ESEA/NCLB Update

Take action Take Action: Tell Congress education funding matters

Education stimulus dollars meet the goals

In a report released Wednesday, the Center for Education Policy (CEP) concluded that the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)met its' goal of creating or saving education jobs. In a press release, CEP's executive director Maria Ferguson said, "Federal stimulus funds appear to have blunted the effects of the economic downturn on the K-12 education sector."

Although many districts still had to eliminate teaching and other key staff positions, our research indicates that the situation would have been worse without the stimulus funds." ARRA, signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009 has pumped $763.1 billion dollars into the economy. The authors of the report — What Impact Did Education Stimulus Funds Have on States and Schools? found that in 2010 about 70 percent of the nation's school districts used State Fiscal Stabilization funding, the largest pot of ARRA education money, to save or create jobs for teachers and other school personnel. 

Elections 2012

Compare where the candidates stand on issues of the day. Get the facts, based on the candidates’ public statements and their own websites.

• The Presidential Candidates: Where They Stand on the Issues

Just The Facts

Every week, we provide candidate quotes — with source citations — on hot topics. Whether it’s saving and creating education jobs, privatizing Social Security or safeguarding educators’ collective bargaining rights, you’ll have what you want to know at your fingertips.

Out of Touch and Turning Back the Clock: Romney on Education

 Views expressed in this post are strictly those of the author and do
not reflect the endorsement of the Learning First Alliance or any of its members.

by Dennis Van Roekel, President of the National Education Association (NEA) * EDUCATION WEEK

It was hard not to be taken aback earlier this month when presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his top supporters, including Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, again demonstrated how out of touch they are with ordinary Americans by voicing their desire to cut back on police, firefighters, and teachers. But the 3 million teachers, cafeteria workers, librarians, and other educators I work with weren't surprised.
That's because Mr. Romney has already revealed how little he understands about the issues that are important to the rest of us. Take his education agenda, for example. Today, few topics unite liberals and conservatives, but almost everyone seems to agree that George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law has failed. There's almost unilateral agreement that NCLB's focus on standardized testing and punishing is wrong; it hurts our schools and our children.

Iowa’s NCLB Waiver Application: Denied

Iowa has become the first state to be denied a No Child Left Behind Waiver with Branstad and Glass blaming the Iowa Legislature.

Iowa has been denied a No Child Left Behind waiver because its educator evaluation system did not meet federal requirements due to the absence of student achievement being built into the evaluation process. Governor Terry Branstad has been privately and publicly warning of this scenario for months with only apathetic response from the State Legislature.

“Responsibility for the denial of this request lies squarely at the feet of the Iowa Legislature, which did too little to improve our schools despite repeated warnings,” the governor said in a statement. “The education reform plan Lt. Gov. (Kim) Reynolds and I proposed would have ensured a waiver from the onerous federal No Child Left Behind law.”

ESEA Reauthorization & ESEA Update

Promise Neighborhoods placed on the map
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced this week that 21 nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education will receive Promise Neighborhood planning grants of up to $500,000. The one-year grants are designed to help recipients create plans to provide services that support the whole child and support the healthy development of students. The Center for Community Schools, a coalition NEA participates in, applauded the inclusion of seven members of its network that embrace community schools strategies.

Obama's ESEA Plan Short on Research, Authors Allege

Published September 29, 2010

EDUCATION WEEK
By Dakarai I. Aarons

The Obama administration's education plan lacks a solid research basis for its proposals, a new book says.

The Obama Education Blueprint: Researchers Examine the Evidence is the first major effort from the National Education Policy Center, a university-based research organization in Boulder, Colo., that critiques the work of prominent think tanks. ("Think-Tank Critics Plant a Stake in Policy World," this issue.)

Supreme Court Will Not Hear No Child Left Behind "Unfunded Mandates" Case.

The AP (6/8) reports that "the Supreme Court has turned away a challenge by school districts and teacher unions to the federal No Child Left Behind law." The lawsuit, School District of Pontiac, Mich. v. Duncan, "questioned whether public schools have to comply with requirements of the law if the federal government doesn't pay for them. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit and a federal appeals court split 8-8, leaving the judge's ruling in place."

NEA ESEA/NCLB Update May 27, 2010

ESEA reauthorization hearings roundup

On May 19, the House Education & Labor Committee held a hearing on successful turnaround strategies for low-performing schools. Chairman George Miller (D-CA), clearly reacting to policies implemented by the Obama Administration through the Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants programs, stated, “No Child Left Behind dictated interventions to help these schools but what we’ve learned since the law was enacted is they were too prescriptive and unrelated to the real needs of the schools. What most of these schools need is a fresh start. A fresh start doesn’t have to mean shutting down a school . . . A fresh start doesn’t mean firing all the teachers and only hiring back an arbitrary number . . . A fresh start means buy in from school leaders, teachers, parents and the community. It means a team effort to put together the tools to make that school great.”

Chu unveils new school turnaround framework

Speaking of turnaround strategies, in the wake of bipartisan concern over the Administration’s turnaround policies, Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) unveiled a new framework for turning around schools that focuses on collaboration, flexibility and a more holistic approach. NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen spoke favorably about the Chu framework, stating that it was time to put to rest the “one-size-fits-all” mentality in turning around struggling schools. Positive principles of the Chu framework, entitled Strengthening Our Schools (SOS), include: • Flexibility and collaboration as keys to success • Giving schools sufficient time to show progress • Improve learning and instruction by building capacity • School closure and staff firings as a last resort, not a first option

TIF final rules released

The Department of Education has released final requirements for the $437 million Teacher Incentive Fund program, a competitive program designed for LEAs to establish performance-based compensation systems (PBCS) based on student achievement data, classroom observations and other measures of teacher performance. The TIF program has two competitions – the PBCS competition and an evaluation competition, in which selected LEAs would agree to have their compensation systems evaluated longitudinally to measure their impact. The deadline for notice of intent to apply is June 1, 2010, and the application deadline is July 6, 2010. Awardees will be notified by September 2010. Technical assistance workshops/webinars will be held in early June. In conjunction with the release of the TIF final rules, NEA joined with the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Board Association in developing a set of guiding principles for affiliates and members who want to apply for TIF grants. The 11 Guiding Principles could be used for to foster strong collaboration at the local level and appropriately implement this federal grant program.

