, TRIO, GEAR-UP, campus-based aid, student loans, research, etc. So far there are no cosponsors on this bill, and we hope there end up being none!
News
USDA Issues New Nutrition Standards for School Lunches
In compliance with new nutrition standards set out by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has published a proposed rule to increase the level of nutrition in school lunches. The proposal seeks to align school lunch standards with those recommended by the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans”, which recommends a diet consisting of nutrient-dense foods for the promotion of healthy growth and development. In order to achieve this goal, lunches would include a higher proportion of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains while at the same time limiting levels of calories, saturated fats, trans fats, and sodium. Read more on our Principals’ Policy Blog: www.principalspolicyblog.org.
Bipartisan Push For ESEA Reauthorization Looks Possible
Following President Obama’s appeal in the State of the Union address to “fix” No Child Left Behind, key Congressional education leaders seem poised to work with the White House to reauthorize this major education bill. “I don’t want to make it sound like it’s going to be a piece of cake or too easy,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a leading Republican on education issues, following the State of the Union address. But, he added, “I look forward to coming up with a consensus to fix the problems” with the NCLB law. Read more here: www.edweek.org.
Department of Education Posts “Data Dashboard” As Attempt at Transparency and Accountability
At an education stakeholder’s meeting this past Monday, Department of Education officials introduced the newly posted “Data Dashboard” (version 1.0), which lists 16 indicators of U.S. education achievement and progress. Users can use these indicators, like the percent of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool comparing 2005-07 data to 2006-08, or the percent of freshmen graduating from high school within 4 years comparing 2006-07 data to 2007-08, and can dig further into data to see state comparisons, charts of the results, and a breakdown of the data by ethnicity. Officials said that this is just version 1.0, and they will continue to add more indicators that prove rigorous in their statistical accuracy, and relevant to the national conversation of educational benchmarks for our country. Check out the Data Dashboard here: dashboard.ed.gov and read a commentary about its quality from two Education Week writers here: www.edweek.org.
Research
Study Identifies Effective Teacher Evaluation Practices
A report on the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) from the National Institute for Excellence in Teachings finds that evaluator training, classroom teacher involvement, and a thorough feedback mechanism count as the top priorities to integrate in effective evaluation systems. TAP is a comprehensive teacher compensation, career advancement, professional development, and evaluation system that 11 states have adopted to serve more than 10,000 teachers. You can read all recommendations in this report, More than Measurement: The TAP System’s Lessons Learned for Designing Bet ter Teacher Evaluation Systems, here: tapsystem.org [pdf].
Resources:
I encourage you all to see the documentary Race to Nowhere, which showcases the pressures on students of high-stakes testing, and questions the purposes of such intensive testing when the curriculum and assessments do not teach and measure what we truly need to teach and measure students to best prepare them for 21st century careers. Check out the film here (www.racetonowhere.com) and look up upcoming screenings in your area here: www.racetonowhere.com.
http://www.nassp.org/Portals/0/Content/60855.pdf
Announcements:
President Obama will deliver his third State of the Union address on January 25 and it is rumored that he will feature education reform in his remarks. According to PolitiFact, an organization that documents and tracks presidential promises made during the campaign period, Obama “has fulfilled or made progress on most of his campaign promises to improve the nation’s schools,” with a track record of keeping 11 of his 48 education promises, compromising on four of them, and making progress on another 24. One of the promises “in the works” is to reform No Child Left Behind. Check out more at www.politifact.com.
Here are some proclamations recently made that will hopefully incite you to the point of action:
- Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has declared he wants to abolish the Department of Education because he sees no place for federal involvement in education. On his website he states: “I am against any federal funding or control of education. Historically, education was funded and controlled locally. Even now, most funding is local. You can’t have it both ways. Most teachers despise No Child Left Behind. If you want to be rid of it, you must also oppose federal funds!” (See here for more: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/no-child-left-behind/are-rand-pauls-education-views.html).
