This month 35 seats in the U.S. Senate were up for election, and when the dust had settled, eight new members were elected. The states with new Senate members include: Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia. Following is an in-depth portrait of the new members of Congress. All quotations are taken directly from the officials’ Websites and are not indicators of record or future action. [This article will be updated in the near future with new information on Mark Begich (D), who recently defeated incumbent Senator Ted Stevens (R) from Alaska. Additional information will be provided when the Minnesota race between incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) and Al Franken (D) is decided.]

Colorado
Mark Udall (D)
Elected to the Senate with 53% of the vote, Udall had previously served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. On the issue of education, Udall believes that NCLB has fallen short of its expectations, and needs significant reform.

To this end, in 2007 he introduced the CLASS Act (H.R. 2070), a bill supported by NASSP, and which would have improved the determination of adequate yearly progress (AYP) under NCLB by requiring the use of multiple measures of student achievement, while also improving the assessment of students with disabilities by allowing schools to take a Individual Education Program team decision into account when determining the performance of such students. The bill would have also improved the assessment of English language learners (ELLs) by excluding the test performance of ELLs who had resided in the United States for less than three years.

Idaho
Jim Risch (R)
Elected to the Senate with 58% of the vote, Risch is currently serving his third term as Lieutenant Governor of Idaho. Risch also served as Idaho’s 31st governor, during which time he called a special session of the Idaho Legislature, which was intended to “bring much needed property tax relief to Idaho taxpayers,” and which resulted in the creation of “a strong and protected source of funding for Idaho public schools.”

Nebraska
Mike Johanns (R)
Elected to the Senate with 58% of the vote, Johanns does not support NCLB, and believes “the role of the federal government should be to assist and partner with the state and local school districts, not control and administer them.” In like fashion, he “supports standards, but not the federal government dictating the standards for [Nebraska, and] will push back on any attempts to implement more mandates on the states.”

Johanns supports funding special education at the full 40% of the National Average per Pupil Expenditure, as well as increasing funding for Pell Grants.

New Hampshire
Jeanne Shaheen (D)
Elected to the Senate with 52% of the vote, Shaheen believes that AYP “should be reconfigured to take into account whether students and the school at large are making progress between years, not just progress as measured against an externally imposed goal. Schools should [also] be allowed to develop a variety of assessments in order to show academic progress rather than the current single high stakes exam.”

Shaheen also supports providing more opportunities and incentives to teachers to encourage high quality professional development.

On the issue of special education, Shaheen believes that within eight years the federal government should fund the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) at the full 40% of the National Average per Pupil Expenditure.

New Mexico
Thomas Udall (D)
Elected to the Senate with 61% of the vote, Udall was serving his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was active in education policy and was a member of the House Democratic Education Task Force.

During his ten years in Congress, Udall has supported several bills that would enhance education, including the Teacher Tax Credit Act which provides a tax credit for teachers and principals who work in certain low-income schools, as well as the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Act, which would increase the amount of student loan forgiveness for teachers in mathematics, science, and special education.

Udall also supports increased federal funding for special education and a number of other programs designed to assist underserved youth, including: 21st Century Learning Centers, TRIO and Upward Bound, and programs funded through the Carl D. Perkins Act.

North Carolina
Kay Hagan (D)
Elected to the Senate with 53% of the vote, Hagan believes that NCLB needs to be significantly reformed and fully funded.

Hagan supports the use of growth models to give schools credit for making gains in student achievement, as well as differentiated consequences for schools not meeting AYP to help them address their individual needs.

Additionally, Hagan supports the use of multiple measures of student achievement in determining AYP, and would “push for NCLB to include incentives for states to align their K-12 standards with the ‘real world standards’ of college and the workplace.”

Oregon
Jeff Merkley (D)
Elected to the Senate with 49% of the vote, Merkley supports several significant investments in education, including fully funding the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, IDEA, NCLB, and increasing the size and number of Pell Grants to help high schoolers and their families cope with rising college tuition costs.

