Triangle Coalition For Science And Technology Education

Last Thursday, President Obama announced that 10 states – Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee – will receive waivers, exempting them from meeting specific requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

Flexibility is only being granted to those states that requested waivers and meet the Administration’s prerequisites. For example, states must have already adopted and developed plans to implement college and career-ready standards in reading and math. States must also create comprehensive principal development and teacher evaluation systems that include factors beyond test scores, such as principal observation, peer review, student work, or parent and student feedback.

States receiving waivers no longer have to meet the deadline that all students reach proficiency in math and reading by 2014. States must, instead, set new performance targets for improving student achievement and closing achievement gaps. They also must have accountability systems that reward high-performing schools as well as those making significant gains in student achievement. States will develop their own intervention strategies to turn around the lowest performing schools and to help subgroups of students with the greatest needs.

An eleventh state, New Mexico has also requested a waiver, and twenty-eight other states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have indicated that they, too, intend to seek waivers before the next deadline later this month.

In a White House announcement Thursday, the President said that NCLB is driving the wrong behaviors, from teaching to the test to federally determined, one-size-fits-all interventions.

“After waiting far too long for Congress to reform No Child Left Behind, my Administration is giving states the opportunity to set higher, more honest standards in exchange for more flexibility,”  said President Obama. “Today, we’re giving 10 states the green light to continue making reforms that are best for them.  Because if we’re serious about helping our children reach their potential, the best ideas aren’t going to come from Washington alone. “

The President, once again, called on Congress to work across the aisle to find a long-term solution as the waivers provide just a temporary fix to the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), NCLB, which expired five years ago. Over the last year, both the House and Senate have worked on their own versions of ESEA rewrites, and the Obama administration submitted its own “Blueprint for Reform,” but there has yet to be bipartisan consensus  on any reauthorization plan.

Expressing disappointment with the President’s waiver decision, Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said “This action clearly politicizes education policy, which historically has been a bipartisan issue. It is time for the president to work with Congress on important issues like this, instead of acting unilaterally.”

House Introduces ESEA Legislation

At the same time, the House Education and the Workforce Committee continued to move forward with its own plan for ESEA as Chairman John Kline (R-MN) introduced two pieces of legislation last Thursday. The Student Success Act (H.R. 3989) and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act (H.R. 3990) address accountability provisions, or Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), with state-developed accountability systems, local teacher evaluation systems, and flexibility with the use of federal funds.

Chairman Kline said, “The administration’s waiver scheme provides just enough temporary relief to quiet the demand for lasting reform. Rest assured, my colleagues and I on the House Education and the Workforce Committee haven’t lost our sense of urgency. We must move forward and advance long-term solutions to the challenges facing the nation’s schools.”

Notably absent from the bills are any provisions for strengthening science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. In fact, the Student Success Act removes the current requirement for state testing in science.  The bill summary reads, “To reduce the burden of over-testing on our nation’s students, the bill eliminates the federal requirement that states administer assessments in science. States would retain the option to develop assessments in science and other subjects at their discretion.”

Additionally, the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act would eliminates more than 70 existing elementary and secondary education programs which appears to include the Department of Education’s Math and Science Partnerships program (Title II, Part B).

The Committee on Education and the Workforce plans to hold a hearing on these two bills on Thursday, February 16.

Resources

• To find out more about the Student Success Act, read the EdWorkforce bill summary or fact sheet. Resources are also available for the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act, including a bill summary and fact sheet.
• For more information on the NCLB waivers, visit http://www.ed.gov/esea/flexibility or read the White House Blog Post, Everything You Need to Know: Waivers, Flexibility, and Reforming No Child Left Behind.
• The Department of Education has posted State waiver documents; including flexibility requests, peer review notes, and a summary of improvements at http://www.ed.gov/esea/flexibility/requests

Lawmakers in both the House and the Senate are in the process of working on a bipartisan reform of the nation’s primary federal education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In March, the Obama Administration released a blueprint for overhauling ESEA (see our March 15th post) and since then, the education committees in the House and Senate have been holding hearings to examine the various issues addressed under ESEA. No official piece of legislation has been introduced yet and at this point, it is hard to say when that might happen.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) have both stressed that flexibility and accountability will be central themes of the reauthorization. In an interview with Politico last Friday, Miller discussed the ESEA reauthorization, saying, “We’d really like now to put more emphasis on better teachers, more emphasis on better leadership, more emphasis on the use of those resources and the flexible use of those resources, and really put teaching and learning and leadership back into the classroom, back into the local systems, and then stand back and hold them accountable for those results, and we’re getting a lot of encouragement as we’ve held our hearings.” 