Study: Parent involvement is important in elementary years
A new study by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has found that children whose parents were more involved during elementary school had fewer problem behaviors and better social skills, but that children's academics weren't affected. When parents boosted their involvement in elementary school (by increasing visits to the school and encouraging educational progress at home), children's problem behaviors (including both aggressive and disruptive behaviors as well as anxiety and depression) decreased. At the same time, their so-called pro-social skills (such as cooperation and self-control) improved.

Common core state standards to be released on June 2

The common core state standards will be released on June 2. NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen will deliver remarks at the release event in Atlanta, Georgia. NEA publicly supported the March draft of the new standards focused on language arts and mathematics , stating that “these [draft] standards are beginning to articulate education goals that encompass high level, complex knowledge and skills.” Two states, Maryland and Kentucky, have already endorsed standards – even before the release of the final version. Starting in June, attention will then turn to adoption and implementation of the standards at the state level. Stay tuned!

Central Falls agreement reached

In February, the Central Falls school district garnered national media attention when it announced it would fire some 90 high school teachers and support staff at the end of this school year. After months of negotiations between the Central Falls Teachers Union and the Central Falls School District, an agreement has been reached that will enable current staff to return to their former jobs without their having to reapply for them. The agreement includes a transformation plan for Central Falls High School as well as provisions for extending the school day and tutoring students outside of class. NEA President Dennis Van Roekel applauded the new plan, stating, “Congratulations to all parties involved in the collective bargaining efforts, and to the students who will surely benefit from this strenuous work.”

Speak Up for Education & Kids Campaign
Yesterday was the start of NEA's National Speak Up for Education & Kids Campaign. With more than 80 percent of school districts planning to lay off staff, it's time to take action. Call 1-866-608-6355 to call Congress and tell your Representative to protect the future of our children by supporting funding to save education jobs in the emergency funding bill. With 300,000 education layoffs expected, our students are the ones who will suffer -- in overcrowded classrooms, with less time in school, and without the teachers and school staff needed to give them individual attention and help.

NEA has launched “Speak Up for Education & Kids” to mobilize educators and others concerned about the budget emergency facing public education. At issue is the “Education Jobs Fund,” legislation that would provide $23 billion in emergency funding for education jobs. See the 30-second television spot on the initiative. And don't forget to speak up for education and kids! Tell your elected representative that you want to be sure students' needs come first, even during a fiscal crisis!

Will NCLB Be Left Behind?

By Alain Jehlen

There’ll be some changes made in the No Child Left Behind law if proposals being put forward by officials of the Department of Education win approval in Congress. There's been no formal announcement and not much in the way of details, but some important elements have been reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post:

No more “adequate yearly progress,” which 30 percent of schools already can’t make.

No more “utopian” (Secretary Arne Duncan’s term) 2014 deadline for every student in America to be “proficient.”

Instead, a new goal: All students must leave high school “college or career ready.” What does that mean? A consortium of states is working on common standards to define it.

All in all, the proposal for a new law is expected to be patterned on the current “Race To The Top,” which is part of the Obama Administration's economic recovery program. One feature of Race To The Top is heavy pressure on states to evaluate teachers on the basis of student test scores. Most teachers consider that unfair because student scores depend on many factors over which teachers have no control. NEA leaders say tying test scores to teacher evaluation would also be counterproductive because it would punish teachers for taking on the hardest challenges in the most difficult schools, where extraordinary effort is needed just to get average test scores.

Another feature of Race To The Top which federal education leaders reportedly want to use in a revamped NCLB is a competitive grant approach to doling out the billions. Officials have said they want to move away from formula funding—giving out money according to how many students a state serves in various categories, such as low-income. That’s how most of the money has been distributed since the law was first passed as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act under President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

The new idea is to get schools to do what Washington thinks is best by making states and districts compete for the limited federal money.

The Bush Administration strategy was mostly to get schools to change by punishing them. President Obama seems inclined to reverse that. Or as Teddy Roosevelt didn’t say, “Speak loudly but carry a big carrot.”

Earlier this month, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) issued a report titled "Education at the Crossroads" proposing a very different vision of the state and federal roles in education.

The federal government, said a bipartisan panel of state legislators, should focus on outcomes, like cutting the drop-out rate, and let states and local districts decide how to get there. Federal officials are “not very good about dealing with student achievement and school reform because they use a cookie-cutter, top-down approach focused on process, not results,” said NCSL staff member David Shreve. He said some of the requirements imposed by federal officials for states applying for Race To The Top Funds have “little to do with student achievement.”

“There’s a better way to support schools than being involved in day-to-day matters,” Shreve said.

In addition to the major substantive changes he will propose for the law, Secretary Duncan has made clear that he also wants a new name. “No Child Left Behind,” which once sounded so good that nobody could be against it, has become a symbol of federal initiatives gone wrong.

NEA has been running a marathon, online brainstorming session to come up with a good new name. Click here to read some of the entries so far and add your own.

That discussion board is part of a broader forum in which educators are talking about how NCLB affects their students and debating a wide range of ideas for changing NCLB.

