Transcript Federal Education Legislative Update

Noelle Ellerson
American Association of School Administrators
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State and local economies struggling to experience the
stability and recovery starting to take hold at the
federal level.
Continued issue of supplement/supplant from ARRA
and, now, education jobs fund.
Confluence of the end of ARRA (2010-11/2011-12
school years) and the delayed economic recovery
represent very real obstacle to schools as they try to
balance increased emphasis on innovation with ever
slimmer operating budgets.
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Operating under CR; expires March 4
CR cuts $4.9 billion from USED’s FY10 budget (15.4%)
• Title I funding is cut $693.5 million.
• IDEA Part B funding is cut $557.7 million.
• Rural Education Achievement program (REAP) funding is level
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funding, receiving NO CUTS.
Education Technology State Grants are cut $100 million (elimination).
Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE) is cut $271.6 million.
21st Century Learning Community Centers funding is cut $100 million.
Head Start funding is cut by just over $1 billion.
Moving Forward – voting today!
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FY12 budget proposal released Feb 14 (2012-13 school
year)
Despite tight economic times, including non-defense
discretionary budget freeze, education receives
historic increases
Proposal includes massive restructuring in ESEA
reauthorization
Policy shift toward competitive grants
Despite overall increases:
• Title I receives $300 million
• IDEA received a $200 million increase, remaining at 17%
instead of the promised 40%
New Authority
Consolidated Programs
(change relative to consolidated programs cumulative total)
Effective Teachers and Leaders
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Ready to Teach
Teacher Quality State Grants
Advanced Credentialing
Teacher Incentive Fund
School Leadership
Teach for America
Teacher Quality Partnership
Teachers for a Competitive Tomorrow
Transition to Teaching
Effective Teaching and Learning: STEM
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Mathematics and Science Partnership
Effective Teaching and Learning: Well Rounded Education
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Teaching American History
Academies for American History and Civics
Civic Education
Close-Up Fellowships
Excellence in Economic Education
Foreign Language Assistance
Arts in Education
College Pathways and Accelerated Learning
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Advanced Placement
High School Graduation Initiative
Javits Gifted and Talented Education
Alcohol Abuse Reduction
Elementary and Secondary School Counseling
Foundations for Learning
Mental Health integration in Schools
Physical Education
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
National Activities
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Charter School Grants
Credit Enhancement for Charter School
Facilities
Parental Information and Resource Centers
Smaller Learning Communities
Voluntary Public School Choice
Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund
Teacher and Leader Pathways
Successful, Safe and Healthy Students
Expanding Educational Options
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With Republicans in control of the House,
ESEA can be finished in 2011 --- IF
– House Republicans can find a internal consensus
– House Republicans can compromise with the
White House
– A bipartisan House consensus can be achieved
– House and Senate Republicans can agree
– Senate Democrats can find a consensus
– Senate Democrats can find a consensus with
republicans
 Many
new members may not be inclined
to compromise especially if it involves
expanding the federal role
 The House committee will be dominated
numerically by new members who
• Will take a while to know the issues
• May not be very interested in federal education
policy making
 Many
new Members of Congress want:
• Deep budget cuts,
 $100 billion promised - will be less
 the debt ceiling vote
• Vouchers
• Eliminate the Department of Education
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House: Hit the ground running, with focus on
educating froshies. Expect more hearings before
any bill is dropped. Have expressed interest in
piece-meal approach.
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Senate: Committed to moving the full bill, and have
proposed a timeline that would introduce language
before Easter and have the bill to the floor for vote
by August.
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Optimism toward moving forward. Reformers’ ironlock on legislative proposals is reduced.
“Reformers”
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Blow it up and start again
Choice & Corporate control
model
– Democrats for Education
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Reform
Education trust
Fordham foundation
Alliance for Excellent
Education
Aspen Group
Gates Foundation
Broad Foundation
Walton foundation
Educators
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Federal support for state
and local leadership
– AASA
– AESA
– NSBA
– NEA
– AFT
– CCSSO
– PTA
– NAESP
– NASSP
– NABSE
– etc
Federally Mandated
Standardization
• Federal requirements &
mandates dictate
• State as federal enforcer
• Diminished Local authority
• Increased Local
Responsibility
• Decreased Local authority
Federal Assistance Focused
on Poverty
• Federal leadership in Equity,
Research & Demonstration
• Federal Assistance for
Students With Greater Needs
• Federal Funds to Help
Address Systemic problems
• Balance local/state federal
authority and responsibility
• Greater federal/state
transparency in rule making
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The Administration requested an increase in the
proportion of federal dollars that would move
through competitive grants.
Reformers want to use competitive grants to force
compliance to get grants.
School administrators like formula grants
because the funds are forwarded funded and
therefore more predictable for staffing and long
term plans.