- The House Rules Committee just approved HJ Res 28, a resolution to reduce spending to 2008 levels or less. The vote for this resolution is expected to take place next Tuesday. As stated by House Appropriations Chairman Rogers in response to the resolution, “This resolution is a statement that we have heard this message loud and clear, that we will move immediately to reduce spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, and that deep cuts to a host of government programs will be made…As I have said before, it is my intention to craft the largest series of spending cuts in the history of Congress.” NASSP urges you to join us in our fight for adequate federal funding for education. Contact your members of Congress this month to explain to them in your role as a school leader why you need federal funding for success at the school level!
House Committee appointments have now all been finalized. Go here (http://edworkforce.house.gov/OurTeam/MeetTheMembers.htm) to see who in Congress is representing you on the House Education and Workforce Committee and if it includes anyone from your district. The Committee consists of 22 Republicans (12 new on the Committee) and 17 Democrats.
NASSP Executive Director Gerald N. Tirozzi welcomed Secretary of Education Arne Duncan this week during his NASSP Radio podcast for a discussion on the future of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Secretary Duncan shared his thoughts on what principals can expect on NCLB, his contingency plan, his thoughts on dealing with tight budgets and the policy of removing principals as part of school reform efforts. Listen to the interview here: http://www.principals.org/tabid/3847/default.aspx.
News
Teachers’ Unions Prepared to Defend Position as Governors Seek Changes
Teachers’ unions across the country are preparing a defensive strategy as governors- including many newly elected Republicans-seek to change certain job protections and benefits that teachers have enjoyed to this point. Specific provisions governors and lawmakers seek to change include teacher compensation and evaluation, reductions in tenure protections, and reductions in state-funded pension systems for teachers. Read more here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/01/19/17unions_ep.h30.html.
Speaking of Governors, Many Seek More Control Over State Education
Agenda
Governors and elected state school officers have historically battled for power over a state’s education agenda. Now this struggle for power has intensified with governors claiming that they need more control of education policy in order to significantly improve some of their lowest-performing schools. One such governor seeking more authority is Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, who wants to create a new Cabinet-level secretary who answers to her and who would oversee state education divisions and departments from early childhood through college. Read more here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/01/20/18control.h30.html?tkn=ZOZFLafMUJJYSTfhEh267jQg8UTja95n6yAr&cmp=clp-edweek.
Department of Agriculture Seeks to Make School Lunches and Breakfasts Healthier
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has published a proposed rule to revise the nutrition standards for meals provided by the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs, under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. The updated nutrition standards, which are based on recommendations by the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine, would add more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat milk into school meals. Schools would also have to curb the levels of calories, saturated fat and trans fat, and sodium in meals. See a comparison of the nutrition standards at http://www.usda.gov/documents/cnr_chart.pdf. If interested, public comments on the proposed rule will be accepted through April 13. Go here for more information: http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FNS-2007-0038-0001.
AFT-Commissioned Report Outlines Overhaul of Teacher Discipline Plan
Kenneth Feinberg, an arbitration expert commissioned by the American Federation of Teachers to propose recommendations to handle teacher misconduct, proposes a complete overhaul of the current drawn-out discipline process. Feinberg’s plan recommends that misconduct cases be decided within 100 days by a special examiner instead of an indeterminate time period that leads to situations like New York City’s “rubber rooms” (closed last year), where teachers were paid full salaries while awaiting court action on their cases. Causes for teacher discipline include absenteeism, corporal punishment and sexual advances to students. Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/education/20teachers.html?_r=1&hpw.
Research
The Center for American Progress just released a report that assesses the “educational productivity” of more than 9,000 school districts across the country. The report finds that the most productive districts overall spend more on teachers and less on administration, partner with their communities to save money, and have school boards willing to make tough decisions. Access the report (and summary) here: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/educational_productivity/report.html.