Merkley also believes that a complete overhaul of NCLB is necessary, arguing that “A school’s improvement should be measured not only by test scores, but also by students’ improvement over time, attendance, graduation rates and other standards that states themselves determine.”

Virginia
Mark Warner (D)
Elected to 65% of the vote, Warner has a long record of fighting for education reform. As the Governor of Virginia from 2002 – 2006, he made several investments in education, increasing K – 12 funding in Virginia by over $100 million in 2002 and 2003, and again by almost $1.5 billion in 2004.

During his governorship, Warner has also paid a great deal of attention to high schools and school leaders through his “Education for a Lifetime” initiative, launching Project Graduation and Senior Year Plus, which sought to increase high school graduation rates and increase student preparedness for college and the workforce.

In recognition of the central role that school leaders play in education reform efforts, Warner also launched the Virginia School Turnaround Specialist Program, which is “designed to develop a cadre of principals trained to ‘turn around’ consistently low-performing schools [by using] … tried-and-true business principals of turning around failing businesses.”

Warner has criticized the implementation of NCLB, and has argued that it is underfunded by $70 billion.

Posted by Mark Ames, NASSP Gov't Relations Mgr at 02:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Running on a platform of change, Sen. Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Presidency by one of the biggest margins of victory in recent history, and it is change that the incoming Obama administration will likely bring to federal education policy.

Regretfully, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind, did not occur in 2008, and with a flagging economy and two wars, education is not likely to be among the top priorities of the new administration. As a result, it is unclear whether a reauthorization of ESEA will occur in 2009, or if we will have to wait even longer.

Although education might not be a top priority for Obama, he has taken a comprehensive approach to education reform. Thus when the reauthorization does occur, we can expect some fairly major changes to ESEA in the areas of middle level reform and the high school dropout crisis, and improving assessments and accountability under ESEA.

President-Elect Obama has been proactive in his efforts to improve middle level education and reduce the high school dropout rate, and in 2007 he introduced the Success in the Middle Act (S. 2227), which NASSP helped draft, and which reflects NASSP’s Policy Recommendations for Middle Level Reform.

“The dropout problem begins well before high school,” said Obama in his education reform plan, available on his Website. “The middle grades are a crucial, but often overlooked, segment of the educational pipeline,” the plan continued.

The Success in the Middle Act received a warm response on Capitol Hill, and NASSP expects several components of the bill to be included in the reauthorization of ESEA.

Among the most controversial aspects of the ESEA have been assessments and the determination of adequate yearly progress (AYP). President-Elect Obama supports the use of “a broader range of assessments that can evaluate higher-order skills, including students’ abilities to use technology, conduct research, engage in scientific investigation, solve problems, [and] present and defend their ideas. These assessments should provide immediate feedback so that teachers can begin improving student learning right away,” according to responses received to a questionnaire NASSP sent to Obama.

In his efforts to reform how AYP is determined, Obama believes that the accountability system needs to include more than a single student test. Obama would push for the inclusion of multiple measures of student learning within subject areas, and give states the option of including evidence of student achievement in areas beyond reading and math.

NASSP supports the use of multiple measures of student achievement, including end of course exams, student portfolios, senior projects, the ACT, PSAT, and SAT, in addition to performance on standardized tests, including state assessments. For more information on NASSP’s stance on these issues, visit www.principals.org, and click on “Legislative Advocacy.”

In addition, Obama supports the creation and enhancement of state leadership academies and investments in professional development for school principals. Obama also backs the development of multi-tiered credentialing systems that “encourage principals to grow professionally over the course of their careers, and particularly within their first few years on the job, when they are most open to and in need of professional development,” according to his campaign Website.

NASSP strongly supports school leadership academies, many of which are currently funded by the federal School Leadership program. NASSP is also working with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards to develop a national certification for principals.

