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As part of his FY 2013 budget proposal, President Obama has requested $5 billion through the American Jobs Act for a new initiative to elevate teachers and school leaders. Known as Recognizing Education Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching or “RESPECT,” the one-time competitive grant program would support states and districts “that commit to pursuing bold reforms at every stage of the teaching profession.”
“Our goal is to work with teachers and principals in rebuilding their profession and to elevate the teacher voice in federal, state and local education policy,” said US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a press release announcing the proposal. “Our larger goal is to make teaching not only America’s most important profession, but also America’s most respected profession.”
While most of the rhetoric surrounding RESPECT has focused almost exclusively on teachers, the key elements of the initiative would also impact principals and other school leaders:
- Attract a high-performing and diverse pool of people to become teachers and leaders in education and ensure that they are well prepared to be successful in the school environments in which they will work;
- Retain, promote and maximize the talents of accomplished teachers and leaders, while creating well-supported roles for novices;
- Create schools whose climates and cultures, use of time, approaches to staffing, use of technology, deployment of support services, and engagement of families and communities are optimized to continuously improve outcomes for the students they serve;
- Evaluate and support the development and success of teachers and leaders;
- Create an education system that provides the highest need students with the most effective teachers and principals, and provide access to other necessary resources to support every student’s academic success; and
- Transition to a significantly more effective and efficient educational system that is sustainable after the grant program has ended.
In an interview with Jon Stewart last night on The Daily Show, Secretary Duncan said that the “ability to attract and retain talent now will impact education for the next 30 years,” and we at NASSP couldn’t agree more! We look forward to working with the administration and Congress to ensure that teachers and school leaders are well-prepared and supported to meet the demands of educating students to excellence in the 21st Century.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama offered schools a deal: To provide schools with resources to keep good teachers and reward the best ones, and expect in return that schools exercise their flexibility to “teach with creativity and passion; to stop teaching to the test; and to replace teachers who just aren’t helping kids learn.”
It’s a deal schools will happily make, provided the right supports are in place. Such supports include a commitment to strengthen the entire education profession through better preparation programs and professional development for teachers, principals, and other instructional staff. This development extends to meaningful educator-evaluation systems that resist a focus on student test scores to assess educator performance.
Such supports include formula funding to balance out the Race to the Top and the Investing in Innovation grant programs that drive competition among states to the detriment of low-income students in states that lose. Dedicated resources for programs like Title I will provide ALL students—regardless of state or district—a chance to succeed.
And most immediately, if we’re to no longer “teach to the test,” such supports include policies that are no longer written to the test. We call on the President to renew his pressure on Congress to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and fix what is not working for all schools in No Child Left Behind. While the current law did some good in highlighting the achievement gap, the law’s high-stakes testing and onerous AYP provisions do little to reduce the gap. If education is indeed to become our national mission, the commitment must begin with a fairer and more flexible federal law.
The flexibility of a reauthorized ESEA would arrive just in time for schools to accept the President’s challenge to keep all students in school until age 18 or until they graduate. States with such a policy already in place point to a number of benefits, according to a 2010 NASSP position statement, including greater social mobility for students in poverty who are required to remain in school longer. Raising the compulsory age alone, however, will have no real affect. The policy must be accompanied by a comprehensive school renewal, as encouraged in the Breaking Ranks framework for school improvement, to empower students as owners of their own learning and as the innovators who will fulfill the broader vision of America that President Obama described.
Standing united behind the U.S. Department of Education’s blueprint to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) introduced a bill earlier this month to target federal assistance and interventions to the nation’s persistently low-performing schools.
“There are students across the country who are currently finishing out the academic year at schools that persistently fail to provide a quality education,” said Sen. Hagan in May at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress. “We cannot allow our children to go back to these schools in the fall without taking bold and aggressive action to change the odds for our students.”
The School Turnaround and Rewards or “STAR” Act (S. 959) would require states to identify Persistently Low-Performing Schools based on the percentage of students scoring at or above the proficient level on state assessments and whether or not those schools are making progress. High schools with graduation rates below 60% could also be considered Persistently Low-Performing Schools. Each district serving one of these schools would be required to implement one of four school intervention models:
Transformation Model, which requires the district to: 1.) replace the principal if he or she has led the school for two or more years with a new principal who has demonstrated effectiveness in turning around a low-performing school; 2.) use evaluation systems to reward school leaders, teachers, and other staff who have increased student achievement or graduation rates and remove those individuals who have not; 3.) provide staff with ongoing, high-quality, job-embedded professional development; 4.) implement strategies to recruit and retain staff with the skills necessary to meet the needs of the school’s students; 5.) use data to identify and implement a research-based instructional program that has been proven to raise student achievement by no less than 10% in one year; 6.) establish schedules and strategies that provide increased learning time; 7.) promote the continuous use of student data to meet the academic needs of individual students; and 8.) provide appropriate social-emotional and community-oriented support services.