Martin Richter wrote:
"Part of the genius of American education has been that [it] encourages creativity and innovation. If we begin to emphasize test-taking and pencil/paper activities, we are likely to develop a nation of people who are good at taking tests, and very little else."

Jane Watson wrote:
"The biggest problem is poverty. Politicians need to realize that parents need to be paid a living wage and that it's not the teacher’s fault if the child is hungry or ill. (In Yakima, the school board gave the retiring superintendent a $300,000 retirement, but has not yet settled with the paraeducators, most of whom bring home less than $1,000 a month.)"

Many of those who commented agree on some important ideas: Stop the test score obsession, one size doesn't fit all, parents and society must share responsibility. But it's a free-wheeling debate with some energetic disagreements.

Join in and speak your mind!

Will NCLB Be Left Behind?

By Alain Jehlen

There’ll be some changes made in the No Child Left Behind law if proposals being put forward by officials of the Department of Education win approval in Congress. There's been no formal announcement and not much in the way of details, but some important elements have been reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post:

No more “adequate yearly progress,” which 30 percent of schools already can’t make.

No more “utopian” (Secretary Arne Duncan’s term) 2014 deadline for every student in America to be “proficient.”

Instead, a new goal: All students must leave high school “college or career ready.” What does that mean? A consortium of states is working on common standards to define it.

All in all, the proposal for a new law is expected to be patterned on the current “Race To The Top,” which is part of the Obama Administration's economic recovery program. One feature of Race To The Top is heavy pressure on states to evaluate teachers on the basis of student test scores. Most teachers consider that unfair because student scores depend on many factors over which teachers have no control. NEA leaders say tying test scores to teacher evaluation would also be counterproductive because it would punish teachers for taking on the hardest challenges in the most difficult schools, where extraordinary effort is needed just to get average test scores.

Another feature of Race To The Top which federal education leaders reportedly want to use in a revamped NCLB is a competitive grant approach to doling out the billions. Officials have said they want to move away from formula funding—giving out money according to how many students a state serves in various categories, such as low-income. That’s how most of the money has been distributed since the law was first passed as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act under President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

The new idea is to get schools to do what Washington thinks is best by making states and districts compete for the limited federal money.

The Bush Administration strategy was mostly to get schools to change by punishing them. President Obama seems inclined to reverse that. Or as Teddy Roosevelt didn’t say, “Speak loudly but carry a big carrot.”

Earlier this month, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) issued a report titled "Education at the Crossroads" proposing a very different vision of the state and federal roles in education.

The federal government, said a bipartisan panel of state legislators, should focus on outcomes, like cutting the drop-out rate, and let states and local districts decide how to get there. Federal officials are “not very good about dealing with student achievement and school reform because they use a cookie-cutter, top-down approach focused on process, not results,” said NCSL staff member David Shreve. He said some of the requirements imposed by federal officials for states applying for Race To The Top Funds have “little to do with student achievement.”

“There’s a better way to support schools than being involved in day-to-day matters,” Shreve said.

In addition to the major substantive changes he will propose for the law, Secretary Duncan has made clear that he also wants a new name. “No Child Left Behind,” which once sounded so good that nobody could be against it, has become a symbol of federal initiatives gone wrong.

NEA has been running a marathon, online brainstorming session to come up with a good new name. Click here to read some of the entries so far and add your own.

That discussion board is part of a broader forum in which educators are talking about how NCLB affects their students and debating a wide range of ideas for changing NCLB.

Martin Richter wrote:
"Part of the genius of American education has been that [it] encourages creativity and innovation. If we begin to emphasize test-taking and pencil/paper activities, we are likely to develop a nation of people who are good at taking tests, and very little else."

Jane Watson wrote:
"The biggest problem is poverty. Politicians need to realize that parents need to be paid a living wage and that it's not the teacher’s fault if the child is hungry or ill. (In Yakima, the school board gave the retiring superintendent a $300,000 retirement, but has not yet settled with the paraeducators, most of whom bring home less than $1,000 a month.)"

Many of those who commented agree on some important ideas: Stop the test score obsession, one size doesn't fit all, parents and society must share responsibility. But it's a free-wheeling debate with some energetic disagreements.

Join in and speak your mind!

ESEA & NCLB Post Election 2008 News for Teachers to Use

Visit the NEA ESEA/NCLB Query Master to check out the most current discussion and research about this impactful legislation on our schools.

Read more about ESEA/NCLB at the national level

• How will the financial crisis affect local education budgets?
• Report questions spending of federal teacher quality funds
• ED report finds Reading First does not improve comprehension
• Darling-Hammond heads education policy team for Obama transition
• CEP holds 2 more forums on federal role in education
• ED issues more details on Title I regulations
• No Child…' play shows struggles by students, staff to meet NCLB goals

Read more about ESEA/NCLB in the states

• Some WV schools ask for time out on NCLB
• NC raises standards; more schools miss AYP targets
• Voice from the classroom:Michigan City, Indiana

How will the financial crisis affect local education budgets?

The deepening financial crisis on Wall Street is already starting to play out at the school district level. School superintendents across the country say the struggling economy is threatening to reverse progress they have made in closing historic achievement gaps. Districts are facing budget cutbacks now -- and the outlook for next fall is certainly dim.

A study by the American Association of School Administrators finds superintendents already have begun instituting belt-tightening measures in response to shrinking budgets. Nearly half of those surveyed are reducing hiring and cutting back on supplies, while 20 percent already have laid off staff. Another 31 percent are considering layoffs as well as other measures.

So what happens if/when the next Congress passes a stimulus bill? How is education likely to fare? If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd have their way, education will definitely get a boost.

