Federal Update 09.07.07

FEDERAL UPDATE

Week of September 2 – 7, 2007

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SPELLINGS DELIVERS REBUKE TO MILLER IN BACK-TO-SCHOOL ADDRESS

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ annual back-to-school address delivered this week to
the Business Coalition for Student Achievement offered a sharp rebuke to the initial draft of a No Child
Left Behind reauthorization bill unveiled by House Education Committee Chairman George Miller
(D-CA) (see next article for more details). The Secretary’s pointed criticisms of the Chairman’s
proposal were all the more remarkable for their personal tone and for the fact that Miller was a guest
at the event where the Secretary delivered her speech.

The speech is an annual rite marking the beginning of the traditional school year. But the content of
the Secretary’s address this year also signals the end of the feel good reauthorization prelude where
leaders spoke glowingly of the controversial law’s positives and in vague generalities about possible
changes, and now portends a more bruising period where the policy particulars will be stridently
debated.

Spellings took particular issue with the accountability changes Miller has proposed that would allow
states to use growth models to better measure student performance and to focus accountability and
improvement efforts on the worst performing schools in each state, what Miller calls .High Priority.
and .Priority. schools. Because Miller’s growth model plan would allow students to reach proficiency
after the current law’s 2014 deadline, and also allow states to use multiple indicators that would give
schools credit for boosting student achievement in other areas, such as science or history, beyond the
strict parameters of state assessment scores in reading and math, the Secretary warned that .to move
from reasonable accommodations to gigantic loopholes is a step in the wrong direction.. .We must
refuse to make any changes that would make us less accountable for educating every child to grade-
level standards in reading and math—the gateway subjects for all other learning,. she added.

And then, as if to further underscore the point, she told the assembled business leaders .that’s why I’m
counting on you to stand up against policies that say some kids just can’t learn or that some kids
count more than others or that if some kids are improving, it’s OK to let others fall behind..

Spellings peppered her speech with the successes of the No Child Left Behind Act: .Since this act
became law, nearly 500,000 more students have learned to do basic math. More than 500,000 others
are getting free tutoring that was never before available. And the parents of 50 million students have
more information, more control, better teachers, and more choices when it comes to their children's
education,. she cited as just three examples.

Her attempts at drawing contrasts between the existing law’s current accomplishments and the
potentially deleterious consequences of Miller’s proposed reforms revealed some interesting insights.
Implying that the House’s draft bill will result in .more complication and more Washington wonkery,.
perhaps only the Secretary could then assert that the current adequate yearly progress calculations
provide straightforward, unvarnished information on how students are doing.. But the Secretary also
hinted at her negotiating strategy and the ace in the hole she, or families, have in this policy debate
and underscored her bottomline position. .Fortunately, families have some leverage,. Spellings noted;
.if we don't reauthorize NCLB this year, the law does not go away..

And later, .if a policy results in more kids getting more help and more kids performing at or above
grade level, I’m for it. If it obscures or mitigates against our responsibility to educate every single child,
I’m not.. And just in case George Miller momentarily lost his attention, she continued, .Let me
repeat: if it obscures or mitigates against our responsibility to educate every single child, I’m against it..

And just to prove there were no hard feelings, the Secretary sent a letter to Miller later in the week
expressing her .appreciation for your work to date. on NCLB reauthorization and the maintenance of
two of her .bright line. principles in his draft: the 2014 proficiency deadline and the annual
administration and disaggregation of assessment results. Still, the letter went on to elaborate on her
concerns about decreasing the information available to parents and options for students, though she
said she looked forward to working with the chairman on these issues.

A transcript of her remarks is available on the Department’s website here.

HOUSE UNVEILS “DRAFT” OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND BILL

House Chairman George Miller and Ranking Member Buck McKeon introduced a bipartisan .staff
draft. of a bill to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act last week. The long-awaited legislation
focused on changes to the Title I section of the law, where the state assessment, accountability, and
school improvement requirements are centered.

The Miller-McKeon plan would allow states to use more than the state test results to determine a
school’s performance. According to the committee, .States can use multiple, state-developed
assessments taken at different points in time to measure AYP and may consider more than reading
and math assessments in the final AYP determinations. Such additional indicators of school progress
include graduation rates, dropout rates, college enrollment rates, percentages of students successfully
completing end- of- course exams for college prep courses, assessments in history, science, civics,
government, and/or writing, and improvements in the performance of the lowest and highest
performing students in the school.. However, the Miller plan would also require states to develop
assessments in each foreign language spoken by at least ten percent of limited English proficient (LEP)
students (states failing to comply with this requirement could have 25 percent of their administrative
funds withheld). The bill would also standardize the N-size in all states. The new N-size would be 30
students in a subgroup, above which a school would have to include the results in accountability
calculations.