Restart Model, which requires the district to convert a school or close and reopen a school under a charter school operator, a charter management organization, or an education management organization.
School Closure, which requires the district to close a school and enroll the students in other public schools served by the district that are higher performing, provided the other schools are within reasonable proximity to the closed school.
Turnaround Model, which requires the district to: 1) replace the principal; 2) give the new principal sufficient operational flexibility (including over staffing, the school day and school calendar, and budgeting) to fully implement a comprehensive approach to improving student outcomes; 3) use comprehensive evaluations to measure the effectiveness of staff who can work within the turnaround environment and retain no more than 50% of the staff; and 4) implement other activities required under the Transformation Model.
Also mirroring the administration’s ESEA blueprint, the STAR Act would require states to identify Reward Schools that are making significant progress in closing the achievement gap and increasing student academic achievement. Districts serving those schools could then use funding to provide financial awards for principals, teachers, and other staff; improve or enrich the schools’ programs; and provide increased flexibility in making budgeting and staffing decisions. States would also be encouraged to create communities of practice among Reward Schools and support mentoring partnerships between Reward Schools and other schools.
NASSP remains opposed to the four misguided school turnaround models that all require the principal’s replacement as a condition for receiving funds under the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. We are very concerned that the STAR Act would actually remove a principal who has led the school for only two years when the SIG program was revised to ensure that a principal could remain at the school for at least three years.
NASSP has a long history of implementing reform efforts with a high degree of fidelity utilizing the Breaking Ranks Framework and expertise of the NASSP staff and consultants. Schools should be able to use their federal funding to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and implement a school improvement plan that truly meets the need of their students, and we will continue to advocate in support of such a proposal on Capitol Hill as ESEA reauthorization moves forward.
As part of Congress’s initial effort to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) this year, the House Education and the Workforce Committee approved legislation on May 25 to essentially halve the number of programs authorized under the No Child Left Behind Act, the most recent version of ESEA.
Fondly referred to as the “Kill Bill” by many education advocates, the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act (H.R. 1891) would eliminate 42 education programs—many of which are strongly supported by NASSP and our members. They include School Leadership, the Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy program, the Enhancing Education through Technology program, Dropout Prevention, and others.
In his opening remarks, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN) said that the legislation “is an important first step that will help reduce the federal government’s footprint in K-12 classrooms and ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t wasted on unnecessary, inefficient, elementary and secondary education programs.”
During the markup, Democrats offered a number of amendments to restore authorization for: 1) literacy instruction for students in preschool through grade 12; 2) recruiting and training principals and professional development programs in instructional leadership, 3) strategies to identify and serve students most at risk of dropping out of high school; 4) foreign language instruction; 5) mental health and other counseling services; and 6) Native Hawaiian and Alaskan education programs. All of these amendments failed on a party-line vote.
The only amendment to pass during the markup was one offered by Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) to restore authorization for the Parental Information and Resource Centers, which was supported by 4 Republicans and all Democrats.
H.R. 1891 eventually passed on a party-line vote (23-16), and the House leadership has announced its intention to bring the legislation to the floor this summer. Chairman Kline had previously stated his intention to approach ESEA reauthorization through a piecemeal approach, passing small bills rather than one large comprehensive bill. The committee is also expected to consider bills on local control and flexibility, charter schools, teacher quality and effectiveness, and accountability. On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) remains committed to a comprehensive ESEA reauthorization and expects to advance a bill this summer.
NASSP remains opposed to the Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act, which will greatly reduce the amount of federal funding available for middle level and high schools. Please visit the Principal’s Legislative Action Center and encourage your Representatives to vote “no” on the Kill Bill!
Announcements:
The Senate this Tuesday passed the 3-week continuing resolution (CR) that the House had passed last Friday to keep the government running through April 8. This CR cuts $2 billion in federal spending per week, or $6 billion total, but the good news is that it does not cut any more from education programs than the previous CR does. However, a few programs key to NASSP members-the School Leadership Program (which provides training, mentoring, and professional development to principals), and the Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Program (which provides comprehensive birth through grade 12 literacy) were eliminated in this CR, and NASSP Government Relations staff will continue to advocate to restore this funding for a year-long CR. At a DC event this past Wednesday, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) ensured the crowd that he would not allow a federal government shutdown, and that this CR through April 8 would be the last short-term CR. He said Republicans, Democrats, and the Administration must negotiate a compromise in the next 3 weeks for a final year-long CR through the end of the FY 11 fiscal year (September 30.) Read more in the brief description in the “News” section below.