In the House committee hearing last week on school improvement, witnesses advised that successful school turnaround requires the inclusion of research-and-best-practice-based elements, including flexibility, shared leadership, professional development, capacity building, extended school and learning time, and community involvement. Witnesses also stressed that ultimately flexibility and a comprehensive approach are vital to successful school turnaround. Chairman Miller announced that he would take these elements into account and create a new plan for school turnaround for inclusion in ESEA.

The following day, Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) introduced a new framework of school improvement grants, called Strengthening Our Schools (SOS) that included the measures suggested during the hearing. “In the upcoming ESEA Reauthorization I will be pushing for a complete revision of school improvement grants that is based on Strengthening Our Schools,” said Rep. Chu, whose plan is supported by AFT, NEA, PTA, the National Association of School Psychologists, and other groups. “As a Member of the Committee on Education and Labor, I plan to work with Chairman Miller on school turnaround and push for this framework to be adopted in ESEA Reauthorization.”

According to Rep. Chu’s website, the plan would promote flexibility and collaboration between schools, parents, community leaders, businesses and other stakeholders; provide support to students facing crisis, both inside and outside of the classroom, by offering mental health services for behavioral problems, ESL resources and other wrap-around services; and giving teachers the tools they need to reconnect with disengaged students and help improve performance through personalized teacher training and specialized instructional support. School closure would be strictly a last resort.

As part of the ongoing series of hearings, other recent topics of discussion in the House Committee on Education and Labor include supporting quality teachers and leaders, using data to inform educational outcomes, and the needs of diverse students. Recent hearing held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions have discussed several issues related to ESEA, including standards and assessments, the needs of special populations, secondary schools, and student health, physical education and well-being. The Senate committee will congregate again this week to examine Early Childhood Education in ESEA.

Photo: Rep. George Miller, Courtesy of House Committee on Education and Labor’s Photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/34120602@N05

Today, President Obama sent to Congress his blueprint for the revised Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). According to the President, the blueprint is not only a plan to rewrite the “flawed” current version, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), but provides a framework for a “re-envisioned federal role in education.” The priorities of the plan include: rewarding excellence, raising the bar for standards, strengthening teachers and school leaders, closing achievement gaps, promoting innovation and continuous improvement, and increasing flexibility — as well as accountability — at the local and state level.

In his weekly address on Saturday (see video below), President Obama discussed the proposal and the administration’s vision for an ambitious goal, that “all students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career- no matter who you are or where you come from.” Citing recent news of other nations surpassing the U.S. in education, Obama said, “The fact is, there are few issues that speak more directly to our long term success as a nation than issues concerning the education we provide to our children.” By 2020, his goal is that the United States will once again lead the world in college completion.

This morning, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a national press conference call with reporters to discuss the administration’s proposal. Duncan spoke of the sense of urgency coming from both sides of the aisle, as both Democrat and Republican lawmakers are requesting this blueprint and are currently engaging in discussions on education reform.

Duncan discussed how this ESEA reauthorization will differ from its current version, NCLB. First, he said that NCLB was too punitive, too prescriptive, and lowered the bar for students. The administration recognizes that the ESEA rewrite must reward excellence, focus on growth, increase flexibility, and include a well rounded curriculum across all grade levels. A huge emphasis is being placed on recognizing and rewarding schools for excellence and success- a fundamental change from the NCLB.

Duncan spoke about accountability in terms of three categories of schools: the highest performing, the middle performers, and the lowest level with the greatest achievement gaps. When it comes to intervening in the lowest performing schools, Duncan says the administration will use “carrots and sticks”, including school turnaround grants, to place pressure on these schools to improve. Rather than having the Federal government mandate the types of interventions that must be used in each school, state and local decision makers will have the flexibility of deciding how to meet their targets. The exception would be the bottom 5 percent of schools that would be forced to use one of the department’s turnaround models.

In NCLB, accountability for student achievement was entirely up to individual schools, but now, for the first time, districts and states will also share this responsibility, as well as the rewards and consequences. The 2014 deadline for school improvement will also go away with the new ESEA, and rather, states will set their own targets to align with new standards.

A series of hearings discussing the different components of ESEA is also in full-swing. This week, Arne Duncan will give testimony on Obama’s blueprint to committees in both the House and the Senate, and another hearing will address the needs of diverse students. Other hearings that have already taken place recently have discussed charter schools, heard testimony from Secretary Arne Duncan, and looked at the implications for the economy.