There is no solid data on which method of
distributing funds produces the best student
outcomes
Reformers think charter schools are essential
everywhere for large, wide scale improvement in
student outcomes
 Educators think some charter schools work about
as well as regular public schools, and ought to be a
local option.
 The latest high quality research says that 17% of
charters get significantly better results than
traditional public schools and that 37% get
significantly worse results. CREDO, Stanford
University, June 2009
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Reformers like NCLB accountability
system, because it finds every low scoring
punishes educators where test scores are
low
Educators think ESEA requires an
accountability system that is fair & accurate
as well as valid & reliable
The new measures will be expensive but
will guide instruction and are accurate
enough to also guide policy improvements.
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Educators, including AASA, would like to move beyond
the current generation of state tests to assessment
systems because one test cannot serve all purposes.
Reformers are largely silent on the issue of better
tests, but the really like having a single score for
accountability.
Current state tests were designed to show the
distribution of achievement - not for accountability.
Two consortia of states, PARCC (26 states) developing
year end and “through course” tests & SBAC (31 states)
developing adaptive year end tests and interim
performance tasks. Both will establish a consistent
measure of student performance aligned with college
and career readiness.
AASA supports assessment systems designed to
improve student achievement and hold fairly and
accurately schools accountable.
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Reformers are largely silent on this issue.
Educators have fair, accurate and
instructionally useful assessment for ELL
and special education students at the top of
their Christmas list
Reformers view educators concerns in
these areas as just making excuses
The 2% rule must either be eliminated or
made sensible because it is contrary to the
research on student learning.
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Differences between reformers and teacher unions
Reformers want:
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New teacher preparation programs
Alternative paths to teaching
Uniform and rigorous evaluation based on test scores
To be able to fire teachers more easily
To eliminate sonority in teacher placement decisions
School administrators want:
– Better teacher programs that are tied to specific practices in
school districts
– To retain control of teacher evaluation at the local level
– To be able to remove ineffective teachers more easily
– Teacher placement strategies that encourage effective
teachers to work in hard to staff schools
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AASA believes that:
– States should determine teacher qualifications
– ESEA should support improved teacher education by
tying it directly to schools needs;
– States & LEAs should develop evaluation systems
that improve instruction
– ESEA should provide supplemental incentives to
teachers in hard to staff urban and rural isolated
schools
– Performance pay is a local decision not a federal
mandate
– Reconstitution of schools is a local or state decision
not a federal mandate for every low scoring school
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Reformers are largely silent in this area,
but there doesn’t seem to be significant
opposition.
Educators view developmental and
educational support for children in their
first five years of life as essential.
There is solid research that early support at
home in in organizational settings makes a
difference
The Obama administration strongly
supports state efforts to increase access to
and the quality of early childhood programs.
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The debate is very contentious between
Educators and “Reformers”, though voice
of reformers is increasingly muted.
The administration has sided almost
entirely with the “Reformers”
The hill is split between educators and
reformers.
ESEA: Reframing the Federal Role
Separating the false link that current statute places
between accountability and assessment.
 Focus the federal government on serving students in
poverty.
 Services should meet not only their academic needs
but also provide a continuum of services from mental
health to afterschool enrichment.
 We should shift away from a punitive system to one
that rewards achieving and maintaining success.
 Assessments should be aligned to high standards but
truly measure individual students where they are.
 Fight the shift to competitive grants away from more
traditional formula grants as they lead to inequality.
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Limit the federal oversight to children served
with federal funds – in the case of school wide
programs –schools served by Title I funds
Separate Accountability and Assessment for
learning
• Accountability assessments focus on growth (value added if
desired) by sampling & including multiple measures
• Instructional assessment includes a variety of methods of
measuring growth, formative, adaptive, embedded teacher
developed, etc., that provide immediate feedback to teachers
and administrators
 Standardizing
public education
• Per pupil expenditures/Comparability
• Teacher contracts
• Standards/curriculum
• Personnel decisions
• Instructional strategies
• Instructional methods
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There will be a formula fight within ESEA
reauthorization.
Title I allocations are made up of four formulas:
• Basic Grant, Concentration Grant, Targeted Grant, Education
Finance Incentive Grant
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Idea is to focus on concentrations of poverty
• Current law uses numbers or percentages
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Since NCLB, all new money in Title I has been split
between the Targeted Grant and the Education Finance
Incentive Grant.
Focus on percentages of poverty for equity
Common Core Standards
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Increased Congressional support for common core (not
national) standards.
• CCSSO and NGA have joined together with 48 states and
territories to develop them.
• Draft standards were released in March and open for comment
until April 2nd.
• States may choose to include additional standards beyond the
common core as long as the common core represents at least 85
percent of the state’s standards in English language arts and
mathematics.