This past Monday President Obama visited Kenmore Middle School in northern Virginia where he urged reauthorization of ESEA before students return to school for the 2011-2012 school year, and where he also urged appropriators not to cut education funding for FY 11 or FY 12. Go here for the blog and video coverage: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/14/president-obama-it-s-not-enough-leave-no-child-behind-we-need-help-every-child-get-a), and go here for a fact sheet: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/14/president-obama-calls-congress-fix-no-child-left-behind-start-next-schoo and the Secretary’s remarks at http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-kenmore-middle-school-arlington-virginia). Read more in the brief description in the “News” section below.
The White House recently held a Conference on Bullying Prevention. Approximately 150 students, parents, teachers, advocates, and policymakers gathered to discuss how they can collaborate to make our schools and communities safer. “If there’s one goal of this conference, it’s to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage, or an inevitable part of growing up. It’s not,” President Obama said. “Bullying can have destructive consequences for our young people. And, it’s not something that we have to accept.” See NASSP’s press release to read about the participation of one of NASSP’s Board members, B.J. Paris, in the Summit: www.nassp.org.
Go here for more information on the Summit: www.whitehouse.gov.
News
New Short Term CR Freezes Education Spending, No New Cuts
Congress passed a new short-term continuing resolution that would fund the government through April 8th. The bill cuts an additional $6 billion dollars in spending, though none of that money is taken from the Department of Education. Congress now has an additional three weeks to compromise on a budget for FY11, which began Oct. 1st of last year. To read more click here: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2011/03/senate_passes_spending_bill_fl.html
Wisconsin Judge Blocks Controversial Union Law
A Wisconsin judge temporarily blocked the state’s controversial anti-union law from going into effect. Judge Maryann Sumi made the decision, contending the legislative committee that passed the bill failed to give the required 24-hour notice before meeting. Assistant Attorney General Steven Means has said the state will appeal the ruling. To read more click here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/18/413811_ap.html
Obama Warns Congress, Budgets That Cut Education Will Be Blocked
During a speech at a Virginia middle school, Obama said he expects Congress to reauthorize ESEA before the start of the new school year and added he would not a sign a bill that cuts education spending. The President told the gathering, “A budget that sacrifices our commitment to education would be a budget that’s sacrificing our country’s future. And I will not let it happen”. To read more click here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/14/26obama.h30.html
Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Examine Education Red Tape
Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have introduced a bipartisan bill that would create a national task force responsible for examining federal, state, and local education regulations and making policy recommendations for removing red tape. The Senators have already created a task force to examine regulations in Colorado and Tennessee. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who supports the bill, will co-chair the task force along with the two Senators. To read more click here: http://bennet.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=1607e534-6c50-4ec7-9fbe-44f107fd484a
Teacher Retirement Spikes in Wisconsin Schools
Despite a temporary court-ordered block of the anti-union bill, more teachers in Wisconsin are opting to retire years earlier than planned, rather than face uncertainty over health and retirement benefits. Districts across the state are reporting retirement numbers three times above average. John Matthews, executive director of Madison Teachers Inc, said of the spike in retirement, “that’s a major brain and skill drain. That will have a major negative impact on the educational program”. To read more click here: http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2011/03/16/mct_wiretire.html
From NASSP’s Principals’ Policy Blog
House Education and Workforce Subcommittee Examines Education Regulations
The House Education and Workforce subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, and the subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training recently held separate hearings on the impact of federal regulations on public schools. The hearings were intended to inform Education and Workforce committee members of the obstacles schools currently face as the committee prepares to rewrite and reauthorize ESEA legislation. Though the two hearings focused on different levels of education, the underlying issues were the same: the unwieldy amount of reporting and data collection required by the federal government overburdens schools and ultimately takes invaluable resources-tangible and intangible-away from the classroom. Read the rest of the blog here: http://www.principalspolicyblog.org/blog/.
