EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS BILL SIGNED INTO LAW: U.S. Department of Education to Receive $1 Billion Increase in Funding

In mid-December, 2009, after months of delay, Congress finally passed the education appropriations bill as part of an omnibus bill that contained five other appropriations measures. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the bill provides $63.72 billion in discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Education, an increase of approximately $1 billion. President Obama signed the bill on December 16.

In a statement, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) noted that, "unlike the budget request, the bill does not finance education reforms by cuts to Title I." Under the president's budget request, $1.5 billion would be shifted out of Title I funding and into Early Childhood Grants ($500 million) and School Improvement Grants ($1 billion). Instead, the appropriations bill left funding for Title I and School Improvement Grants unchanged at $14.5 billion, and $545 million, respectively.

Under the Obama proposal, the extra $1 billion for School Improvement Grants came with a caveat that states would have to ensure that 40 percent of the funds spent on improvement activities in middle and high schools. According to an FY 2010 budget summary provided by the U.S. Department of Education, this caveat reflects the administration's "determination to take immediate action to begin addressing the factors that contribute to the high school dropout crisis in American education."

Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, said that he understood the decision to restore the money for Title I, but pointed out that only 8 percent of students benefiting from Title I funding are high school students.

The news for high schools was not all bad as the bill provides $50 million for a new high school graduation initiative. This initiative will provide grants to school districts to support effective, sustainable, and coordinated strategies that will increase high school graduation rates, particularly in dropout factories and their feeder schools. The bill also provides $250 million for a new comprehensive literacy initiative under the Striving Readers program to help struggling students from pre-K through grade 12 build their reading and writing skills.

Another victor in the bill is the Teacher Incentive Fund, which saw its funding increase from $97 million to $400 million. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has made it clear that the program, which provides funding to states and school districts that want to reward effective teachers and schools for boosting student achievement, is a huge priority for him. In response to a question from Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) during his Senate confirmation hearing on January 13, 2009, Duncan called the program, "one of the best things" that Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has done. "In the education business, talent matters tremendously," Duncan said. "So whatever we can do to support great teaching, recognize it, reward it, grow it-that's the most important thing we can do." (Duncan's response occurs at the 48:45 point of the confirmation hearing).

The bill will also provide $853 million for Federal TRIO Programs, $313 million for GEAR UP, $88 million for Smaller Learning Communities, and $58 million for Statewide Data Systems.

For more information on each of these programs, as well as enacted funding levels for other education programs that benefit middle and high schools for FY 2009 and FY 2010, consult the chart at http://www.all4ed.org/files/Fiscal10ProgramChart.pdf.

A table showing the amounts provided for all the programs and activities of the U.S. Department of Education for FY 2010 is available at http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget10/10action.pdf.

NCLB ANNIVERSARY RECEIVES LITTLE ATTENTION FROM OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Alliance President Calls for Reauthorization in 2010, Says NCLB Is a "Compact Disc in an iPod World"

In a marked departure from a Bush White House that celebrated every anniversary of the signing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), neither President Obama nor U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made any public appearances to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the most recent version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). A January 9 article in the Washington Post said that President Obama's plan for reauthorizing the law is expected soon, but it noted that "time is growing short if Obama aims for action before midterm elections, which could weaken Democratic majorities in Congress."

In a speech on September 24, 2009 entitled "Reauthorization of ESEA: Why We Can't Wait," Duncan praised NCLB for exposing achievement gaps, expanding the standards and accountability movement, and focusing on outcomes--not inputs-to measure education reform efforts. However, he also said that NCLB unfairly labels many schools as failures even when they are making real progress, adding that the current law places too much emphasis on test scores rather than student growth, and is "overly prescriptive in some ways while it is too blunt an instrument of reform in others."

Duncan also took NCLB to task for encouraging states to set low academic standards. He cited the failure to set high standards as one reason why millions of students are not completing college. "They are simply not ready for college-level work when they leave high school," he said. He also said that low standards have contributed to the nation's "staggeringly" high dropout rate.

In a January 7 statement, Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise credited NCLB for requiring schools to report data that focuses attention on educational disparities for various groups of students. However, he also said that shortcomings in the law's design and implementation have meant that most improvements in learning outcomes for the nation's elementary school students have not been echoed by their middle and high school counterparts.