Researchers have discovered that, of 3 different methods, taking a test on subject matter proved the most fruitful in terms of helping students learn and retain information. The other two methods- repeatedly studying the material and drawing detailed diagrams on what they are learning-did not prove as successful as taking a test when it came to accessing (or retrieving) that information later. As the article points out, “Why retrieval testing helps is still unknown. Perhaps it is because by remembering information we are organizing it and creating cues and connections that our brains later recognize.” These findings would seem to endorse the purpose of formative assessments (daily exit slips, weekly quizzes, etc) to hold students accountable for what they are learning. Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?_r=1&hpw.
Resources:
I encourage you all to see the documentary Race to Nowhere, which showcases the pressures on students of high-stakes testing, and questions the purposes of such intensive testing when the curriculum and assessments do not teach and measure what we truly need to teach and measure students to best prepare them for 21st century careers. Check out the film here (www.racetonowhere.com) and look up upcoming screenings in your area here: http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings.
Today, the House passed the Murray-Harkin amendment which will provide $10 billion to states, saving roughly 160,000 education jobs. Passed last week by the Senate, the bill is now on its way to President Obama’s desk. The package also grants $16.1 billion for an extension of the increased federal match for Medicaid in response to rising Medicaid costs among states. The victory of this passage is especially welcome since at times the fate of this bill was unclear.
Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced the $10 billion in aid as an amendment to a Federal Aviation Administration bill (H.R. 1586) after its original attachment to a supplemental war spending bill was rejected by the Senate. The previous bill provoked veto threats from the White House and 13 Democratic senators when it passed on July 1 because it included cuts to key programs like Race to the Top and the Teacher Incentive Fund competitive grants.
Although the House has been on recess, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) recognized states’ urgent need for the aid and called House members back to vote on the revised amendment. The $10 billion is fully offset by cuts to other programs (most non education-related) and will not increase the deficit. Since the funds are required to be distributed to states within 45 days of enactment, states should receive the money within the first weeks of the school year.
While NASSP is pleased that the bill will save hundreds of thousands of education jobs, the association strongly opposes one offset to the amendment: $50 million from the Striving Readers program, which seeks to raise the reading levels of struggling middle and high school students. NASSP will work with other literacy groups to salvage this funding.
Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2011 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, allocating as much or more money for key education programs as the FY 2010 bill.
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee, stated that “three priorities permeate this bill…it invests in critical programs that help the neediest Americans…[it] recognizes that every taxpayer dollar must be used wisely. And the third priority is reform.”
The FY 2011 bill allocates:
- $14.9 billion for Title I grants to local education agencies to improve education for low-income students (which is $450 million above the President’s budget request and the FY 10 funding level)
- $625 million toward School Improvement Grants (SIG) (which is $80 million above the FY 10 level), and
- $11.9 billion in grants for IDEA funding (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) that will go toward students with disabilities. (This amount is $420 million above the FY 10 funding level and $170 million above the administration’s budget request.)
In regard to programs especially relevant to NASSP members, the bill funds:
- $41 million to school leadership (which is $12 million above the FY 10 mark)
- $100 million to the High School Graduation Initiative (doubled from $50 million in FY 10), and
- $250 million for the Striving Readers program (which maintained its FY 10 funding.)
For reform programs that are offered as competitive grants, the bill provides:
- $675 million for Race to the Top
- $250 million for Investing in Innovation (I3), and
- $400 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund.
NASSP is pleased to see that the funding for the above programs was either maintained or increased, particularly for School Leadership funding.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education marked up its FY 11 bill in mid-July, but according to Hill staff this bill is unlikely to be considered by the full committee before the November elections.
The Senate announced this week that it will not consider the $10 billion proposal to prevent 140,000 educator layoffs as part of the supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (H.R. 4899), but will instead search for alternative means to approve the much-needed funding.
The House approved the proposal on July 1 as an amendment sponsored by Rep. David Obey (D-WI), but the threat of a White House veto and waning support from moderate Democrats made Senate passage impossible. Besides the $10 billion for education jobs (reduced from the originally proposed $23 billion), the bill also contains $4.95 billion for Pell grants and $1 billion for summer youth jobs.