The draft would also allow states to use growth models in their accountability systems. Rather than
specifying one particular method, the draft—in a stroke of Solomon-like wisdom—gives the states the
opportunity to craft their own growth model so long as it meets a set of principles, among them: each
subgroup will be on a trajectory toward proficiency by three years after 2014; separate growth targets
for math and reading/language arts; comparable AYP results from grade to grade and year to year;
and the inclusion of all students in the accountability system.

Under the Miller-McKeon draft, the law would better refine the NCLB accountability system to focus
more attention and resources on the worst performing schools, what the draft calls .High Priority. and
.Priority. schools. High Priority schools are those that miss most of their adequate yearly progress
(AYP) goals, while Priority schools are those that miss AYP in one or two categories. The number of
High Priority schools in a district would be limited to 10 percent or 50 schools, whichever is less. High
Priority schools would be required to offer supplemental services, public school transfers, be converted
to a charter school or reopened after substantial revisions to its instructional program and personnel.
Priority schools would not have to offer supplemental services or transfers, but would have their
curriculum and staffing reviewed for necessary improvements.

Regarding special populations, the draft bill would enshrine in statute the current policy of allowing
LEP test scores to be included in the LEP subgroup AYP calculations for up to three years after a
student gains English proficiency and leaves the LEP subgroup. For students with disabilities, the bill
would similarly enshrine the .1%/2%. policy regarding the most cognitively disabled students and the
use of modified and alternate assessments and achievement standards.

Four other major reforms of note are a focus on high schools, funding comparability, state longitudinal
systems, and national standards-lite. The bill sets a single graduation rate definition (though states
would have the option of using either a 4- or 5-year rate), includes graduation rates into AYP, and
establishes new resources for high school dropout factories.

The Miller-McKeon proposal closes a loophole that .allows school districts to provide high-poverty
schools with less state and local funding. by using federal funds to fill this funding gap rather than
using the resources to pay for extra help. According to the committee, .closing this loophole will
ensure that Title I schools – and the students who attend them – get their fair share of state and local
resources as measured through teacher salaries.

Perhaps the most stunning new state education requirement under the House NCLB draft is the
sweeping new mandate for state longitudinal data systems. Under the Miller-McKeon plan, each state
would have to implement longitudinal data systems within four years and include information on
individual student assessment results, graduation rates, and other data elements determined by
Congress. The amount of funding to be made available to states to help pay for this initiative has not
yet been determined.

Finally, the draft would initiate a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study to examine the .varying
rigor of academic standards and assessments from State to State. and to help establish a common scale
to compare the state standards and assessments. Indeed, as envisioned by Miller and McKeon, the
Secretary would use the common scale to .analyze and compare the standards and assessments of
States. and to report the discrepancies. The provision is a none-too-subtle effort to establish national
standards without actually mentioning the controversial term .national standards..

Click here for the full text of the Title I draft (435 pages) or here for a 12 page committee summary.

FED SPECIAL ED HEAD DEPARTING

John Hager, assistant secretary of the federal Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
(OSERS), is leaving that post to become chairman of the Virginia Republican party. Earlier this year,
OSEP director Alexa Posny departed to become Kansas Commissioner of Education, thus now leaving
the two top special ed jobs vacant. Deputy Secretary Ray Simon will oversee the department until a
replacement is named. Of course, President Bush shouldn’t consider the resignation as his
administration losing a leader, but gaining a family member. The White House recently announced
the engagement of Jenna Bush to Hager’s son, Brett.

In other personnel matters, the Senate confirmed Kerri Briggs earlier this summer as the Assistant
Secretary for K-12 Education. She succeeds Henry Johnson, who resigned at the beginning of the year.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I've yet to meet a parent who didn't want their child learning on grade level. And thanks to No Child Left
Behind, for the first time, families have a right to expect that their child will be performing at or above grade
level—by 2014…. If somebody told me I had to wait until 2014 to have my daughter learning on grade level,

I'd ask why not now? And I can't think of a single reason why poor or minority parents would feel otherwise.”
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, in her Back-to-School Address.

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