"In many ways, NCLB is a compact disc in an iPod world," Wise said. "It's still around, but it is in desperate need of an upgrade. The best birthday present for this generation of America's students is for the Congress and President Obama to enact a new ESEA. It's time to blow out the candles and bake a new cake."

Wise said that President Obama and Secretary Duncan have actively recognized the high school crisis, focused on turning around the lowest-performing schools, and called on the nation to graduate all students ready for college and careers while congressional leaders have held hearings and developed legislative proposals based on research and best practice that demonstrate ways to improve the law. However, he added that none of these positive changes will reach the countless high school students and teachers in classrooms until research, discussions, hearings, and legislative proposals are actually turned into an ESEA reauthorization.

"This eighth birthday should be a commitment that 2010 is the year to harness the progress and increase momentum around high school reform into a reauthorized ESEA that strategically addresses the high school crisis and begins turning the more than one million dropouts a year into high school graduates who are ready for college and careers. Today, our message to the Congress and President Obama is: ‘Don't delay. Reauthorize ESEA.'"

THE TIME IS NOW: New Alliance Brief Outlines Need for Common Standards

The state-led common standards movement, which will raise expectations for all students no matter where they live, represents a "sea change" in American education and one that is sorely needed, according to a new issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The brief, Common Standards: The Time is Now, outlines the need for common standards that are rigorous, clear, and focused, and it suggests ways that common standards will help lay the foundation for a stronger education system that will prepare all students for college and careers.

"During a time when all students, no matter their background or career aspirations, need to be held to high standards that prepare them for college or a career, there is evidence that some states are moving in the opposite direction," said Alliance for Excellent Education President Bob Wise. "By establishing one set of common, rigorous standards, the Common Core State Standards initiative will go a long way toward ensuring every student-from Montana to Manhattan-has what it takes to compete with their international peers."

According to the brief, written by Bob Rothman, senior fellow at the Alliance for Excellent Education, states vary widely in the expectations to which they hold their students-a situation that is especially harmful to low-income and minority students. It notes that state standards vary in many ways, including content, quality, proficiency levels, and college readiness. Yet these variations are harmful, the brief argues, because students who graduate from Walla Walla, Washington, will face the same global economy as graduates from Wheeling, West Virginia. And in a highly mobile society like the United States, a student should not face lower expectations when he or she moves to another state. For these and other reasons, the brief argues, students everywhere need to be equally prepared to compete effectively.

The brief points out that common standards can also help states become more efficient. States currently spend between $517 million and $750 million annually to develop, publish, administer, score, and report on tests. Common standards provide an opportunity for states to pool together to develop tests based on a common framework, allowing them to save money and develop more sophisticated instruments that do a better job of measuring the full range of knowledge and skills students are expected to demonstrate.

Acknowledging that the common standards movement, by itself, cannot raise the level of achievement of all students in the United States, the brief stresses that a set of common standards for college and career readiness-benchmarked to international expectations-can do a great deal to help students, parents, teachers, administrators, and policymakers begin down that path. With common standards, students will understand exactly the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in college and careers; parents can determine whether their children are taking the course work that will lead to success; teachers can plan units of study that will enable students to reach the expectations; and school and district administrators can plan professional development.

The brief adds that standards need to be a part of a broader system that includes the following components to be truly effective:

• assessments that measure performance against the standards;
• accountability systems that determine whether schools are making progress;
• curricula and materials aligned to the standards; and
• support for teachers to ensure that they are able to teach what the standards expect all students to learn.

The complete brief is available at http://www.all4ed.org/files/TheTimeIsNow.pdf.

REFINING HIGH SCHOOL AS A LAUNCH PAD: Deloitte Survey Finds that Teachers Do Not View College Preparation as the Primary Mission in High School

While students and parents view college preparation as the main purpose of high school, most teachers disagree and rank mastery of subject areas and life skills as more important. This is one of the key findings from Deloitte 2009 Education Survey Overview: Refining High School as a Launch Pad, which was published late last year.

"What parents and students surveyed want from high school is at odds with what we've been asking our high schools to do for close to 100 years," said Barry Salzberg, chief executive officer at Deloitte LLP and newly appointed chairman of the College Summit. "Redefining the mission of high school is an important next step for building a 21st Century workforce."