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What if Congress requires adoption of common core in
order to receive Title I?
• Still unclear what Congress sees as their role in this.
• Certain competitive grants will give priority to Common Core
states
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Two consortia, representing 44 states and DC.
Eleven states belong to both, 6 to neither
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) hosts 31 states
and received $160 million
Partnership for Assessment of College and Career Readiness
(PARCC) hosts 26 states and received $170 million
SBAC
PARCC
BOTH
NEITHER
AL
MI
OR
AL
KY
PA
AL
NJ
AK
CO
MO
PA
AR
LA
RI
CO
OH
MN
CT
MT
SC
AZ
MA
SC
DE
OK
NE
DE
NV
SD
CA
MD
TN
GA
PA
TX
GA
NH
UT
CO
MS
KY
SC
VA
HI
NJ
VT
DC
ND
NH
ID
NM
WA
DE
NH
BOLD = both consortia
IA
NC
WV
FL
NJ
ORANGE = RTTT winner
KS
ND
WI
GA
NY
KY
OH
IL
OH
ME
OK
IN
OK
WY
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is active in coalition to push for
IDEA full funding
 Expect bills from Rep. VanHollen and Sen.
Harkin
 Chrmn. Kline is long supporter of IDEA
funding, though shies away from
mandatory
 FY11 CR proposed $557.7 m cut
 FY12 proposal includes $200 m increase
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Some changes need to be made to improve
REAP in the coming reauthorization.
Specifically, a number of districts are no
longer receiving a financial benefit from the
program despite qualifying.
• Allow districts to choose which program to
apply under.
• Raise the sliding scale from $20,000 - $60,000
to $25,000 - $70,000.
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For the Rural & Low-income program, use
free and reduced lunch instead of census.
Update Locale codes.
Support the REAP Reauthorization Act
Urge your Senators and Representative to
join their respective Rural Education
Caucus.
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Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was signed in to law in
December 2010
AASA is actively engaged in the regulatory process to make
implementation as smooth as possible
Unfunded mandates of the law place funding pressure on
local budgets and limit flexibility in school district budgeting
• Education/training/certification requirements for food service
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personnel
Adoption/implementation of new standards
Increased reimbursement of 6 cents…..
Calculation of indirect costs
National calculation of school lunch price
Competitive food restrictions
Fines for non-compliance
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FCC’s October point of order adjusted $2.25 billion
funding cap to inflation and added dark-fiber to the
eligible services list.
Continue to push for an increase for the cap, given ever
increasing demand and rising costs
FY11 CR eliminates Enhancing Education Through
Technology
Pres. FY12 budget proposal calls for Education
Technology Office in Department.
• Skeptical of what the office would actually mean at the local level
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FY11 CR includes language to reverse current sunset
provisions.
Both the House and Senate have the votes to support
voucher provisions, and each chamber has introduced
a bill to reinstate and expand the DC Opportunity
Scholarship Program
 4 consecutive government reports document the lack of
reliable, valid academic progress
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We expect to be fighting vouchers on a regular basis in
this Congress.
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Started with the Fostering Connections Act of 2008
• Not widely implemented; low level of awareness
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Newly proposed bill could require LEAs to pay for
transportation for foster kids and maintain in school of
origin (all regardless of transportation difficulties,
costs, and records)
Could require states to create plan consistent with FCA;
Secretaries of both Ed and Child Welfare agencies must
approve plans; failure to compromise leaves Governor
to decide who pays for transit
 Anticipate
regulatory changes to parental
consent requirement
• Option 1: Rescind consent requirement entirely
• Option 2: Require consent to be given only a
time of enrollment and require schools to notify
parents that they are seeking reimbursement
each year
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Legislation would require LEAs to perform the following
checks periodically on all school employees:
• A search of the State criminal registry or repository in the State in
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which the school employee resides and each State in which such
school employee previously resided;
A search of State-based child abuse and neglect registries and
databases in the State in which the school employee resides and each
State in which such school employee previously resided;
A search of the National Crime Information Center of the Department
of Justice;
A search of Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint check system
using the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System; and
A search of the National Sex Offender Registry established under
section 19 of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
(42 U.S.C. 16919)
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ESEA Reauthorization is on the move. Make sure your
voice is heard!!
• School administrators, principals, school board members
and teachers have a unique expertise when it come to the
ins and outs of educating children.
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The timeline for action will be quick: weigh in early
and often. Think marathon training: this is interval
training!
Take the time to educate your senators and
representatives of the good work being done in
schools to improve student achievement.
15 minutes per month!
Noelle Ellerson
Assistant Director, Policy Analysis & Advocacy
American Association of School Administrators
(703) 875-0764
[email protected]