Education News from Washington, DC: An Update on Federal Education Spending

On July 29, the Alliance for Excellent Education hosted the latest in its series of interactive webinars on what is happening in Washington, DC on education reform. During the webinar, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance and former governor of West Virginia, talked about President Obama's proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budget increase in discretionary spending for the U.S. Department of Education. If enacted, the increase (7.5 percent) would be the largest since FY 2002—right after NCLB was signed into law.

For much of the year, educators wondered how much of that increase would actually happen. Now, as the weather has heated up, so has action around federal education spending. On July 16, a House of Representatives subcommittee began work on the bill that will fund the U.S. Department of Education in FY11. On July 27, its Senate counterpart began work on its version of the bill.

Topics discussed during the webinar included the likelihood of the U.S. Department of Education receiving President Obama's proposed budget increase; how much the congressional committees allocated for Title I, IDEA, and other education programs; and federal funding that's available to middle and high schools.

Watch complete video from the webinar ...

Find the Lowest-Performing High Schools in Your State

One in three high school students do not graduate and just 12 percent of the nation‘s high schools produce nearly half of the nation‘s dropouts. Within these lowest-performing high schools (sometimes known as "dropout factories"), just 60 percent or fewer of entering freshmen progress to their senior year three years later.

Prioritizing the Nation's Lowest-Performing High Schools, a recent issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education, notes that the lowest-performing high schools are located in every state; in urban, suburban, rural, and small-town America; in large high schools and small. Their one unifying characteristic is that they disproportionately serve our nation‘s poor and minority students.

In an era of diminishing financial resources, it makes good economic sense to target the nation's lowest-performing high schools and focus attention, commitment, and resources on improving them, the brief argues. Directing strategic efforts to turn around these schools could significantly reduce the nation's dropout rate.

"When emergency medical personnel arrive at an accident scene, they immediately deliver treatment to the most severely injured, said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. "Similarly, the nation must focus its attention on the lowest-performing schools with the largest number of ‘victims' in the national dropout crisis. The fact that these schools are so widespread and contribute so greatly to the national dropout crisis dictates making them an essential focus of any federal effort to improve the graduation rate."

While not a graduation rate, a school’s “promoting power” is a good indicator of how well schools are educating their students. See how high schools across the country perform by going to the Promoting Power database. High schools with promoting power less than 60 percent make up the nation's lowest-performing high schools.

Voters Want Federal Action on High School Reform, According to New National Poll

Improving the quality of public high schools through the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is a voting issue for over eight in ten voters, according to a new national poll released July 14 by the Alliance for Excellent Education.

Additionally, over half of voters say that their decision to vote for a current elected official in the 2010 congressional elections will be affected if Congress takes no action to reform the law currently known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

“The Alliance commissioned this bipartisan poll to gain insight into Americans’ views of the public education system,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “The overwhelming takeaway from the poll is that Americans are concerned about the growing problems with the nation’s high schools and they want President Obama and the Congress to act—this year—to improve them.”

During the webinar on the poll, Alliance President Bob Wise and pollsters Celinda Lake and Christine Matthews, gave a brief presentation on the poll results, followed by a Q&A session with viewers from around the country.

Download the complete summary of findings from the poll ...
Audio and video of the webinar ...

Alliance Offers Recommendations to Congress on ESEA Reauthorization

On March 15, the Obama administration released its blueprint to overhaul the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, currently known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Later that week, Alliance President Bob Wise appeared on the PBS NewsHour to discuss the blueprint.

On March 26, the Alliance made recommendations to the U.S. Congress in reaction to the Obama administration's blueprint. Specifically, the Alliance called for an ESEA reauthorization that would: 1) Codify the goal of graduating all students from high school on time, ready for college and careers; 2) Hold states, districts, and schools accountable for achieving the goal of college and career readiness; 3) Support state- and district-led school improvement systems that are data driven; differentiate reforms and interventions to meet the specific needs of districts, schools, and students; and address the lowest-performing secondary schools; and 4) Strengthen federal investment in secondary schools, including a formula-based funding stream to turn around low-performing secondary schools as proposed by the Graduation Promise Act.

Read more about the Alliance's ESEA recommendations or download the Obama administration's blueprint.