Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said this week that she expects the major policy changes to the No Child Left Behind Act's accountability requirements she proposed earlier this year to be finalized and issued sometime in November.

The revisions, which were  subject to a sixty-day public comment period this summer, would establish a uniform graduation rate definition for use in reporting NCLB data and require states to incorporate the graduation rates more fully into the law's adequate yearly progress calculations and disaggregate their graduation rates by demographic subgroup. Most importantly, school AYP would then be based on disaggregated graduation rates.

Critics of the changes say that adding disaggregated graduation rates to AYP formulas will cause the number of schools missing AYP to skyrocket. Opponents have also questioned the unusual timing of the new rules, as major regulations are rarely issued in the sixth year of a federal law and in the midst of the reauthorization process.

The Secretary, speaking at a national assessment symposium, said she was relatively unimpressed with the comments submitted to the Department during public input period. "Meager" was how she described them. While offering a time horizon, Spellings gave no hint of what revisions, if any, are being made to the pending rules.

View the Department's proposed Title I rules changes here. The complete text of NASBE's letter to the Secretary is available on our website at www.nasbe.org/index.php/comments.

Lawmakers have enacted new reforms to the Higher Education Act (HEA), five years after it was supposed to be reauthorized and a decade since it was last renewed. The legislative accomplishment is both good news and a cautionary tale for K-12 advocates working on changes to the No Child Left Behind Act.

Passage of the HEA, and the earlier enactment of the new Head Start statute, clears the deck for the House and Senate Education Committees to focus their legislative attention on NCLB. But the extraordinary delay in finalizing the politically popular bill best known for offering college students thousands of dollars in financial aid is a reminder of the challenges to arriving at a compromise on the contentious changes being considered for NCLB that could similarly bog down a bill for years.

The new Higher Education Act enhances the existing accountability for colleges of teacher education and addresses teacher shortages by requiring the schools to set annual goals for meeting shortages in subjects identified by the state. In addition, states are now required to compare licensure test scores of students from each preparation program with the statewide average. Previously, states ranked the schools based on the percentage passing the exams, a method the colleges criticized because it included student test-takers who had no interest in becoming teachers, and whose exam scores reflected it. The new law also streamlines teacher training funding into a single funding source and better coordinates between colleges and districts.

Seven states were awarded flexibility in how they provide improvement assistance to low-performing schools as part of a pilot project initiated by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. School districts in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia will now be allowed to reverse the order of intervention measures mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act for schools that miss their adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals for two consecutive years.

Under the federal law, schools are required to first offer public school choice to students. If the schools miss their AYP targets the next year, they are required to offer students after-school tutoring, also known as supplemental educational services (SES).

Under the pilot recently announced by the Department, districts in these states can now offer tutoring services before offering the transfer option. In addition, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Indiana enjoy the same flexibility as part of their participation in a second pilot project, the "differentiated accountability program," which lets states prioritize their assistance to the lowest-performing schools.

In return for the flexibility, the Department noted in its announcement, states must have met the following criteria: 1) timely notification of adequate yearly progress; 2) a state SES evaluation in progress; and 3) a state assessment system for which the U.S. Department of Education has granted Full Approval with Recommendations. "Success in the previous years of this pilot program has allowed us to expand it to more states," Secretary Spellings said. "SES is a lifeline for students who need more resources and parents who want more options. Research shows that students benefiting from SES are improving in both their reading and math skills."

"Obama is proposing what somebody called a Christmas tree of new programs. McCain is suggesting a couple of new things, but doesn't think Washington should spend more on education than we already are." Michael Petrilli, Vice President of National Programs and Policy at the Fordham Foundation, describing the Presidential candidates' education platforms.

NASBE will mark a truly significant milestone-our 50^th Anniversary serving state boards of education next month at our annual conference in Washington, DC. We hope you will join us from October 16-18 to Celebrate 50 years of State Board Leadership.

Befitting this historic occasion, we have expanded our meeting to include a number of special events in addition to our customary outstanding conference sessions:

The Parade of Presidents Reception-On the eve of the conference, we are hosting a cocktail reception at the U.S. Botanical Gardens in honor of those leaders who have served as NASBE President.

50 Years and Counting-A panel of chief state school officers will share their insights about the transformation of state departments of education over the past fifty years, and what the next fifty portend for them in the great experiment that is American education.

A Capital Idea!-Virginia Night starts with a reception at the Top of the Town, overlooking the Iwo Jima Memorial and with a sweeping vista of the nation's capital, including stunning views of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, Monument, and U.S. Capitol. Afterwards, a guided evening bus tour will take you up close to these and Washington's other illuminated landmarks and national treasures.

Cases that Changed the Face of Education-Education attorneys look at the most significant court decisions of the past half century and how they will affect the future of education.

Presidential Politics-This year, voting for the Association's President-elect will occur during the annual business meeting. Candidates will speak, the ballots will be counted, and the winner announced all at the conference.

Nationally renown Speakers-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, will open the conference and Pedro Noguera, urban sociologist, globalization specialist, and education reform expert, will give the keynote address.

The 50^th Anniversary Gala - The high point of our celebration and sure to be the social event of the season is a formal, black-tie optional, dinner complete with live band and after-dinner dancing on Friday evening.

For nearly two hundred years, State Boards of Education have played an integral role in public education. For the past fifty years, state boards of education and NASBE have worked together to improve education for students across the country.

Please join us for this very special celebration as we honor your leadership, celebrate NASBE's anniversary, and work toward making the next fifty years even better for state boards of education, NASBE, and American education.

Conference registrations are being accepted through September 22.

Click here for to register and view the complete conference agenda. And don't forget to make your hotel reservations right away to get the NASBE group rate.