Congressional Briefing Held on Children of Immigrant Families
First Focus held a briefing Thursday to discuss policy issues, including education policy, that affect the children of immigrant families. A study released by First Focus in conjunction with the briefing finds children in immigrant families account for nearly one-fourth of all children in the U.S. The majority of these children-88 percent-are U.S. citizens. In addition, an estimated 1.8 million children are undocumented. Many were brought to the United States at a young age and have spent the majority of their lives in the U.S. Under a 1982 Supreme Court Ruling, undocumented children who were brought to the United States by their parents cannot be denied a K-12 education. Though 65,000 undocumented children graduate from American high schools each year, they are unable to pursue college or career opportunities. Read the rest of the blog here: http://www.principalspolicyblog.org/blog/.
Starting this week, NASSP will post these updates each Friday. Be sure to check here each week for valuable and up-to-date news on federal education policy and NASSP advocacy!
Announcements:
- Education Week on Tuesday released its 2011 Quality Count report, which serves as “the most comprehensive ongoing assessment of the state of American education” (Education Week press release.) The theme for this year explored the impact of the economic downturn on American education, and its analysis tracks stimulus dollars and jobs saved, nationally and state-by-state. Additionally, the report grades and ranks each state on education using a variety of indicators including student achievement, equity, and college-and career-readiness. Go here to read the executive summary and access other sections of the report, and see how your state fared and why: www.edweek.org.
- The U.S. Department of Education announced it will host a national youth summit entitled Voices in Action on Saturday, February 26, 2011 in Washington, D.C. Go here to read the press release and get more info on how students can attend: www.ed.gov. (Registration for the conference will go live on January 20.)
NASSP Advocacy Update
On Tuesday Amanda Karhuse (Director of Government Relations) and other NASSP staff had a conference call with Kevin Jennings, Assistant Deputy Secretary of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, at the U.S. Department of Education. The topic of discussion was the USDE’s guidance for anti-bullying programs. The same day, Mary Kingston (Manager of Government Relations) an Education Week Quality Counts event in Washington, DC around the release of its annual report. On Wednesday, Amanda Karhuse attended the Learning First Alliance (LFA) Board Meeting in Washington, DC. Later that afternoon, the LFA Board met with Representative John Kline, Chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, on Capitol Hill. Join NASSP’s Federal Grassroots Network to read about the conversation with Rep. Kline and to stay up-to-date on other federal policy updates. Just email Mary Kingston at kingstonm@nassp.org. Amanda Karhuse and other members of the Literacy Working Group also met with staff for Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) and Chairman John Kline (R-MN) to discuss the LEARN Act. On Thursday, Mary Kingston attended a National Coalition for Public Education meeting in Washington, DC. Finally, on Friday, Amanda Karhuse attended a Women in Government Relations Education Task Force meeting in Washington, DC, while Mary Kingston attended an Educational Policy Forum on the legislative outlook for education in the 112th Congress in Washington, DC.
News
States Must Be More Productive With Less Money
State education chiefs are faced with the daunting challenge of having to do more with less with reduced budgets, while simultaneously pursuing ambitious and innovative reforms that will prove financially and politically challenging. Former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise, now President of the Alliance for Excellent Education, calls this period “education’s ‘General Motors’ moment” in states’ and districts’ efforts to both save money and produce better results at the same time. Read more here: www.edweek.org.
Secretary Duncan Defends the Four School Turnaround Models
In an interview Wednesday with Education Daily, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan continued to defend the four turnaround models that the Administration prescribed for the lowest-performing 5% of schools in each state, and that all replace the principal as an initial step. Says Duncan of his position: “This work is hard. It’s tough. It’s controversial,” Duncan said. “But where we’re not educating, we’re perpetuating poverty and social failure. Where you have dropout factories where 50, 60, 70 percent are dropping out, other wasn’t getting us where we need to go. If you boil down the different models, there are some basic principles: great teachers, great principals, and more time make a big difference.” Read more about the Department of Education’s point of view of the four models here: www.ed.gov.
NASSP has opposed these four models since they were announced, primarily for their replacement of the principal without due cause or a thorough evaluation, but also because of its unrealistic and over-prescriptive nature that expects the most rural regions of our country, some of which our members represent, to be able to find replacement principals and other staff. If you are an NASSP member, visit our Principals’ Legislative Action Center to send to your members of Congress the draft letter we created to express opposition to these four turnaround models: vocusgr.vocus.com.
Graduation Rate Expected to be Frequent Talking Point of Education Reform Conversations
Ever since President Obama announced that by 2020 he wants the U.S. to be first in the world in its percent of college graduates, much focus has been directed on the high school and college graduation rates, and this topic is expected to be a key point of conversation during ESEA reauthorization. The Administration’s March 2010 “blueprint” for ESEA reauthorization issued a call for all states to adopt state-developed standards in English/language arts and math to prepare students to be college- and career-ready upon graduation. The blueprint also called for assessments to gauge college-and career-readiness; comprehensive professional Development; and evidence-based instructional models.