The new stimulus bill unveiled this week is a $100 billion package that includes $2.5 billion for school construction repairs, as well as $600 million for youth training and dislocated workers, $200 million for the Community Services Block Grant, and $36 million for homeless education. Job training funds would provide 160,000 dislocated workers and youth with education, training, counseling, and job search assistance.

It also includes other funding important to NEA: $37.8 billion to reduce the states' share of Medicaid costs by increasing the federal share by 8 percent. That directly helps reduce the strain on states' budgets from increasing Medicaid costs.

Unfortunately, opposition by President Bush and Senate Republican leaders prevented consideration by this week's lame duck session of Congress, so that means any stimulus bill will not be acted on until President-elect Barack Obama takes office. At that point, the stimulus package would likely be even larger.

A footnote: The House in September passed a smaller package of $63 billion which included $3 billion for school construction.

Report questions spending of federal teacher quality funds

Under NCLB, the federal government spends some $3 billion each year on Title II teacher quality programs under NCLB, but a report released this week concludes that no one really knows if the funds are making a difference.

The program generally "is not especially aligned with leading-edge [teacher-quality] efforts, and it's the federal government's big entry in this sweepstakes," says Andrew Rotherham, the co-director of Education Sector who authored the report. He argues that Congress and the Obama administration have a chance to reshape federal policy to better support leading-edge human capital reforms in education.

"…public school systems continue to approach the teacher workforce as they did a generation ago," he writes. "Teachers enjoy little opportunity for professional growth or advancement without leaving the classroom, creating a disincentive for those who want to take on additional skills and responsibilities. And there is little sensitivity to teacher talent or effectiveness: From recruitment and training to compensation, low-performers and high-fliers are treated much the same, and poor and minority students are less likely to get the most effective teachers. While American society and what's expected of public schools has changed a great deal, our approaches to human capital in education have not."

Title II is the federal government's second-largest K-12 investment, after the Title I grants for disadvantaged students.

Rothertham also recently offered advice to President-elect Obama -- Education needs to be on the to-do list -- as part of NPR's "Dear President-Elect" series.

NEA notes that Title II also funds class size reduction programs. NEA is advocating that the ESEA reauthorization include a separate funding stream for class size reduction efforts, and that it also provide increased investments for high quality mentoring programs for new teachers and job-related professional development for all teachers.

We would oppose any provisions that require the use of student test scores in determining teacher compensation.

ED report finds Reading First does not improve comprehension

A new Department of Education report on Reading First finds that students enrolled in the $6 billion program on average made no more progress in reading comprehension than their peers in first, second, and third grade outside the program.

This congressionally mandated report, a follow-up to April's interim study, presents an additional year of data (from 2006-07) on student reading comprehension and classroom instruction in 248 schools (125 Reading First schools and 123 non-Reading First schools) and information on the impact of the program on first-grade students' decoding skills. While the report found no statistically significant difference in reading comprehension, the program did have a significant impact on students' decoding skills, one of the basic components for reading.

"It is a program that needs to be improved," said Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, director of department's research branch, who is quoted in a Washington Post article. "I don't think anyone should be celebrating that the federal government has spent $6 billion on a reading program that has had no impact on reading comprehension."

While the report is somewhat more positive than a much-criticized interim version of the findings, it is not expected to sway Congress, where two panels have recommended eliminating funding for the program.

Darling-Hammond heads education policy team for Obama transition

Some good news for the education community: Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond -- highly regarded for her work on school reform, teaching quality, and educational equity -- is heading up President-elect Barack Obama's transition team at the Education Department. She is expected to make policy recommendations to the new administration on a host of issues, including ESEA/NCLB reauthorization. Education Week's K-12 blog, among others, reports the news.

Curious about what Darling-Hammond has said about NCLB? You can check out her May 2007 article in The Nation as well as her testimony to Congress (September 2007).

The other members of Obama's transition education team are:

Joan Baratz-Snowden, former Director of Educational Issues for the AFT;
Maria Blanco, Executive Director of The Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at the University of California at Berkeley;
Juliet Garcia, President of the University of Texas at Brownsville;
Eugene Garcia, Vice President for Education Partnerships, Arizona State University;
Goodwin Liu, co-director of the same Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity;
Ann O'Leary, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Executive Director of the newly founded Berkeley Center for Health, Economic & Family Security (CHEFS) located at University of California-Berkeley School of Law;
John Polidori, Director of Legislation & Political Organizing for the Delaware State Education Association;
Jonathan Schnur, founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Leaders for New Schools; and
Jon Weintraub, director of the Office of Policy Analysis for the Assistant Secretary of Vocational and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education.

CEP holds 2 more forums on federal role in education

The Center on Education Policy (CEP) has held two more forums on rethinking the federal role in education. One of the topics addressed at yesterday's event was the federal role in standards-based reform.

Dr. Brian Stecher and Dr. Laura Hamilton, both with the RAND Corporation, say research shows that the effectiveness of standard-based reform is inconsistent, particularly given the difficulty in determining the validity of test scores. They said that when a punishment or reward is attached to a specific outcome, such as meeting AYP, the behavior of teachers does change. They also recommended that "Accountability should include non-test outcome measures, including a blended indicator system (some outcomes measured annually and some less frequently, and some outcomes measured at the student level and others measured at the classroom or district level)."

The November 20 forum also included a presentation on educational assessments by Dr. W. James Popham. The November 19 forum highlighted the work of Dr. Heather Weiss of the Harvard Family Research Project and Dr. Sharon Lynn Kagan of Columbia University. The Weiss paper addressed the federal role in out of school learning, while Kagan's paper focused on early childhood education.

The papers from all of the forums eventually will be posted on the CEP Web site.