To support these changes, Obama would advocate for an additional $18 billion investment in education. The majority of this investment ($10 billion) would be targeted toward early childhood education.

As the Obama administration gets to work addressing the nation’s problems, efforts are already underway at NASSP to help the new administration navigate the complex field of education, and making clear that school leaders play a central role in student learning, and thus in all school reform efforts.

To learn more about Obama’s education plans and NASSP’s positions on these issues, visit www.principals.org/obama.

Posted by Mark Ames, NASSP Gov't Relations Mgr at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Comment on the poll.

Do AP and IB classes set unprepared students up for failure? Not according to Jay Mathews from the Washington Post. Mathews argues that when advanced courses are not offered to all students, particularly to minority and low-income students, the students and their teachers don't get a chance to measure themselves against the standard of an AP exam written and graded by outside experts. “Without that tough benchmark, high school courses, even those labeled ‘honors’ or ‘advanced,’ often settle for mediocrity, giving students good grades for little work,” he said. However, one Maryland education consultant disagrees, claiming that such advanced courses are inappropriate for students with low SAT scores and/or below-average grades, and often set minorities up for failure.

If you have not already done, please take this week's Principal's Poll at www.principals.org and leave your comments on the debate below.

Posted by Bob Farrace at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Every school day approximately five percent of teachers will be absent from school and replaced by a substitute. Over time, the costs add up and stipends for substitute teachers and associated costs amount to $4 billion annually, according to a report by the Center for American Progress. Teacher absences also take a toll on student learning. The report found that teachers are typically absent nine or ten days per year, which means that between kindergarten and 12th grade, students are taught by someone other than their regular teacher for the equivalent of two-thirds of a school year. Moreover “every 10 absences…lowers [student] mathematics achievement by the same amount as having a teacher with one year to two years of experience instead of a teacher with three years to five years of experience.”

Tales of Teacher Absence: New Research Yields Patterns that Speak to Policymakers explains that part of the negative effects on student achievement is due to the fact that substitute teachers are, on average, less qualified than regular teachers. The report points out that 37 states do not even require a bachelor’s degree for some substitutes, and only North Dakota requires them to have the same credentials as regular teachers.

Teacher absences also contribute to the achievement gap because absences tend to occur at greater rates in schools with high concentrations of students from low-income families. “Teachers in schools with high poverty rates appear to be absent about one day more per year than teachers in low-poverty schools—a factor which, while small, contributes to the achievement gap,” the report argues.

Factors Contributing to Teacher Absences
The report found that the following types of teachers tend to be absent more than others:
 Teachers with tenure
 Those who have long commutes
 Elementary school teachers
 Teachers working in larger schools
 Teachers working in high-poverty schools
 Teachers whose contracts provide them with more paid illness or personal leave.

Factors Contributing to Teacher Attendance
The following types of teachers tend to have fewer absences than others, the report found:
 Teachers working in schools with a culture promoting high attendance
 Teachers who are given bonuses for exceptionally high attendance rates
 Teachers whose districts offer to buy back unused sick leave.

The report also found that teachers tend to call out less when they are required to report their absence by phone directly to the school principal, and call out more when they are required to report through less personal means.

Policy Recommendations
To help decrease teacher absence rates, the report calls on federal policymakers to reauthorize and amend No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to include teacher absence information on the school report cards currently mandated under NCLB. “Such information could help district officials better understand local obstacles to implementing school improvement strategies,” advises the report.

However, NASSP director of program development, John Nori cautions that the report’s recommendations to include teacher absence rate information on school report cards “continues the practice of using ‘the stick’ rather than ‘the carrot’ approach to school reform.” Instead, Nori says that “policymakers would make better use of their time by: examining the factors identified in this report that contribute to teacher attendance; providing teachers with incentives to be on the job; and focusing on ways to ensure that substitute teachers are not only qualified, but receive high-quality professional development.”

To view the report, click here.

Posted by Mark Ames, NASSP Gov't Relations Mgr at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)