In March, the America’s Promise Alliance will hold a summit in Washington, DC as part of its Grad Nation campaign, and will release new data at the summit. According to the Alliance, the purpose of the summit is to build momentum around the graduation initiative, and to share signs of progress. The Alliance plans to make the summit an annual event. A report released in November, Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic, documents an overall decrease in schools labeled “dropout factories,” or high schools where fewer than 60 percent of the students graduate. Go here to read the full report or executive summary of the Alliance’s Building a Grad Nation report: www.americaspromise.org.
Special Education Faces Challenges in Funding for 2011
Stakeholders predict 2011 will be a fiscally challenging year for special education. The perfect storm of the end to American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds — which directed $12.2 billion toward the IDEA during the last two years — and the continued bleeding of state and local revenue because of the economic downturn account for the challenge. To avoid legal challenges, experts urge school administrators to ensure they maintain services needed to fulfill FAPE. Additionally, not many administrators express hope that the 112th Congress will be able to take up IDEA reauthorization this year. Based on input from stakeholders, here
are several special education issues for 2011:
- Funding: This “funding cliff” from ARRA is unavoidable since districts must obligate all IDEA American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds by Sept. 30. The public policy director for National Center for Learning Disabilities predicted that many states will request that the U.S. Education Department waive their special ed maintenance- of-effort obligations in 2011. According to the IDEA, ED can grant these waivers because of “exceptional or uncontrollable circumstances[,] such as a natural disaster or a precipitous and unforeseen decline in the financial resources of the state.”
- ESEA reauthorization: Special ed stakeholders want to see specific language in a new bill: first, to retain language on including students with disabilities in the accountability system; and second, language addressing seclusion and restraint, bullying and harassment, and how IDEA and ESEA can fit together better.” Experts also anticipate that there will be strong efforts by special education stakeholders to incorporate universal design for learning strategies into ESEA.
- Special educator evaluations: Education officials are looking at how to fairly measure the performance of special educators who have a variety of responsibilities and unique teaching circumstances.
Resources:
I encourage you all to see the documentary Race to Nowhere, which showcases the pressures on students of high-stakes testing, and questions the purposes of such intensive testing when the curriculum and assessments do not teach and measure what we truly need to teach and measure students to best prepare them for 21st century careers. Check out the film here (www.racetonowhere.com) and look up upcoming screenings in your area here: http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings.
The nation’s 5,000 lowest-performing schools could have access to a new cadre of leaders under legislation introduced in June by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ). The Lead Act would establish a national school leadership academy and regional school leadership centers of excellence to train and support cohorts of principals and mentors to lead school turnaround efforts.
Under the bill, a nonprofit organization partnering with an institution of higher education would receive a single competitive grant to develop the national school leadership academy. The academy would then bring together turnaround experts to create a core body of knowledge regarding effective school leadership and develop an infrastructure for providing open source professional development materials to principals and other school leaders.
The Lead Act is unlikely to pass this year as a stand-alone bill, but efforts are underway to include the language in a larger bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
See the upcoming September issue of NewsLeader for more information.
School leadership and its impact on student achievement was one topic of discussion at a House Education and Labor Committee hearing on May 4 to examine how the federal government can support quality teachers and leaders in our nation’s schools. The hearing is one in a series being held as part of a “bipartisan, transparent effort” to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
“Excellent teachers are the key to success in our schools,” said Chairman George Miller (D-CA) in his opening statement. “But we won’t be able to solve the many challenges facing our schools unless we change the way we treat teachers, talk about teachers and think about teachers. To help attract and retain bright teaching talent, we’ll need to make the teaching workplace look more like what other young workers expect: To be treated like professionals, with the respect, recognition, and resources needed to do their jobs.”
Testifying on behalf of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Pamela Salazar, associate professor of practice in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and editor of the NASSP Bulletin, discussed her role in developing the standards and assessment for the National Board Certification for Educational Leaders. “Having standards that define best practices allows for the development of professional education targeted for the continuum of practice,” she said. “As school districts seek to select and develop principals, assistant principals, and teacher leaders that can lead the transformation of schools, the existence of a continuum of standards to assist and identify accomplished practice is hugely beneficial in the selection, training, and development of aspiring and practicing principals, assistant principals, and teacher leaders.”