ED issues more details on Title I regulations

On November 13, ED hosted a Technical Review National Teleconference to discuss the Title I regulations announced on October 28, 2008. The PowerPoint used is available on the ED's Web site.

'No Child…' play shows struggles by students, staff to meet NCLB goals

A former New York City visiting artist working in a tough school in the Bronx has written a play called "No Child…" that has won the hearts of educators and others. Nilaja Sun, who wrote and performed her award-winning one-woman show, says the play is based on her own experiences as a drama teacher. She plays 16 distinctive characters -- students, teachers, administrators, and a visiting teaching artist very much like herself -- and through them tells a story that we know only too well about the foibles and pitfalls of NCLB.

She created the play as a snapshot from the trenches -- "something entertaining and provocative that'll get people talking about the state of our public schools."

If you've seen or heard about the off-Broadway hit, you may be happy to hear that it has been licensed to run in eight places around the country next year. If you haven't heard about Sun's successful run in New York, Boston, and other places, listen to the recent NPR piece where she discusses the inspiration behind the project.

Some WV schools ask for time out on NCLB

The superintendent of Marion County, West Virginia, has asked federal education officials for a year's reprieve from federal accountability standards while students and teachers adjust to a new and more rigorous standardized test and curriculum. And the Charleston Daily Mail reports Superintendent James Phares is urging his counterparts across the state to make the same request.

Phares says counties should have a year or two to adjust to a new statewide test of student achievement, the WESTEST 2 so that schools do not end up getting penalized for raising standards.

NC raises standards; more schools miss AYP targets

Members of North Carolina's State Board of Education say they fully expected more schools would miss performance targets under NCLB when they decided to raise standards for the state's students. And that's exactly what happened. Nearly half of North Carolina's students failed both the reading and math exams they took last spring, and more schools and districts are facing sanctions because of poor performance. But Gov. Mike Easley and state officials are praising the higher standards and largely ignoring the fact that many students failed to meet them. The News & Observer sums it up succinctly: Push for higher levels stings.

According to NEA's latest analysis of state AYP data, more schools in 35 states failed AYP this year.

Voice from the classroom: Michigan City, Indiana

"I am a Title I assistant in an elementary school. I assist in giving NWEA testing to special needs children. (NWEA tests are computerized tests that assess language, reading, and math skills of students in grades three to five.) My observation is that it truly frustrates these children who can't even read the test questions but who are so brilliant in other ways. Please stop standardized testing with these children and test them in other ways, if necessary!"

Robin Endris, Paraeducator
Michigan City, Indiana

ESEA/NCLB Update

Visit the NEA ESEA/NCLB Query Master to check out the most current discussion and research about this impactful legislation on our schools.

Read more about ESEA/NCLB at the national level

• Obama presidency a victory for students and educators
• ED releases sweeping Title I regs
• NEA objects to piecemeal approach to dropout issue
• You can offer advice on education to the new president
• Rothstein book offers new route for improving education accountability

Read more about ESEA/NCLB in the states

• ED continues its review of states' standards, assessments, and accountability plans
• Voice from the classroom: Delta Junction, Alaska

Obama presidency a victory for students and educators

November 4, 2008, was a great day for public education in America. The election of Senator Barack Obama as the next President of the United States is a major victory for students and educators, said NEA President Dennis Van Roekel.

"Obama has said that a cornerstone of any long-term economic plan must be an investment in quality public schools," Van Roekel said in a public statement. "His education plan, focusing on early childhood education, professional pay for educators, and college affordability, could not have been more different than Sen. John McCain's vision and plan.

"This is a major victory for students and educators.... This is an incredible opportunity to begin to correct the failed education policies of the Bush administration and prepare our students to compete in a 21st century economy. It's a new chapter in American history, and an exciting and unprecedented time for educating the next generation of American leaders."

The inspiring victory of Barack Obama was accompanied by key victories in congressional and gubernatorial races across the country that will mean positive changes for both students and educators.

ED releases sweeping Title I regs
The Department of Education last week issued the long-awaited final regulations on Title I of NCLB. These sweeping regulations make significant changes to several areas of NCLB: graduation rates and adequate yearly progress (AYP), Supplemental Education Services (SES) and school choice, reporting of NAEP data, school restructuring, growth models, multiple measures, and more.

But despite the complexity and length of the new regs, they still adhere to the test-punish-label framework established by the federal law when it was passed nearly seven years ago. And the law remains woefully underfunded - to the tune of $15 billion this year alone. To make matters worse, says NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, the regulations effectively impose additional mandates on states and schools already struggling to stay financially afloat or avoiding laying off staff in this time of budget cutbacks.

"These changes will force states and school districts - which are in the middle of carrying out their plans for the 2008-2009 school year - to scramble to revise major procedures and systems two school years in a row," Van Roekel says. "They deserve better than that unwelcome early holiday gift the Bush administration is leaving behind."

After Education Secretary Margaret Spellings issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in April, NEA submitted detailed comments in June, opposing the regulations and urging that they be withdrawn, arguing that Title I regulations will have to be changed again when the law is revised and reauthorized, probably next year.

The final regulations do make several changes to the NPRM, in some cases providing a bit more flexibility, such as pushing back by a year when the new graduation rate goals go into effect for accountability purposes, though the new mandates contained in the regs remain largely unchanged. (Note: The final regulations include a summary of the changes between the proposed
NEA objects to piecemeal approach to dropout issue

One of the requirements spelled out in the new regulations is that states use a uniform calculation for determining every high school's graduation rate. While NEA agrees that states should use uniform methodology to calculate graduation rates, NEA President Van Roekel says the new regulations deal with the dropout problem in a piecemeal fashion.