We anticipate that much more discussion on the reauthorization of ESEA will take place in the coming weeks and months. Stay tuned for updates as new developments take place!

Today the House Education and Labor Committee announced its plans to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In a bipartisan effort, Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA), along with Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-MI), and Rep Michael N. Castle (R-DE), issued a joint statement promising a bipartisan, open, and transparent effort to rewrite and reform NCLB.

The rewrite will aim to close the achievement gap among students throughout the country, as well as between American students and their global peers. The committee states, “Across income and background levels in math and science, our children go from among the top students in the world in the fourth grade to near the bottom by the twelfth grade.”

A series of hearings will take place in the coming weeks with the first one scheduled for February 24th, focusing on charter schools. While the House seems to be moving forward by scheduling hearings, it remains to be seen what will happen as a result, and how the Senate will proceed thereafter.

With Congress focusing on the economy and health care, and midterm elections approaching, time is of the essence for drafting a proposal. The administration has been calling for swift action on ESEA in 2010. Secretary Arne Duncan stated last September, “To those who say that we can’t do this right now—we need more time to prepare and study the problem—or the timing and the politics isn’t right—I say that our kids can’t wait and our future won’t wait.” President Obama also wrote in his FY2011 budget proposal that he would request an additional $1 billion in funding for ESEA programs following its enactment.

The committee invites groups and stakeholders to send their input and suggestions for ESEA to eseacomments@mail.house.gov before March 26th.  

This has been a good week for STEM Education. President Obama released his FY2011 budget request with an unprecedented investment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. The budget would grant $3.7 billion for STEM education across the federal government, including $1 billion dedicated to improving math and science achievement among K-12 students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) budget totals $49.7 billion, representing an increase of 7.5% from 2010 and the Department’s largest boost in years. Echoing the strategies of the Race to the Top program, the budget proposal emphasizes more competition, flexibility and accountability as the drivers of reform. The proposed budget would include a $3 billion increase in competitive funding for ESEA, and an additional $1.35 billion to continue Race to the Top. Secretary Arne Duncan commended Mr. Obama’s investment in education and his initiative to “educate our way to a better economy” through his “cradle to career agenda.”

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) budget of $7.4 billion, an 8% jump from 2010, also makes a significant commitment to programs in STEM education. Priorities of NSF’s budget include the Graduate Research Fellowship and the Faculty Early Career Development Program which support students and early-career researchers to cultivate the next generation of STEM knowledge workers. Also, Climate Change Education and Advanced Technological Education support learning and development of the skilled and educated workforce in climate and high-technology, respectively.

The President’s investment in STEM includes a broad array of programs from K-12 education, undergraduate education and graduate fellowships, to evaluation and research. Getting down to the specifics, noteworthy STEM education initiatives and increases include:

• $824 million for NIH’s biomedical and behavioral sciences awards and fellowships
• $500 million in competitive awards for promising programs , including $150 million for STEM-focused projects in the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3)
• $300 million for ED’s proposed Effective Teaching and Learning in STEM program
• $197 million for programs promoting a well rounded education, including STEM
• $158 million for NSF’s science and engineering Graduate Research Fellowship program
• $103 million for NSF’s HRD program to increase the participation of students from underrepresented minorities in STEM
• $63 million for NASA’s K-12 education program, with $20 million for a science and engineering summer program for middle school students and teachers
• $41 million for NSF’s new Cyberlearning Transforming Education Program, which has a strong STEM focus for students and for workforce development
• $25 million for a STEM initiative in ED’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education
• $19.4 million for RE-ENERGYSE, to attract and educate future scientists in the clean energy fields
• Continued support for Educate to Innovate, a STEM education campaign promoting public-private partnerships, which has already mobilized $500 million in private resources

Also important to note is the consolidation of the Math and Science Partnerships fund under new legislation. The fund works to improve students’ academic achievement in math and science by promoting strong, quality teaching skills among teachers. At first glance, it may seem as if the funds, $180 million from FY2010, have been eliminated in FY2011. However, they have simply been reallocated as part of the $300 million request for the proposed Effective Teaching and Learning: STEM program under ESEA.

Overall, this budget makes a bold indication of the administration’s push for the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, formally titled the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). If ESEA is reformed and reauthorized, the President will then request an additional $1 billion from Congress to fund these programs.

President Obama made his intentions clear in saying, “This funding is tied to reforms that raise student achievement, inspire students to excel in math and science, and turn around failing schools which consign too many young people to a lesser future — because in the 21st century there is no better anti-poverty program than a world-class education.”