Transcript Slide 1

The American
Reinvestment and Recovery Act:
SAVING AND CREATING JOBS AND REFORMING EDUCATION
National Association of Elementar y
School Principals
April 5, 2009 New Or leans, LA.
Mar shall S . Smith
U.S . Depar tment of Education
Saving and Creating Jobs and Reforming Education
“In a global economy where the most valuable skill
you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is
no longer just a pathway to opportunity - it is a prerequisite. The countries that out-teach us today will
out-compete us tomorrow.”
- President Barack Obama, 2/24/09
Overview
 ARRA: Funds for K-12 Education: What are they?
How Much? When are they released? Allowable uses.
 Guiding Principles for ARRA.
 ARRA and Education reform. A vision and Race to
the Top.
 What can District Leadership and Elementary School
Principals do with ARRA monies to improve teaching
and learning?
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ARRA for K-12 education.
 One-time Investment:
 Over $100 billion education investment: Approx
$70 billion for K-12 education.
 Historic opportunity to stimulate economy,
stabilize the educational system, and improve
education quality.
 Success depends on leadership, judgment,
coordination, and communication
K-12 Education
 Four buckets of funds and programs:
 Stabilization formula program: Approximately $33 billion to
K-12: 2/3rds released April 1, remainder within 4 months.
 Federal large formula funds:
Title I Part A: $10 billion: ½ released April 1, remainder by 10-09
 IDEA Part B&C: $13 billion: ½ on 4/1, remainder by 10/09
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Smaller formula grants and competitive grants: $4-5 billion,
released or awarded by 11/09: Major examples: Title I School
Improvement ($3 billion); Technology ($650 million); Teacher
Incentive Fund (TIF) ($200 million)
Federal competitions: Race to the Top ($4.35 billion) to states:
Innovation ($635 billion) to districts. (Awarded FY2010)
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How may ARRA funds be used?
 Detailed Guidance at www.ed.gov. New material
including waiver guidance to be posted by 4/15.
 In Brief:
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Stabilization funds: Pay salaries for any school person (e.g.
pick up pink slips), professional development, school
modernization, curriculum, etc. Use Impact Aid rules for
general support.
Title I Part A: Follow rules as usual except see guidance for
flexibility.
IDEA Part B: Follow rules as usual except see guidance for
flexibility.
Other programs: Follow general program rules.
Guiding Principles
Spend Quickly to Save and
Create Jobs
Ensure Transparency and
Accountability
Thoughtfully Invest One-time
Funds
Advance Effective Reforms
Balance Speed and Effectiveness
 States should award funds to LEAs as quickly as is prudent.
 LEAs and schools should use funds quickly to stimulate economy but
sensibly and imaginatively for improvements and reforms.
 Funds obligation timelines:
 State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF): must be OBLIGATED by
September 30, 2011
 Title I, Part A: in absence of a waiver, 85% by Sept 30, 2010; any
remaining by Sept 30, 2011
 IDEA, Part B: majority during school years 2008/09 and 2009/10
and remainder by September 30, 2011
 Actual USE of funds is different from obligation: Districts may enter
into contracts prior to 9/30/2011 that obligate funds and the funds may
be used beyond 9/30/2011.
Accountability and Transparency
 All ARRA funds must be tracked separately
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Quarterly reports on both financial information and how
funds are being used
Estimated number of jobs created
Subcontracts and sub-grants required to comply with the
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
 Reporting template being developed for use by
States to capture required information
 Transparency allows opportunity to
quantify/define goals and mobilize support for
improving results for all students
A Vision for Reform
Innovation
New Standards
and Assessments
Turnaround
failing
Schools
Transparency
Continuous
Improvement
Collection and
Use of Data
Pre-K to post-sec
Teacher quality
and Distribution
Scale
State Fiscal
Stabilization Fund
$53.6 billion
Formula
Competitive
Governors
$48.6 billion
Public Elementary,
Secondary, and
Institutions of Higher
Education
81.8% ($39.8 billion)
Education, School
Modernization, Public
Safety, or other
Government Services
18.2% ($8.8 billion)
The Secretary
$5 billion
FOR REFORM
Race to the Top
($4.35 billion)
What Works and
Innovation ($650 million)
SFSF Incentive Fund: “Race to Top” and “Invest in
What Works and Innovation”
 “Race to the Top”- $4.35 billion competitive grants to
States making most progress toward the vision: standards;
data; teacher quality; improving failing schools; preschools,
school-college pathways.
 “Investing in What Works and Innovation” - $650 million
competitive grants to Districts and non-profits that have
made significant gains in closing achievement gaps to be
models of best practices.
 2010 grant awards will be made in two rounds - late Fall
2009, Summer 2010
Key questions about uses of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-Term Educational Reform and Improvement
 Will the proposed use of ARRA funds:
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Drive results for students?
Increase capacity?
Accelerate reform?
Be sustainable beyond ARRA.
Improve efficiency?
Foster continuous improvement?