In an opinion piece in USA Today, he wrote, "They offer no resources or programs to keep kids in school, and they place more unfunded mandates on local school systems at a time when they're already struggling to make ends meet. The Education Department has acknowledged that it will cost state and local governments $30 million just to meet these new reporting requirements."

Despite the length and complexity of the regulations, Van Roekel adds, "they fail to answer many important questions, such as how to count students who graduate in five years. The rules are so confusing that the Education Department has already said it will issue more documents by the end of the year, just to explain them."

Additional materials about the regulations, including a summary, fact sheets and Secretary Margaret Spellings' remarks in releasing the regs, are available on the Education Department

You can offer advice on education to the new president
Our country has voted for change and elected a new leader. Come January 20th, President-elect Obama will have to do something about education, from pre-K to higher education, but what? What should he do? What can he do?

Since September, a version of that question has been put to educators, students, parents and policy makers in a "Education Advice to the Next American President" podcast series. So far the site has recorded the advice of Margaret Spellings, Jonathan Kozol, Deborah Meier, NEA Executive Director John Wilson, and dozens of others. (To listen to Wilson's post, click on the "Hear education advice" link at the top of the page and scroll down to his entry on September 17.) In addition, the site now accepts written comments.

The project is produced by Learning Matters, a production company founded by veteran education reporter John Merrow. The site contains lots of comments about NCLB sprinkled throughout - so feel free to submit your advice too!

Rothstein book offers new route for improving education accountability
Education policy expert Richard Rothstein's new book takes aim at the failures of accountability under NCLB. So in Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right, he proposes a new kind of accountability plan for public education that relies on both higher-quality testing and professional evaluation.

"No Child Left Behind has backfired on the very children and schools we set out to help," Rothstein says in a press statement promoting the book. "Its most important shortcoming is that it forces schools to focus almost exclusively on just one goal, basic skills in math and reading, while abandoning other equally important goals that are essential for a good education. A high-quality education system must include a workable accountability component. But NCLB is so fundamentally flawed that it is unfixable. It is time to admit our mistakes and go back to the drawing boards to create an accountability system that will support, not undermine student achievement."

In the introduction to the book, Rothstein explains one of the fatal flaws in NCLB: "One reason, perhaps the most important, why No Child Left Behind and similar testing systems in the states got accountability so wrong is that we've wanted to do accountability on the cheap. Standardized tests that assess only low-level skills and that can be scored electronically cost very little to administer - although their hidden costs are enormous in the lost opportunities to develop young people's broader knowledge, traits, and skills. A successful accountability system, such as this book proposes, will initially be more expensive, requiring a sophisticated national assessment of a broad range of outcomes, and a corps of professional evaluators in each state that can devote the time necessary to determine if schools and other institutions of youth development - early childhood programs, health and social service clinics, for example - are following practices likely to lead to adult success. But while such accountability will be expensive, it is not prohibitively so. Sophisticated school accountability could cost up to 1% of what we now spend on elementary and secondary education. If we want to do accountability right, and we should, this level of spending is worthwhile.

"In the long run, accountability is cost-effective. We now waste billions of dollars by continuing to operate low-quality schools, because narrow test-based accountability can neither accurately identify them nor guide those it identifies to improve. And we waste billions by forcing good schools to abandon high-quality programs to comply with the government's test obsession. We cannot know how much money could be saved by more intelligent accountability, but it is probably considerable."

NOTE: In researching this book, Rothstein asked NEA for names of teachers he could talk to about their views of NCLB, and we shared information from our Voices From the Classroom project. This book has an appendix, "Teacher accounts of goal distortion," that uses stories from seven teachers in the Voices publication.

ED continues review of states' standards, assessments, and accountability plans
The 2007-08 school year was the first year in which all states are required by NCLB to test students in at least three grades in science (though the results of the science tests do not count toward determining schools or districts AYP standing). ED had required states to submit evidence that their science standards and assessments meet the NCLB requirements, and has been issuing its determinations on a state-by-state basis. Each state was required to: "(1) have approved content standards in science; (2) administer a regular and alternate science assessment in each of three grade spans; (3) include all students in those assessments; and (4) report the results of the regular and alternate science assessments on state, district, and school report cards."

ED recently issued decision letters for nine states (AL, AK, CT, DC, ID, MA, NJ, ND, and WA) and determined that all but Washington had not yet met all the statutory and regulatory requirements. Washington received approval of its overall system of standards and assessments. ED also gave final approval to South Dakota's overall system of standards and assessments.

Voice from the classroom: Delta Junction, Alaska
"As an elementary school physical educator, I know that physical education is the most important subject in school. A healthy body is key to a healthy mind. Unfortunately, NCLB's unintended consequences are the lack of time and importance placed on physical education in our schools. Our country is already witnessing an increase in childhood illnesses, such as juvenile diabetes and childhood obesity.

"With the emphasis on high-stakes testing in reading, math, writing, and (soon) science, schools have been forced to cut programs that ensure the health of our nation's future to create more time to study for the tests. This is a crime.

"We owe our children a healthy future. We owe our great country a healthy future. Please revise NCLB to accomplish this. Thank you."

Cindy Lou Aillaud, elementary physical education teacher
Delta Junction, Alaska

Read more Voices from the Classroom stories on NEA's Web site.

Take action: Savor the victories!
Take a moment to enjoy the sweeping victories for pro-public education candidates elected Tuesday night, starting with President-elect Obama, many new Senators and Representatives, and state legislators. Check out NEA's Web site for all the details on our victories and the reaction from NEA President Van Roekel.

No Child Left Behind : The Hype vs. Reality

Listen to Joel Packer, NEA Expert on No Child Left Behind, and His Podcast on the Facts Behind NCLB.

Please be patient while it loads. You will be taken briefly away from the LCEA Insider page.

