6/14/10

CPC Principles for the
Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act


Every child in America, regardless of race, gender, income, ability, language, or sexual orientation is entitled to the same highly effective educational opportunities.  Education is the one way that every child can compete on a level playing field to achieve his or her full potential, and public education is the backbone of American society.  

What we have learned following the last reauthorization of No Child Left Behind is that we urgently need to address the dropout crisis and do more to help those schools that are chronically underperforming.  We support the movement away from being too punitive and restrictive toward the use of growth models and multiple measures to determine student achievement, and school district and state accountability.  While these changes are being implemented, we also support pushing back the 2014 deadline when all schools must be proficient.

Here are our recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA):

School Turnaround

Permit schools to choose from a menu of reform options, including flexibility and collaboration, removing barriers to student success, and fostering teacher and school leaders.  All decisions regarding school turnaround must take into account local needs and inputs,  be data-driven and research based, and not too prescriptive.  

o    All reform models must include parental and community engagement.  

o    Measures of annual progress (MAPs) must be broad and flexible with student success including non-academic achievement (i.e., participation, regular attendance, GED in place of a high school diploma).

o    Include a menu of options for reform strategies to scale up and adopt effective reform practices (i.e., growth models) from other schools within the LEA (Local Education Agency) or from similar schools nationwide that have demonstrated effective turnaround.   Other models might consider establishing magnet or theme schools.

o    Change the “Rule of 9” suggested in the Blueprint for the Transformation Model to encourage school districts to include multiple research-based strategies for reform without restricting the use of particular models.

Wraparound Services - Ensuring Students Are Ready To Learn

Provide LEAs that are in the most need of improvement with the resources and support to provide wraparound services.   Wraparound services should be integrated into all schools, particularly schools serving the most at-risk children.

o    Wraparound services could include early childhood education, before-school and afterschool care, mental health services and counseling, medical care, meals, tutoring, family literacy classes, and other services that ensure students are ready to learn when entering the classroom.

o    Include parents, teachers, school leaders, and the community at large as an integral part of this process to determine the needs of the students and families at an individual school so that the appropriate services can be provided.

Charter Schools

To be eligible for federal funds, charter schools, although applying different systems for student learning, will be held accountable by the same standards as other public schools, including financial transparency and controls, conflict of interest policies; sufficient risk management; and measures for student success, including enrollment, assessment and civil rights issues and the application of all federal laws for protected groups.  Charters that receive federal funding will be required to explain in their application how they will serve English Language Learners and students with disabilities and the efficacy of these plans will be monitored. ESEA will promote clear authorizing policies and state laws that strengthen accountability and oversight.  Best practices and successful models should be disseminated.

 
Quality Early Learning

To close the achievement gap, all children must have access to quality early learning that prepares them for school and ensures a smooth transition. 

o    Include integration of quality early learning programs into the ESEA reauthorization process as one of the foundations of education reform.

o    Low-income children and English Language Learners must be prioritized to receive both child care, preschool and full-day Kindergarten services.

o    Include early childhood educators and child care professionals in teacher professional development.

o    Encourage and incentivize Title I districts to invest in quality early learning.

o    Make competitive grants available to states for quality early childhood education.

Funding Disparities and Equity in Education

Ensure sufficient and equitable funding for all public schools.

•    Focus appropriate funding and investment on teacher professional development for those who teach the most disadvantaged students.

•    Pursuant to the letter and spirit of Title I, ensure federal funding is used to leverage and reinforce equitable spending of state and local funds both within and between districts, not to compensate for state and local inequities.

•    Ensure equitable opportunity for urban, rural, and small LEAs to apply for competitive grants.  For instance, the Department of Education must provide improved technical assistance to help school districts better access grants.      




Highly Effective Teachers and School Leaders

The teacher standing in front of the classrooms are the single most important person  affecting student learning. We should:

o    Invest in the development and replication of high quality programs for teacher training;

o    Promote a strong professional support structure, including:
?    Investments in  high quality professional development that is ongoing, data driven, job-embedded, and team-based;
?    Investments in meaningful content development for teachers in the subjects they teach;
?    Support for mentoring and time for teacher group planning and strategizing; and
?    Support for team teaching and co-teaching arrangements;

o    Support principal training, support, and professional development to increase leadership skills and improve school-wide  instruction;

o    Improve the effectiveness of teachers currently in the profession by improving and disseminating the mechanics of data-driven teaching methods and strategies; 

o    Allow for ease of transition, including training and support, for paraprofessionals to enter the teaching profession;

o    Require a teaching-equity plan within each LEA Plan that identifies high poverty/high minority schools, including language-minority schools, in which the teacher experience/effectiveness is below the district average and includes specific actions and incentives to correct the disproportionality in these schools;

o    Focus professional development on strengthening the profession and commit adequate resources to the schools at the bottom 25%, with a particular emphasis on the bottom 5%;

o    Ensure that any evaluation of teacher effectiveness include multiple measures, not limited to a single high stakes test; and

o    Promote compensation that rewards teachers who work in hard-to-staff schools.

Meeting Diverse Learning Needs

The needs of English Language Learner (ELL) students, students with disabilities, and tribal and indigenous students and students in historically disadvantaged groups must be appropriately addressed.

o    Assessments must accurately determine where a student is, develop a plan for growth, and evaluate whether that growth has been achieved.

o    Professional development for teachers of ELL students, students with disabilities, and tribal and indigenous students must take into account the particular needs and challenges of these subgroups. This must include training in the preservation of native languages and culturally and linguistically relevant training.

o    To effectively meet the educational needs of all children, we need to expand existing investments in and improve the quality of programs for homeless, migrant, and neglected or delinquent students. We must also create new targeted programs for students who experience additional and significant at-risk factors, such as pregnancy and parenting; psychiatric or behavioral disorders; domestic violence; gang involvement; and drug or alcohol use.  Such programs must support and incentivize policies and services at the federal, SEA, and LEA levels, and include extensive data collection, as well as rigorous evaluation and reporting requirements, so best practices and innovations can be identified for replication and expansion.

o    No school that receives federal funding will discriminate against students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, nor tolerate harassment or bullying.