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| Issue #220--October 2, 2015 |
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National education groups call on Congress to get job done on ESEA
On Tuesday, 10 national groups representing key education stakeholders sent a joint letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate education committees calling for focus and final action on an ESEA reauthorization bill as Congress faces a busy fall schedule. "ESEA reauthorization cannot wait," the groups, including the National Education Association, said. "Yet another school year has started under the policies of No Child Left Behind. America's students, parents and educators need a new law that moves past No Child Left Behind."
The 10 groups that signed the letter are: National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, The School Superintendents Association, National Association of Secondary School Principals, Council of Chief State School Officers, Association of School Business Officials International, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National School Boards Association, National PTA, and National Association of State Boards of Education.
Duncan stepping down
The Associated Press (AP) reported today that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan plans to step down in December, citing a letter Duncan sent to his staff. Duncan has served as secretary of education throughout the Obama presidency, implementing a range of major programs that were heavily funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In recent years, he implemented a waiver program from NCLB.
Responding to the report, NEA President Lily Eskelsen García wished Duncan well in his future endeavors andstated:
NEA and Secretary Duncan have always been in clear agreement that we need to strengthen public education and make sure all students have the opportunity to succeed. He has made important strides in the promotion of early childhood education, college affordability and teacher leadership. We've also had our disagreements. There is a lot to be done to ensure the success of all our students, including fixing overtesting and making sure every child in every zip code has a quality education.
According to AP, John King Jr. will serve as acting secretary for the remainder of Obama's presidency. King'sbio on the Department of Education (ED) Web site lists his current title as senior advisor delegated duties of deputy secretary of education. According to the bio, "Dr. King oversees all preschool-through-12th-grade education policies, programs and strategic initiatives, as well as the operations of the Department...."
Texas gets waiver renewal, will challenge high risk status
Texas received a one-year renewal of its NCLB waiver this week, but was placed on "high risk" status due to ED's dissatisfaction with the state's progress on a uniform statewide teacher and principal evaluation system. The renewal letter set conditions for further renewal, including a January 15, 2016, deadline for a request "resolving" the conditions. In a pointed response, the Texas Education Agency said it has no authority or desire to "compel local school districts to use one uniform teacher and principal evaluation system statewide" and would challenge the high risk designation.
South Dakota pushes back on high risk status
South Dakota is challenging ED's decision to place it on high risk status over its teacher evaluation system when its waiver was renewed in August. In a September 3 letter addressing ED's concerns about South Dakota's teacher evaluation system, the state said that its evaluation system does, in fact, meet the waiver requirements:
In describing how test results should be used, US DOE has repeatedly used the phrase "significant factor." Regarding how that is determined, US DOE has specifically stated that "an SEA has discretion to determine how student growth is included as a "significant factor' and to determine the other measures an LEA must use in defining its performance levels." (FAQ, revised August 3, 2012)
Relying on that guidance, South Dakota worked closely with the education field, in particular the South Dakota Education Association (SDEA), to develop a system that uses state test results in a way that makes them both meaningful and practical, and hence a significant factor. The system balances both professional practices and student growth through the use of student learning objectives (SLOs).
South Dakota also raised two procedural issues and noted that it has no history of noncompliance with ED programs, and has been transparent with ED about its evaluation plans all along.
California CORE districts taken off high risk status
ED granted a one-year renewal of its district level NCLB waiver for the California CORE districts, and also removed their "high risk" status. ED said that it removed the status because the CORE districts had addressed the agency's concerns about their teacher evaluation system, were making substantial progress on their School Quality Improvement Index, and were working with ED on findings from ED's 2014 monitoring visit.
The CORE waiver districts are Fresno Unified, Long Beach Unified, Los Angeles Unified, Oakland Unified, San Francisco Unified, and Santa Ana Unified.
Congress sidesteps government shutdown--for now
Congress sidestepped a government shutdown by passing a short-term funding bill, or continuing resolution (CR), for FY 2016 hours before the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. The CR will run through December 11, 2015, which will allow the federal government including ED, to operate without interruption.
Under the short-term CR, funding for all discretionary (or annually appropriated) programs would be at the FY 2015 levels, except for a few anomalies, less an across-the-board cut of 0.2108 percent to keep total discretionary funding under the 2016 budget caps. The total cut to ED discretionary programs would be about $141.5 million, which includes a cut to advanced appropriations for 2016 that were provided in FY 2015 appropriations for ESEA Title I, Part A; ESEA Title II, Part A; Special Education Grants to States (IDEA Part B-611); and Career and Technical Education State Grants (CTEA Title I).
The stopgap CR gives Congress time to pass a budget for the remainder of the fiscal year, but the challenge of doing so only increases with the expiration date of the short-term CR potentially coinciding with the need to raise the debt ceiling, extend the Highway Trust Fund, and the expiration of tax breaks. A negotiated agreement appears necessary between Congressional Republicans, who want to retain strict spending limits on nondefense discretionary spending, and President Obama and Congressional Democrats, who want to replace sequestration and raise the spending caps to allow for investments in priorities such as education that would accelerate economic growth and job creation, while maintaining national security.
Duncan proposes moving $15 billion from prisons to education
Speaking at the National Press Club Wednesday, Secretary Duncan proposed a major shift in state and local spending priorities, noting that correctional spending has increased twice as fast as spending on education in the last three decades. Instead of spending billions incarcerating nonviolent offenders, Duncan urged spending those funds on teachers, who could in turn help end the pipeline to prison by ensuring that students graduate and succeed in life.
If our states and localities took just half the people convicted of nonviolent crimes and found paths for them other than incarceration, they would save upwards of $15 billion a year.
If they reinvested that money into paying the teachers who are working in our highest-need schools and communities-they could provide a 50 percent average salary increase to every single one of them. Specifically, if you focused on the 20 percent of schools with the highest poverty rates in each state, that would give you 17,640 schools-and the money would go far enough to increase salaries by at least 50 percent.
Duncan said there were other ways the $15 billion might be spent to improve teaching and emphasized that teachers are the most important in-school factor in education. He also criticized Republican efforts to cut education funding in Congress.
Commenting on the remarks, NEA President Lily Eskelsen García said that Duncan's "framework for disinvestment in prisons and renewed efforts to identify innovative ways to invest in student success is a commendable new vision for supporting students and young people." Eskelsen García also emphasized the need to focus on professional development for educators and administrators, and specialized support for students in the development of any plan.
English Learner Tool Kit finalized
ED and the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the completion of ED's English Learner (EL) Tool Kit, a practical companion to the January ED and DOJ "Dear Colleague" letter that outlined state education agency (SEA), district and school legal responsibilities toward EL students under civil rights laws. The 10 chapters of the tool kit are aligned with the 10 sections of the guidance.
Take Action
Despite a widespread consensus that NCLB is broken, millions of students still daily suffer the consequences of its system of high-stakes standardized tests, labels and punishments. Tell Congress, which is as close to passing a reauthorization bill as it has been in years, to finish the job and pass a bill that gets ESEA right.
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| Questions or comments?
Contact the Education Policy and Practice Department at ESEAinfo@nea.org.
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