Federal Update - June 24, 2008
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Education in Presidential Campaigns
States Prepare for Uniform Graduation Rate Reporting
Funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Possibly in Jeopardy
Reading First Funds Eliminated in House Subcommittee
Education in Presidential Campaigns
In an effort to encourage presidential candidates to discuss education at greater lengths in their campaigns for the White House, the Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City School Chancellor Joel I. Klein have teamed up to create the Education Equity Project. The purpose of the Education Equity project is to stress the fact that black and Latino children are not receiving quality educations from the nation’s public schools and that this is the prevailing civil rights issue of the 21st century.
“To me this is not just an issue of school reform,” Klein said. “It is a civil rights issue, the civil rights issue of our time.”
The Education Equity Project will not endorse a candidate or have many specific policy positions. The group instead will engage in behind the scenes advocacy with the two campaigns, write policy papers, and host public forums at the Democrat and Republican conventions in the respective cities, Denver and Minneapolis.
Teacher unions have been noticeably absent from the new coalition. “There have been a lot of old alliances being protected, and the children are not being protected,” Sharpton said. “And if we're going to move forward, we're going to have to be able to have new alliances here — that might mean some old relationships with teachers unions, principals unions and all are going to be a little troubled. But we cannot say that we're going to close this achievement gap but protect ineffective teachers or principals or school chiefs or not challenge parents.”
Klein and Sharpton have stated that unless the next president spends more money to get high-quality teachers into low-performing schools the achievement gaps will continue.
For more information about the Education Equity Project, please read the article from the Washington Post titled, “Standing Up for the Children,” at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061103844.html.
On June 18 the House Education and Labor Committee passed the Education Begins at Home Act, (HR 2343). This piece of legislation focuses on providing more financial support for parents and young children by expanding access to early childhood home visitation programs. Proponents of the programs say the programs provide parenting skills and reduce parenting stress, boost children’s school readiness and encourage parents to be involved in the education of their children.
The bill also includes competitive grants to expand home visitations for military families and families with limited-English proficiency.
During the markup of the bill Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-NY) introduced an amendment to the legislation that would ensure that services funded by the bill would only go to citizens and legal residents. This amendment was defeated.
“The Education Begins at Home Act aims to strengthen family relationships, improve parenting skills, and put children on the path to success,” said McKeon. “That Democrats would jeopardize support for such an important piece of legislation by refusing accountability for our immigration laws is unconscionable.”
For more information about the Education Begins at Home Act, please go to http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/edlabor_dem/rel061808ebah.html.
Recently the House Education and Labor Committee passed the No Child Left Inside Act, a bill that seeks to increase environmental education in schools so that students learn more about climate change, energy conservation, air pollution, and habitat conservation.
In his opening statement during the markup of the bill, Chairman George Miller (D-CA) cited information from the National Environmental Education Foundation stating, “Environmental education can help improve students’ motivation to learn, reduce disciplinary problems in the classroom, build students’ critical thinking and social skills, and boost student achievement in other areas of the curriculum, including math and science.”
The bill also calls for professional development for teachers in the area of environmental education as well as the development of state environmental literacy plans, and the distribution of information about environmental education programs.
For more information about the bill, please go to http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/edlabor_dem/rel061808ncli.html.
States Prepare for Uniform Graduation Rate Reporting
In April Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings proposed new regulations regarding graduation rates. Current regulations allow states to use their own formulas when calculating graduation rates – a practice that has caused inconsistencies in comparing dropout rates from state to state.
In an effort to provide more transparency and accurate measuring, Secretary Spellings has recently proposed that all states calculate their graduation rates using a uniform graduation rate that calls for tracking each student from ninth grade until they graduate. This proposal is based on the National Governors Association’s “Graduation Rate Compact” that all 50 states signed in 2005, which calls on the states to have an “accurate and consistent graduation measurement.”
Washington State, which assigned an ID to each high school student four years ago, is on the forefront of this movement. The graduation rate for the class of 2008 will be the first graduation rate calculated using the method Secretary Spellings has proposed. The current graduation rate for Washington State is 70 percent. State officials are unsure if the new method of tracking students will increase or decrease the current percentage.
New York is also in the process of adopting the new method of calculating graduation data. State officials expect that the new calculation method will show that many more students are dropping out of high school than originally expected. Previously some school districts only counted the students who dropped out in eleventh or twelfth grade.
While only a handful of states that have started tracking students in high school in an effort to attain a more precise graduation rate, Secretary Spellings’ proposal requires that all states use the new method of calculating graduation rates by the school year 2013-2014.
In addition to uniformly measuring dropout rates, Secretary Spellings has proposed for all students to graduate in four years with exceptions made for students in special education. The response from state education officials is mixed.
“Her approach allows one year to prepare and four years to implement, which is a reasonable approach,” said Joe Willhoft, director of assessment for the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
“If they graduate, does it really matter if it’s four years or five years?” said Keric Ashley, director of data management for the California Department of Education. “If they’re taking longer, there’s probably a reason. Districts ought to get credit for getting the hardest ones through school.”
For more information about uniform graduation rates please go to http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-06-16-graduation-rate_N.htm.
Funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Possibly in Jeopardy
The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship which has allowed over 1,900 low-income children in Washington, D.C. to attend private schools of the family’s choice through the use of $7,500 scholarships is set to expire this year if funding for the program is not renewed by Congress.
“Education reform in the nation’s capital has been a uniquely nonpartisan pursuit, with leaders from both sides of the aisle setting aside their differences to pursue common sense reforms that will strengthen public schools, expand the reach of public alternatives like charter schools, and provide an escape valve to those children trapped in underperforming schools through the pioneering of D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program,” said Rep. Howard P. Buck McKeon, the senior Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee.
According to a report by the U.S. Department of Education that analyzed the academic achievement of the students participating in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, three subgroups of students comprising 88 percent of the students receiving scholarships showed improvement in their reading scores. However, overall test scores did not render any significant statistical improvement between students who participated in the program and students who did not. The report points out that parents of children who participated in the program have expressed greater satisfaction with their child’s education and safety in school.
For more information about the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, please go to http://www.ed.gov/programs/dcchoice/factsheet.html.
Reading First Funds Eliminated in House Subcommittee
Reading First, the federal reading program, received a blow from the House Appropriations subcommittee on June 19 when they voted unanimously to zero out funding.
A federal evaluation of the program released in May showed that students participating in the program do not have significantly better reading skills than students that have not participated in the program. This issue, coupled with mismanagement of the program, has caused the program to come under tough scrutiny from opponents.
“Reading First has been plagued with mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and cronyism, as documented by the inspector general,” stated Rep. David Obey (D-WI), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
In response to the cuts to the program, Michael J. Petrilli, vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, stated “Chairman Obey is playing politics with the lives of millions of children.” Petrilli said that earlier Obey stated that the program “seems to be making a difference.”
In his 2009 budget, President Bush has requested that Reading First receive $1 billion in funding. In 2008 the program received $393 million after the budget was cut by Congress over concerns about the management of the program.
For more information about Reading First, please go to http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/07/16/43budget_web.h27.html?tmp=1504393288.