It’s time for Congress to reject the hype and outright falsehoods too often marking the final months of Bush policy.

Send your questions about NCLB to Joel@nea.org.

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The transcript follows:

Joel Packer Has All the Answers Podcast -- May 13, 2008

Hi. I’m Joel Packer. Welcome to the podcast.

Get ready for some numbers. I promise you’ll be smarter in just a few minutes with our famous Joel Packer Has All the Answers individualized instruction. And there will be no test needed to move on to the next podcast.

What’s the main objective of No Child Left Behind? Increasing student test scores. Sure, the law is more than 1,000 pages long and contains some 50 programs, most of them unfunded mandates by the way. But the major “bright line” to quote Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, is that by the year 2014, every single student – 100 percent - will be proficient on statewide reading and math tests.

Every year from the start of the law in the 2002-03 school year through the year when all children will be above average and living in Lake Wobegon, increasing percentages of students must score proficient or higher on these two tests.

So, has it worked? Are the children now all above average, just as in Garrison Keillor’s fantasy world?

Secretary Spellings says everything is fine. She says scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) have increased, so she says NCLB is “like Ivory soap: It’s 99.9 percent pure…there’s not much needed in the way of change.” Even President Bush said, “These scores confirm that No Child Left Behind is working.”

But is it?

The percentage of fourth graders who scored at the proficient or higher level on NEAP only increased by 2% between 1998 and 2002 (pre-NCLB). Yet from 2002 to 2007 - after NCLB began - the increase in the percent proficient was also just 2%. Based on 4th grade math scores, the percent proficient rose by 9% from 2000 to 2003 but only 8 points from 2003 to 2007.

For 8th graders in reading, the percent proficient improved by only 1% between 1998 and 2002 but actually went down by 2 points between 2002 and 2007. The only area where performance was better post-NCLB than before was in 8th grade math, where the percent proficient went up just two points between 2000 and 2003, but rose 4 points between 2003 and 2007.

FairTest co-Executive Director Monty Neill criticized the Administration for its claims saying, “NEAP shows educational improvement across the nation slowed significantly since NCLB went into effect…despite the fact that curriculum narrowed in many schools to little more than test preparation in reading and math.”

The NY Times in a September 2007 article said, “…gains in reading achievement have been marginal, with performance declining among eighth graders… The results also showed that the nation had made only incremental progress in narrowing historic gaps in achievement between white and minority students, a fundamental goal of the federal law.”

The Civil Rights project at UCLA (formerly at Harvard) in a 2006 study, Tracking Achievement Gaps and Assessing the Impact of NCLB on the Gaps, reached the following conclusions:

* NCLB did not have a significant impact on improving reading and math achievement across the nation and states.
* NCLB has not helped the nation and states significantly narrow the achievement gap.
The Bush administration’s hard spin on its failed education policy doesn’t straighten out away from NCLB issues either. Spellings recently said about the Reading First program, “If ever there was a program that was rooted in research and science and fact, this is it,” she said. “This is [like] the cure for cancer.” Two months later her own Department’s research arm issued a report saying the Reading First program had no real effect on reading comprehension in Grades 1-3.

It’s time for Congress to reject the hype and outright falsehoods too often marking the final months of Bush policy.

It’s time to fundamentally overhaul NCLB and shift its focus from testing, labeling, and punishing. It’s time to support states and districts to build capacity, use comprehensive meaningful measures of student learning and school quality, and provide resources for proven programs like smaller class size.

And finally, it’s especially time to stop pretending when it comes to closing the achievement gaps – to allow school systems flexibility to put in place appropriate interventions targeted to the underlying problems in struggling schools – instead of failed one-size-fits-all mandates.

Thanks very much. I’m Joel Packer

Congress unlikely to act on ESEA reauthorization this year

NEA ESEA expert Joel Packer says the House Education and Labor Committee has yet to release a new draft bill or schedule a markup for ESEA reauthorization legislation, and it’s looking less and less likely to happen. On the Senate side, things don’t look much different. An Associated Press story over the weekend said that Senators Edward Kennedy, D-MA, and Mike Enzi, R-WY, who lead the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, have decided there is not enough time this year to finish work on the reauthorization draft.

Both Senator Kennedy and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller are deeply disappointed with President Bush’s failure to fully fund the law over the past six years, which has resulted in a $56 billion shortfall. The President's promise to veto this year’s education funding bill has further alienated the committee leaders.

In a major article in today’s Washington Post (“An Unlikely Partnership Left Behind”), Miller’s frustration with the President and NCLB is apparent: "’At the end of the day, it may be the most tainted brand in America,’ Miller mused. ‘If a consumer went to the shelf, they would not pick No Child Left Behind.’ A major reason, he said, is the product sponsor. ‘There's more resentment that the law is connected with George Bush than anything else. It's the biggest anchor that you're trying to work with something that's considered his franchise.’"

In the same piece, Kennedy admits to having been overly optimistic about the pace and progress of the reauthorization effort: "’I thought we would have a faster kind of process.’ But, he said, ‘No Child Left Behind, rather than being a flagship for improved strength and enhanced opportunity of e ducation for the children, has become a symbol of controversial, flawed and failed policy.’"

Tell Congress to slow down and get NCLB right!

