States across the country have broken down barriers to linking student achievement or growth data to teacher and principal evaluations, and have scaled up the number of charter schools that can exist in a state – all of which are priorities of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and were accomplished without ED having to spend a single dollar of the $4.3 billion Race to the Top Fund.

Created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1), the Race to the Top Fund is being used by ED to drive certain education reforms that it believes are key to advancing student achievement.

Inspired by this progress, President Barack Obama and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced plans on January 19 to expand the Race to the Top program by $1.3 billion and to allow local school districts to compete for the grants. The announcement came on the same day that state applications for Phase 1 of the Race to the Top Funds were due. In total, 40 states and the District of Columbia submitted applications. Finalists will be notified on or around March 1, and winners of the Phase 1 competition will be announced in early April. ED has not pre-determined either the size or number of grants that will be awarded in Phase 1 or 2. Rather, the number of grants will depend on the quality of the applications and the size of the grants awarded. The size of a winners’ grant will be based on a number of factors, including a detailed review of the proposed activities, the level of district participation, and state population.

The decision of state-level policymakers to reject some reform efforts in light of district-level support in places such as Texas was also a factor in the proposed expansion of the program, said President Obama at a press event.

“By launching a Race to the Top among school districts, and by applying the principles of Race to the Top to other federal programs, we'll build on [its success],” said President Obama. “We're going to raise the bar for all our students and take bigger steps towards closing the achievement gap that denies so many students, especially black and Latino students, a fair shot at their dreams.”

The proposed expansion will be included in the FY 2011 budget request that is submitted to Congress on February 1, and then it must be approved through the annual appropriations process. Duncan said that he cannot be certain of any of the final details of the expansion, including the actual funds that will be available or the structure of the new program until after congressional approval.

In the meantime, and over the next four to six months, Duncan said that he and his staff will be traveling around the country, meeting with principals, teachers, and other educational leaders and stakeholders to discuss what activities should be included in the proposed Race to the Top expansion that would help push innovation at the local level.

NASSP submitted comments to ED in 2009 on how the Race to the Top Fund could be improved, and over the next several months we will work with Congress and ED to ensure that our concerns and recommendations are addressed.

Posted by Mark Ames, NASSP Gov't Relations Mgr at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now that the Department of Education (ED) has released the final notices for the Race to the Top Fund and the School Improvement Grants, senior officials are turning their attention to the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

 

For the past few months, representatives of national education organizations, practitioners, and congressional staff have been attending education stakeholders forums at ED to discuss various topics within ESEA and were requested to submit their formal recommendations by midnight on December 31, 2009. The comments submitted by NASSP build on recommendations developed by the NCLB Task Force in 2005 and take into consideration emerging issues such as the Common Core State Standards Initiative and new developments in school leadership, literacy, and middle level and high school reform.

 

In his letter to ED, NASSP Executive Director Gerald N. Tirozzi outlined the following recommendations:

 

National Standards
NASSP is an endorsing partner of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which is a state-led effort to develop a common core of state standards in grades K–12 for English/language arts and mathematics. Building on our position statement in support of national standards, we urge the development and implementation of common, high-quality assessments aligned with standards and call upon ED to evaluate the progress being made by states to adopt and implement the standards. We also recommend that the federal government offer incentives for states and districts to develop graduation requirements that allow students to choose from multiple pathways to graduation and ensure that students have access to academic supports that help them stay on track toward graduation.

 

School Leadership
Reiterating our support for additional funding for principal training and professional development, NASSP encourages Congress to enact the School Principal Recruitment and Training Act (H.R. 4354/S. 2896) and the Instructional Leadership Act (not-yet-introduced) as a part of ESEA reauthorization. The bills would authorize grant programs to prepare principals to lead high-need schools and incorporate standards of instructional leadership into state principal certification or licensure requirements. We also urge the administration to consider our position statements on highly effective principals and professional compensation for principals in developing proposals for principal evaluation and pay-for-performance programs. Finally, we encourage Congress and the administration to support the National Board Certification for Educational Leaders recently launched by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

 

Literacy
NASSP urges the administration to support the Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation (LEARN) Act (H.R. 4037/S. 2740), which would authorize comprehensive state and local literacy initiatives and build on the best components of the federal Early Reading First, Reading First, and Striving Readers programs. The goals of the bill are very much in line with Creating a Culture of Literacy, a guide written for principals to use as they team with staff members to improve their students’ literacy skills by assessing student strengths and weaknesses, identifying professional development needs, employing effective literacy strategies across all content areas, and establishing intervention programs for struggling students.

 

Middle Level and High School Reform
Building on the Breaking Ranks framework for school reform, NASSP has called upon the federal government to provide additional resources for our nation’s middle level and high schools. We support legislative proposals that would create a new funding stream for school improvement at the secondary school level, implement an early warning and intervention system to identify at-risk students, and provide differentiated and evidence-based interventions in eligible schools. Enacting the Success in the Middle Act (H.R. 3006/S. 1362) hand-in-hand with the Graduation Promise Act (H.R. 4181/S. 1698) would strengthen ESEA by providing the support necessary to turn around our nation’s lowest-performing middle and high schools and give our struggling students the help they need from preschool through graduation.

 

Graduation Rates
NASSP supported the final Title I regulation that requires states to use a uniform and accurate method of calculating graduation rates, but has concerns with defining the graduation rate as the “four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.” Because not all students enter the ninth grade reading and writing at grade level, we have long recommended that the graduation rate be extended to within at least five years of entering high school. State should be required to use, as a supplement to the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate, extended adjusted cohort graduation rates that are approved by ED. In addition, identified special-needs students who complete high school with a state-approved exit document should have until age 21, inclusive, to be counted as graduates as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Act.

 

Growth Models
As stated in the NCLB Task Force recommendations, states should be allowed to measure adequate yearly progress (AYP) for each student subgroup on the basis of state-developed growth formulas that calculate growth in individual student achievement from year to year. NASSP has been very pleased with the expansion of the growth model pilot program, which was first announced in 2006, and we hope that growth models will have a permanent place in a newly reauthorized ESEA.

 

Multiple Measures of Student Performance
NASSP recommends that states should be allowed to use multiple measures of student performance in determining AYP, including state assessments in subjects beyond reading and language arts, mathematics, and science; portfolios, performance tasks, and other examples of a student’s accomplishments; traditional quizzes and tests; interviews, questionnaires, and conferences; end-of-course exams; comprehensive personal academic or graduation plans; assessments aligned with high school and college entrance requirements; and senior projects.

Posted by Amanda Karhuse at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)