Democratic leaders have acknowledged they lack the requisite votes in the Senate to allocate billions of dollars for teachers’ aid on top of the war spending this supplemental bill proposes, at least amidst widespread concern of the federal budget deficit.
Despite this setback for teachers’ aid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Obey still strongly support the allocation of $10 billion to save educators’ jobs and said they are pursuing other ways to appropriate the money before Congress leaves on its August recess.
The education funding could be attached to legislation that would renew tax break extensions, which the Senate is expected to pass on Tuesday. If that occurs, the House would consider the bill on Wednesday.
NASSP continues to strongly support the funding in this bill to save roughly 140,000 educators’ jobs. We have signed a letter to Senators along with 90 other education organizations in support of the bill, and will continue to urge its passage. We will soon call on you to show your support of the bill as well, so be on the lookout for an action alert on the Principal’s Legislative Action Center (PLAC).
The House last night passed an amendment sponsored by Rep. David Obey (D-WI) to the FY 2010 emergency supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 4899) that includes $10 billion in funding to save roughly 140,000 school employee jobs. This passage is particularly successful considering that the three amendments concerning the war were all rejected.
Besides the $10 billion for education jobs (reduced from the originally proposed $23 billion), the bill also contains $4.95 billion for Pell grants and $1 billion for summer youth jobs.
Offsets for the $10 billion come from cuts totaling $800 million from programs funded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and regular FY 2010 appropriations:
- $100 million for the Public Charter School program (reducing funding from $256 million to $156 million)
- $200 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund (reducing funding from $600 million to $400 million)
- $500 million for the Race to the Top program (reducing available funding from $3.4 billion to $2.9 billion for those states that have recently submitted applications for Phase 2).
Complicating matters, however, is a White House statement issued yesterday expressing disapproval of the cuts listed above for education reform programs: “It would be short-sighted to weaken funding for these reforms just as they begin to show such promise…If the final bill presented to the President includes cuts to education reforms, the President’s senior advisers would recommend a veto.” The Department of Education had also previously expressed disapproval for these cuts to education reform programs.
NASSP strongly supports these efforts to save roughly 140,000 education jobs. As a result, we will continue to work with groups such as the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) to advocate for the $10 billion to remain in the final bill before it reaches the Senate floor after the Fourth of July holiday recess.
The economic downturn is continuing to wreak havoc on state and district budgets, forcing many of them to make deep cuts to K-12 education that will likely have a negative impact on students and their communities for generations to come.
For this reason, Senator Tom Harkin has introduced the Keep Our Educators Working Act (S. 3206), which would provide $23 billion to save and create 250,000 jobs for teachers, principals, and other educators. The House of Representatives has already passed a similar measure.
This week, the Senate will finish drafting an emergency war funding bill (H.R. 4899), and we need your help to ensure that the $23 billion education jobs bill is passed as part of this larger measure. This may be the last large-scale effort by the federal government to save and create education jobs this year, so your assistance to capitalize on this opportunity is paramount!
Please help us in our efforts by visiting the Principal’s Legislative Action Center and urging your senators to support an amendment to the emergency war funding bill that will be offered by Senator Tom Harkin that will add the Keep Our Educators Working Act to this larger measure. While a draft letter has been provided for you, we strongly encourage you to personalize the letter with stories from your own school or district, as this will make your letter considerably more effective.
Thank you for assisting NASSP in our efforts to improve student learning by promoting excellence in middle level and high school leadership.
Assistant principals nationwide got their day in the sun yesterday (4/27), when the House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution (H. Res. 1131) honoring the contributions of assistant principals to the success of students and supporting National Assistant Principals Week, which occurred from April 18 through April 23, 2010. The resolution also gives, for the first time ever, congressional recognition to the NASSP/Virco National Assistant Principal of the Year program, which recognizes outstanding middle level and high school assistant principals who have demonstrated success in leadership, curriculum, and personalization.
“Assistant principals are the unsung heroes of our schools,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), who helped shepherd the resolution’s passage. “[Assistant principals] serve as a behind-the-scenes link between every sector of the school community. Their job description has expanded significantly over the past decades, and they are the backbone of a school’s administrative team. They interact with students, with teachers, with staff, and with parents on a daily basis to ensure that every child is receiving the best education possible. National Assistant Principals Week recognizes their important contributions.”
