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Six states were approved by the Secretary of Education to use a differentiated accountability system as part of their No Child Left Behind Act accountability requirements under a new pilot program originally announced in April as part of a series of "administrative reforms" she is making to the No Child Left Behind Act. The differentiated accountability pilot project will grant 10 states the ability to distinguish between schools that barely miss their adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals and those that show significantly poor performance among more student subgroups.

The six states-Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, and Ohio-will now be allowed to  focus more attention and resources on the worst performing schools and customize their interventions to best meet the needs of the students and schools.

According to the Education Department, "differentiated accountability will allow states to vary the intensity and type of interventions to match the academic reasons that lead to a school's identification...[and] will assist those states by targeting resources and interventions to those schools most in need of intensive interventions and significant reform. In return, states must commit to: build their capacity for school reform; take the most significant actions for the lowest-performing schools, including addressing the issue of teacher effectiveness; and use data to determine the method of differentiation and categories of intervention."

While the winning states were pleased with their accomplishment (eleven other states applied for approval but were rejected), Secretary Spellings and the peer review team that evaluated the proposals expressed disappointment about the process. "The methods appeared largely to be based on methods of convenience rather than a focus on the underlying causes of schools inability to meet AYP," (emphasis original) wrote the peer reviewers about the state plans."

Secretary Spellings said she was "discouraged that more states didn't take this as an opportunity to take more dramatic action to improve schools that have not met reasonable goals for multiple years running. We need more states to be pioneers in advancing positive change."

The Education Department's differentiated accountability policy incorporates NASBE recommendations made in last year's study group reports. The other states that applied for, but were not awarded inclusion in the pilot program are Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.  The Department still has four available spots to fill out its ten state pilot, and federal officials will review additional and revised state applications this fall.

Two months ago, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings proposed major policy changes to the No Child Left Behind Act as part of a series of "administrative reforms" in lieu of congressional action on renewing the six year old federal education law.

As part of the sixty day regulatory comment process, the Department held four regional hearings to solicit public input about the proposed changes. Organizations and individuals were also able to submit comments on the rule changes through June 23. The complete text of our letter to the Secretary is available on our website at www.nasbe.org/index.php/comments.

Sally Ride, Phil Mickelson, Richard Simmons, and Tim Brown were four high-profile witnesses appearing before the House Education Committee for two hearings examining business partnerships promoting science and technology education and the benefits of physical education.

Sally Ride, the first female astronaut, told the committee about the importance of educating and inspiring children's interest in math and technology through engaging lessons. Mickelson, the second ranked golfer in the world, spoke of his experiences in founding the Mickelson Exxon Mobil Teachers Academy, an initiative he co-founded with his wife Amy, who also appeared at the hearing, "to develop a program and curriculum to address critical needs in math and science education" and to "support elementary-level teachers to ensure they were equipped and prepared to establish a solid foundation of math and science education for students at an early age [3^rd-5^th graders]."

Fitness guru Richard Simmons teamed up with former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL All-pro Tim Brown to stress the importance of physical activity for children in combating youth obesity, and the critical role schools must play in educating students about healthy lifestyles and activities.

Receiving numerous compliments during the hearing was Rep. Ric Keller (R-FL), who has lost more than 100 lbs. over the course of the last year, and who credited his weight loss to abiding by the three healthy habits all people, and especially children, should follow: "First, never skip breakfast. Second, play outside one hour a day. Third, eat five servings of fruits and vegetables everyday."

NASBE's Increasing Healthy Eating project is focused on providing research-based capacity-building assistance and information to education leaders on helping schools establish, maintain, and evaluate healthy school nutrition environments and collaborate with parents, community, and public health partners on increasing healthy eating at school. In addition, NASBE's Obesity Prevention Project, funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Leadership for Healthy Communities, assists state boards of education and other state policymakers in their efforts to create healthier communities to reduce rates of childhood obesity, especially among students at high risk for obesity

An audit by the U.S. Department of Education's Inspector General of just a portion of Teach for America's federal grants has found that the organization is unable to document or account for nearly half of its expenditures. The Inspector General found that of $1.5 million in Teach for America (TFA) expenses that were reviewed, TFA could not provide adequate supporting documentation for $775,000.

The audit found that the $120 million nonprofit "did not use a professional accounting software package, and instead made use of manual input forms with hand-written notes to account for and support its charges to the grant," and that documentation was so scarce that auditors couldn't even confirm that the staff training sessions TFA says it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on even took place. "Alarm bells start to go off usually when you start seeing a recipient of a grant or an earmark not being able to provide basic information," said Leslie Paige of Citizens Against Government Waste. "How do you prove that what you are spending the money on is working?"

Teach for America received $6 million in federal funds in the time period the audit reviewed. TFA is scheduled to receive an additional $12 million this year. Click here to read the Inspector General's report.

"The No Child Left Behind Act was supposed to make our children well-rounded. Well, it made them rounded." Richard Simmons, fitness guru, testifying before the House Education Committee.