Significant Impact on High Needs Schools’
Budgets
ARRA School Improvement Grants
Additional funds
available through
ARRA over 2 years
ARRA IDEA
ARRA Title 1
ARRA Stabilization
IDEA FY 09
ESEA FY 09
Additional State Aid
Basic State & Local Funding Formula
Title I School Improvement Grants
 $3 billion to improve lowest performing schools –
almost six-fold increase in funding
 Will be made available by Fall 2009
 States will give priority to LEAs that:
Serve the lowest-achieving schools
 Demonstrate the greatest need for such funds
 Demonstrate the strongest commitment to ensuring that
such funds are used to enable the lowest-achieving
schools to meet the progress goals in school improvement
plans
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Potential Uses by districts and schools of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-tem Education Reform and Improvement (1)
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District and school examples for improving teacher quality
and equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers
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Redesign the district’s or school’s professional development system
to ensure that training addresses all students’, and especially ELL
students, instructional needs and academic gaps. Provide extensive
training for all teachers over two years – send a few teachers/school
to extra training to be able to serve as teacher trainers in the future.
Provide bonuses to highly effective teachers who transfer to lowperforming schools. Use two year opportunity to put in place
practices that establish supportive culture in low-performing schools
to retain teachers.
Potential Uses by districts and schools of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-tem Education Reform and Improvement (2)
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District and school examples for improving teacher quality
and equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers
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Provide an intensive, two year training program for all teachers and
principal in a school –wide Title I school in corrective action status
to use a new reading curriculum that focuses on improving students
oral language competence and academic vocabulary to improve
comprehension and address the fourth grade reading drop-off.
Strengthen and expand early childhood education by providing
resources to align a district-wide Title I pre-K program with State
early learning standards and State content standards for grades K–3
and, if there is a plan for sustainability beyond 2010–11, expanding
high-quality Title I pre-K programs to larger numbers of young
children.
Potential Uses by districts and schools of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-tem Education Reform and Improvement (3)
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District and school examples for improving teacher quality
and equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers
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Create new opportunities for teachers in Title I school-wide
programs be trained to use electronic whiteboards. Train some
teachers to be trainers. Buy whiteboards for all classrooms. Buy
insurance policy for repairs and replacement, if necessary.
Establish a system for identifying and training highly effective
teachers to serve as instructional leaders in Title I school-wide
programs and modify the school schedule to allow for collaboration
among the instructional staff.
Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-Term Educational Reform and Improvement (4)
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Establishing data systems and using data for improvement
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Train principals, teachers, guidance counselors and other staff to
use data to identify the specific help students need to succeed, use
formative assessment strategies to adjust classroom instruction to
better address student strengths and weaknesses, and target
professional development on teacher needs. (Create a school-wide
learning environment.)
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Purchase handheld formative assessment technology that enables
teachers to record and analyze student performance and obtain a
real-time picture of which students need help, where they need it,
and how the teachers can help best. Train teachers aggressively –
create teacher trainers of a few teachers. Buy insurance policy.
Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-Term Educational Reform and Improvement (5)
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Establishing data systems and using data for improvement
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Work with trainers and others to train district and school leaders
and teachers to develop a learning community of the entire district.
Use the data to insure that resources are allocated to support
teaching and learning, that all business processes are as effective as
possible, and that experimentation and improvement can thrive
within the district. This requires carefully constructed and used
data systems and, in the long-run creates a continuous improvement
systems in all schools and throughout a district. Two - three years
are required.
Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-Term Educational Reform and Improvement(4)
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Turning around low-performing schools: Use School
Improvement funds among other ARRA funds.
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Create intensive summer institutes and on-going support
for teams of principals and teachers from lowperforming schools to analyze data and develop a specific
action plans for improving instruction and school
performance.
Acquire new instructional materials, aggressive
professional development and interactive technology to
help English language learners meet state standards and
become proficient in English.
Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive
Long-Term Educational Reform and Improvement(5)
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Turning around low-performing schools: Use School
Improvement funds among other ARRA funds.
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In a big district or county system select the bottom 1-2%
of schools in terms of achievement level and growth.
Commit to a dramatic restructuring of the schools,
upgrading of all capacity (curriculum, staff, data systems,
leadership, professional development, coaches, support
staff), lengthen school day, and engage the neighborhood
and parents to provide support and out-of-school
opportunities. Use a combination of Part A funds and
School Improvement funds (up to $750,000 – 1
million/year).
Saving and Creating Jobs and Reforming Education
“In a global economy where the most valuable skill
you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is
no longer just a pathway to opportunity - it is a prerequisite. The countries that out-teach us today will
out-compete us tomorrow.”
- President Barack Obama, 2/24/09
More Information
 www.ed.gov and www.recovery.gov
FAQs, Hot Topics, etc
Preliminary information about each State’s IDEA allocation:
http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/Statetables/recovery.ht
ml
Preliminary estimates of Title I, Part A recovery allocations to each
State and LEA are available at:
http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/news.html#ARRA
SFSF Questions: [email protected]
IDEA Questions: [email protected]
Title I Questions: [email protected]
Inspector General Questions: [email protected]
Independent Living and Vocational Rehabilitation Questions:
[email protected]
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