During National Assistant Principals Week, state assistant principals of the year, the National Principal of the Year and two National Finalists met on Capitol Hill with their Representatives and Senators to advocate for meaningful education reform in five priority areas: school leadership, improving middle grades education; ending the high school dropout crisis; comprehensive literacy education; and realistic education funding.
For more information on the week’s events and the National Assistant Principal of the Year program, including how to nominate an assistant principal for the 2011 award, please visit www.nassp.org/apoy.
On March 30, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced the award of $99.8 million for 12 new five-year Teacher Quality Partnership grants that aim to raise student achievement by improving instruction in our nation’s schools. The grants, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be used to reform traditional university teacher preparation programs as well as create teacher residency programs for professionals from other fields entering the teaching profession.
“Teaching has never been more difficult, or more important,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “and the need for student success has never been more urgent. These grants will strengthen teacher preparation and residency programs to ensure that new teachers, whether entering from college or from other careers, have the skills to boost student learning and be highly effective in today’s diverse and challenging classrooms.”
The partnerships announced today are comprised of high-need school districts and their high-need schools in collaboration with an institution of higher education and its schools of education and arts and sciences. Other partners often include community organizations, state agencies, charter schools, foundations, and businesses.
Of the 12 grants announced today, seven will focus on improving their teacher residency programs, which follow the medical model in which residents are placed in schools with comprehensive induction and extensive support. Teaching residents are paid a living wage and expected to teach for three years in a partnering high-need school. Three of the grantees will reform their pre-baccalaureate or fifth year licensing program, and two will do both. All grantees will collect and use student achievement data to determine the impact of participating teachers on student learning and for continuous program improvement. Five of the grants will also develop and implement a school leadership program to prepare candidates for careers as principals, superintendents, and other school leaders.
Earlier this week the Obama administration unveiled its plan to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Act, which includes incentives and supports for states and school districts to recruit, prepare, reward and retain effective teachers and school leaders. The 2011 budget request for teacher and leader effectiveness programs is aligned with these goals, and reflects the secretary’s firm belief that great teachers and principals are essential to improve student achievement.
The list of grantees and more information can be found at http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010/03/03302010.html.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced today that Delaware and Tennessee have won grants in the first phase of the Race to the Top Fund competition. They will receive approximately $100 million and $500 million, respectively.
“We received many strong proposals from states all across America, but two applications stood out above all others: Delaware and Tennessee,” Secretary Duncan said in announcing the winners. “Both states have statewide buy-in for comprehensive plans to reform their schools. They have written new laws to support their policies. And they have demonstrated the courage, capacity, and commitment to turn their ideas into practices that can improve outcomes for students.”
Forty states and the District of Columbia submitted applications for the first phase of grants. Delaware and Tennessee were selected from among 16 finalists who presented their proposals to panels of peer reviewers earlier this month.
According to ED, the peer reviewers awarded the highest scores to Delaware and Tennessee for the commitment to reform from key stakeholders, including elected officials, teacher’s union leaders, and business leaders. In both states, all school districts committed to implementing Race to the Top reforms. Delaware and Tennessee also have aggressive plans to improve teacher and principal evaluation, use data to inform instructional decisions, and turn around their lowest-performing schools. In addition, both states have put in place strong laws and policies to support their reform efforts.
The U.S. Department of Education will have about $3.4 billion available for the Phase 2 of the Race to the Top competition. Applications are due on June 1, 2010. To help states as they prepare their proposals and to continue the nationwide dialogue on education reform, ED has made all Phase 1 applications, peer reviewers’ comments, and scores available on its website; videos of states’ presentations will be posted next week.
ED is also making one change to the rules for the Phase 2 competition. To fund as many strong applications as possible, states’ budgets must be within the ranges that were suggested in the original notice.
For more information, go to: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html.