Salazar also highlighted the need for principals to participate in ongoing, job-embedded professional development and explained how to fairly measure and reward principal performance, outlining many of the recommendations in the NASSP board position statement on Highly Effective Principals. Commenting on the four school turnaround models that would all require the principal’s replacement as a condition for receiving federal funding, she said that, “turning around low-performing schools and significantly improving student achievement requires, among other factors, a principal that has received appropriate training and mentoring to understand what principals and school leaders should know and be able to do to effectively lead a school. Even more, it requires that the principal have access to appropriate data, a well-trained workforce, and the authority and autonomy to place resources where they are needed most. Yes, it is important to be able to remove principals who cannot effective lead, but we should not adopt policies that assume the incompetence of every principal in our lowest-performing schools.”
Other witnesses focused their remarks on teacher preparation, mentoring, and professional development, including Deborah Ball who is dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan and Randi Weingarten from the American Federation of Teachers.
To read all the witness testimony and view an archived webcast of the hearing, go to the committee’s Web site.
On Thursday, April 15, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee held a roundtable hearing to discuss the importance of preparing, recruiting, and maintaining effective teachers and principals as part of a plan to improve academic performance in the nation’s neediest schools. It was the latest in a series of congressional hearings on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the primary federal K-12 education law.
Witnesses and members of the committee spoke about the need to devise ways to improve the quality of teachers and principals in the nations’ poorest performing schools through various methods, including increased opportunities for training and greater emphasis on performance assessment. “The key challenge is to identify strategies for ensuring that the students who need the most help are being educated by our most effective teachers and principals,” said Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA).
Numerous witnesses described the need for teachers and principals to be provided with opportunities to improve their effectiveness, and proposed strategies to meet this need. Layne Parmenter, Principal of Urie Elementary in Lyman, WY, testified about the challenges facing principals and suggested policies to help them be more effective administrators and instructional leaders. These strategies included giving principals of underperforming schools more autonomy up front rather than firing them and granting greater freedoms to their replacements. Mr. Parmenter also spoke to a need for greater professional development opportunities for principals.
During the roundtable discussion at the hearing, a chorus of support for principal professional development and training broke out among witnesses (see the YouTube video above) when Senator Al Franken (D-MN) highlighted legislation he introduced that would provide current and aspiring principals with professional development, and then place these improved and more effective leaders in high-need schools. The School Principal Recruitment and Training Act (H.R. 4354/S. 2896) would accomplish this by creating a federal grant program that would provide selected aspiring principals with a pre-service residency that lasts for at least one year, combined with focused coursework on instructional leadership, organizational management, and the use of data to inform instruction. Grant funds would also be used to provide mentoring and professional development to strengthen current principals’ effectiveness. Camilla Benbow, Dean of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, spoke about the success of a similar principal residency program at Vanderbilt which has been in effect for the past decade.
The HELP Committee will continue to consider the needs of teachers and principals and increasing their effectiveness as Congress moves towards the goal of improving federal education policy leading up to reauthorization of ESEA.
By Mike Riddile, NASSP, government relations intern.
The House Education and Labor Committee today approved legislation supported by NASSP that would establish minimum federal standards on the use of seclusion and restraint in schools similar to those currently in place for hospitals and non-medical community-based facilities.
The Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act (H.R. 4247) would prohibit the use of physical restraint or seclusion unless a student’s behavior poses an imminent danger of physical injury to the student, school personnel, or others. Only those school personnel who have been trained and certified by a state-approved training program could impose physical restraint or seclusion except in “rare and clearly unavoidable emergency circumstances.” Schools would also be required to notify parents after incidents when restraint or seclusion was used.
States would have two years to ensure they are in compliance with the federal standards and could apply for a grant to fund professional development, training, and certification for school personnel to meet the standards. They could also use the funding to develop training programs for implementing systematic approaches to schoolwide positive behavior supports.
“This bill makes clear that there is no place in our schools for abuse and torture,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “The egregious abuse of a child should not be considered less criminal because it happens in a classroom—It should be the opposite. I’m proud that this bill has bipartisan support and I hope the full House will vote on it soon.”
“Principals will be supported by passage of the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act as states are required not only to comply with the federal standards but also to provide support and training to educators in this area,” said John Nori, NASSP Director of Program Development. “Currently, many schools across America have no trained staff in this area and few or no resources for professional development, as this is typically one of the first things cut in tough budgets times.”
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has introduced a companion bill (S. 2860) in the Senate, but there has been no committee action to date.