Of the 401 U.S. high school teachers, counselors, and administrators surveyed, only 9 percent think their primary mission is to prepare students for success in college. These results are in stark contrast with parents' and students' expectations. As demonstrated in the box below, Deloitte found that 48 percent of the 601 U.S. low-income students and 42 percent of the 400 U.S. low-income parents surveyed say college preparation is the single most important purpose behind a secondary education.¹

The disconnect is even more curious given that 96 percent of teachers said that it is "very" or "somewhat" important to them that the students from the high school where they teach go on to college.

The survey also reveals that high school students are thinking about college but are not sure that they are prepared to succeed in college courses. According to the survey, 70 percent of students say they would "definitely" like to attempt to get into college and continue their education. However, only 27 percent of these students say they are "very prepared" to handle college courses. In addition, only 22 percent of students and 18 percent of parents think their high school does an "excellent" job of preparing students for the challenges of higher education.

One aspect that all parties agreed upon is the importance of learning basic life skills. Thirty percent of teachers, 21 percent of students, and 34 percent of parents rate this as the number one role of high school. Parents, students, and teachers are also in agreement that parents are most responsible for encouraging their child to go to college. Unfortunately, this responsibility becomes a major challenge for prospective first-generation college students. Of the low-income parents surveyed, only 26 percent stated they are "very knowledgeable" about the sources of information and counsel available on college education.

To read more about the results, visit http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_leadership_EducationSurvey120109.pdf.

1 The survey defines "low-income" as U.S. households with incomes less than $40,000.

INCREASING COLLEGE SUCCESS: New NGA Brief Outlines Key Solutions for Governors Seeking to Raise Their States' College Completion Rates

In order to change the nation's decade-long, flat-line trend in college attainment rates, governors must take swift action to ensure that more students are obtaining the higher education degrees required in today's workforce. This is according to Increasing College Success: A Roadmap for Governors, a recent issue brief from the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices.

"Because technological changes continue to increase the demand for workers who can think critically, the majority of the jobs of the future will require a college degree or certificate," said NGA Center Director John Thomasian. "This brief outlines ways that governors and states can help more students achieve college success while also holding the postsecondary system more accountable for college completion."

Even though large numbers of students are admitted to colleges and universities, many of them are unprepared for the demands of college-level course work. As a result, these students must invest a considerable amount of time in remedial classes, which amounts to substantial costs to both students and state governments. To avoid these challenges, NGA urges governors to champion high school methods proven to boost students' readiness for college and careers. These strategies include ensuring high school courses are rigorous and consistent with one another, using assessment data to signal whether or not students are ready for college, and expanding programs of study. The brief recognizes programs of study as curricula built around a broad industry sector-such as finance or engineering-and linked to earning college credits or program certificates.

On the higher education end, NGA suggests that public two-year colleges take cues from private two-year colleges and provide students with the proper academic and social support. Two-year private colleges recognize that they attract nontraditional students who may need more assistance along their path to earning a diploma. Therefore, they often provide students with clear pathways, endpoints, and timeframes; data systems to track their progress; mandatory advising; and active job recruiting and placement opportunities. These systems of support go a long way in helping students feel like they are part of a learning community and helping them to succeed in a college setting.

In addition, NGA recommends that state leaders encourage postsecondary institutions to make it easier for students to transfer from two-year to four-year colleges. Currently only a handful of states-Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Florida, and California-have what the report calls "transfer-friendly policies." Such policies enable students to know in advance the academic courses that will transfer, the colleges to which the courses will transfer, and for what amount of credit.

The brief asserts that performance-based state funding, as opposed to enrollment-based state funding, would encourage more colleges to make completion rates a priority. It recommends that 8-10 percent of funding be based on colleges' publicly reported outcomes and suggests that performance-based formulas be experimented initially, but eventually made into law. Without such a move, it argues, the stability and duration that performance-based formulas provide could be at risk.

The recommendations from the report were developed during a 2008 forum hosted by the NGA Center for Best Practices Co-Leads for Education, Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri (R), and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine (D). To read the full brief, visit www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0912INCREASINGCOLLEGESUCCESS.PDF.