October is shaping up to be a critical month in the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (also known as ESEA) as some members of congress appear to be rushing to pass legislation that will offer more bureaucracy, more mandates, and less help for students and educators. In fact, one proposal under consideration would link educator pay to student test scores. ISEA members should contact their representatives in Washington immediately and tell them that Congress needs to take the time to craft a bill that will get to the core of what is needed to help all students succeed.
Meanwhile, two critical bills have been introduced in the Senate that would make significant, meaningful changes to measuring student performance and school success -- including ending the over-reliance on standardized testing. One is the Improving Student Testing Act of 2007 (S. 2053) introduced by Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT); and the other is The No Child Left Behind Reform Act (S. 1194) introduced by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Ken Salazar (D-CO). ISEA members should send a message to Sen. Tom Harkin urging him to sign on as a co-sponsor of these key bills. Also, please take a moment to call the Harkin district office nearest you and tell his Iowa staff how important it is for the Senator to co-sponsor these measures.

Harkin district offices: Des Moines, 515-284-4574; Cedar Rapids, 319-365-4505; Davenport, 563-322-1338; Dubuque, 563-582-2342; and Sioux City, 712-252-1550.

ACTION ALERT! Flawed ESEA/NCLB Reauthorization Needs Your Voice

ESEA/NCLB Reauthorization Drafts Needs Member Action!

As this reauthorization may very well be with us through 2012 or 2014, the action we take now OR the inaction that we practice now are likely to have a major impact on our daily lives in the classroom.

Take Action

Keep the pressure on House panel members

At the national level

NEA speaks out against NCLB draft language
NEA submits comments on Title I draft
State, local leaders join in lobbying on ESEA/NCLB
Goal for reauthorization should be substance, not speed
How are other organizations reacting to the proposal?

In the states

Two studies highlight issues with HQ teachers under NCLB
Poll shows public increasingly views NCLB unfavorably
Kozol fasting for major changes to NCLB
Voice from the Classroom: Waltham, Massachusetts

NEA's "Positive Agenda" for NCLB

NEA's position on NCLB does not come from our leaders in Washington, D.C. Our position has been formed by members. Member leaders chaired a committee on this issue, hearings wereheld at each of the NEA Regional Conferences, NEA Regional Conference attendees reported back to their states and members, ISEA Delegates took a substantial block of time to have delegate table conversations at our delegate assembly. It is membes who decide what the NEA position on NCLB and other important issues will be.

NEA Positive Agenda for ESEA• Top Legislative Priorities• Messages to Congress• Members' NCLB Stories• NCLB in the News• NEA Legislative Action Center• Discussion Board• Joint Organizational Statement• Lawsuit Challenges NCLB• Background on NCLB/ESEA

A Different Take on No Child Left Behind

Coalition including NEA, NSBA would reduce focus on testing.

The Forum on Educational Accountability, a coalition of numerous education and other groups, last week issued a report calling for a shakeup of the No Child Left Behind Act, including less reliance on tests and penalties and more emphasis on teacher training and parent involvement. Among its key recommendations:

• Provide time for staff discussion and collaboration during the school day.

• Offer intensive induction and mentoring support for beginning teachers and mentoring for experienced teachers.

• Relieve school districts of the requirement to spend any Title I funds on student transfers or tutoring. Instead, require districts to spend at least 20 percent of their Title I funds on implementing professional-development requirements.

• Require every Title I-financed “high-needs school” to provide literacy, family-skills, and other programs to families to empower them to help in their children’s learning at home.

• Replace the current system of escalating penalties for schools and districts that do not achieve adequate yearly progress with required implementation of specific systems focused on increased parent involvement and teacher training.

Click here to read the EDUCATION WEEK article on overhauling ESEA/NCLB to make it a valuable tool for educators.

The report seeks to implement the principles of the “Joint Organizational Statement on the NCLB Act,” which has been signed by 106 education, civil rights, religious, disability, and civic groups, including:

• American Association of School Administrators
• Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
• Council for Exceptional Children
• FairTest: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing
• International Reading Association
• National Alliance of Black School Educators
• National Council for the Social Studies
• National Council of Teachers of English
• National Education Association
• National School Boards Association

NEA President Reg Weaver to Testify Before Congress on ESEA Reauthorization

Read about the problems with the Title I Reauthorization Discussion Document and the Process for Seeking Input in NEA's Letter to the Committee

NEA President Reg Weaver will testify at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Monday, September 10, before the House Education and Labor Committee on reauthorization of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind. The hearing will solicit comments on the Committee’s draft bill to reauthorize Title I of ESEA.

NEA has already submitted a letter to the Committee outlining major concerns with the draft, including the continued focus on measuring schools based on two test scores, and the imposition of many additional mandates and requirements on schools and states without any guarantee of additional funding to meet them. The letter also expresses NEA’s deep concerns about the extremely limited amount of time that was made available for a substantive and thorough review of the 435-page document.

To watch President Weaver's live testimony on Monday morning, go to the Committee Web site (http://capwiz.com/nea/utr/1/LCVXHOOVIR/JRIHHOPQKM/1399344446) and click on the "live webcast" link on the right-hand side.

More NCLB Drafts Released; Your Comments Needed

The House Committee on Education and Labor has now released “discussion drafts” for reauthorization of all the other parts of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind.

Your Help Is Needed!

We urge you to review the drafts, which are posted on the Committee Web site and share your feedback with us so that we can include your voice in our comments to the Committee. The deadline for submission of comments to the Committee is September 14, so please send comments to ESEAinfo@nea.org as soon as possible.

NCLB Title 1 Draft Released; Your Comments Needed

This week, the House Committee on Education and Labor released a “discussion draft” of language for reauthorization of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind. NEA is studying the language to prepare written comments that we will submit to the Committee.

Your Help Is Needed!

We urge you to review the 435-page document as well and share your feedback with us so that we can include your voice in our comments to the Committee. Please send comments to ESEAinfo@nea.org as soon as possible.

You’ll find a copy of the discussion draft on the Committee’s web site at http://edworkforce.house.gov/.

NEA has asked its state affiliates to review draft language as well.