Announcements:

• On Tuesday, the House passed a year-long continuing resolution for fiscal year 2011 that freezes FY 2011 discretionary appropriations at the FY 2010 level and provides $45.9 billion less than the President requested for the year. See below in NASSP Advocacy Update who in the Senate NASSP has been lobbying to advocate for an omnibus instead of a continuing resolution so that education programs could receive an increase in funding instead of having funding frozen.

• The House this past week also passed the DREAM Act, which gives illegal immigrant youth a path to citizenship if they enroll in college or enlist in the military. Read a summary of the bill with a link to the full articles below in the News section.

NASSP Advocacy Update

On Monday, Mary Kingston (Manager of Government Relations) met with staff of Senators Brown, Bond, Murray, and Hutchison with other organizations involved in the Coalition for Education Funding to advocate for an omnibus bill for fiscal year 2011 that would likely increase funding for education programs, over the alternative of a Continuing Resolution. On Wednesday Mary met with staff of Senators Landrieu and Durbin for a second round of visits with other members of the Coalition for Education Funding. Also on Wednesday Amanda Karhuse (Director of Government Relations) prepared talking points on the recent PISA results for a past NASSP President. On Thursday Mary attended a meeting with other stakeholder organizations to strategize advocacy for full funding of IDEA in the next Congress. Finally, on Friday, Mary attended the Committee for Education Funding’s annual membership meeting.

News

House Passes Year-Long Continuing Resolution that Freezes Most Education Funding at FY 2010 Levels

From David Rogers at Politico: “The House narrowly approved a stripped-down budget bill Wednesday evening, cutting nearly $46 billion from President Barack Obama’s requests in order to hold total government-wide appropriations to no more than the current $1.09 trillion level.

Unprecedented in its scope, the measure barely survived a 207-206 procedural vote when senior Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee suddenly broke ranks to protest Guantanamo-related language in the package. Party leaders, caught off-guard, seemed shaken but then steadied themselves, prevailing 212-206 with no Republican help and 35 Democratic defections.

Senate Democrats still hope to substitute a more detailed omnibus bill that would restore about $18 billion, chiefly for the departments of Defense, State and Homeland Security. But Obama’s costly $850 billion tax deal with Republicans might torpedo this effort. And the White House already appears to have stepped back, putting its chips on the House bill and thereby undercutting the president’s old colleague, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii).”

Read the full article here:

House Passes DREAM Act

From a December 9 article by Lisa Mascaro and Kathleen Hennessey at the Tribune Washington Bureau: “The House passed a landmark youth immigration bill known as the Dream Act on Wednesday night largely along party lines, but the measure faces a tough test in the Senate as Democrats struggle to pass priority legislation in the waning days of this Congress.

Eight Republicans joined in approving the bill, 216 to 198. Thirty-eight Democrats voted no. The measure offers a path to citizenship for young people who were brought to this country illegally before age 16 and who have enrolled in college or entered the military.

President Obama said the passage was historic. "This vote is not only the right thing to do for a group of talented young people who seek to serve a country they know as their own by continuing their education or serving in the military, but it is the right thing for the United States of America," he said in a statement.

Obama called on the Senate to follow suit.

The bill could come up there as soon as Thursday but is unlikely to attract the necessary 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Republican senators have vowed to block all legislation until a stalemate over the George W. Bush-era tax cuts is resolved. Obama and the GOP have reached a deal, but Democrats haven't signed on.

The Dream Act isn't the only Democratic priority at stake.

Earlier in the day, the Senate postponed at least until Thursday a vote on repealing "don't ask, don't tell," the 1993 ban on openly gay personnel in the military.

Democrats worked late into the night trying to strike a deal with the few Republican senators who support lifting the policy but who have asked for more time to debate it.

The lame-duck congressional session offers Democrats their best chance to pass both bills because, in January, Republicans will hold the majority in the House and more seats in the Senate.

The House passed the Dream Act after a late, hastily scheduled vote. Proponents called it the most significant immigration legislation to pass the House in a decade.

"Let's give the dream kids an opportunity. They are American in every way but a piece of paper," said Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), a leading supporter. "We have come here to support the rule of law, yes, but to change the law when it is unfair."

A handful of Republicans in both chambers criticized the Dream Act as "nightmare" amnesty legislation bound to be abused and easily subject to fraud. They said it would create more competition for work in a recession.

"The American people want us to focus on creating jobs and getting Americans back to work. This will prevent Americans from getting jobs," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R- Texas). "It puts the interest of illegal immigrants ahead of those of law-abiding Americans."

PISA Results Show Stagnation in U.S. Scores, Prompts Obama to Call for a “Sputnik Moment”

From Sam Dillon at The New York Times: “With China’s debut in international standardized testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of a respected exam.

American officials and Europeans involved in administering the test in about 65 countries acknowledged that the scores from Shanghai — an industrial powerhouse with some 20 million residents and scores of modern universities that is a magnet for the best students in the country — are by no means representative of all of China.

About 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai were chosen as a representative cross-section of students in that city. In the United States, a similar number of students from across the country were selected as a representative sample for the test.

Experts noted the obvious difficulty of using a standardized test to compare countries and cities of vastly different sizes. Even so, they said the stellar academic performance of students in Shanghai was noteworthy, and another sign of China’s rapid modernization.

The results also appeared to reflect the culture of education there, including greater emphasis on teacher training and more time spent on studying rather than extracurricular activities like sports.

“Wow, I’m kind of stunned, I’m thinking Sputnik,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., who served in President Ronald Reagan’s Department of Education, referring to the groundbreaking Soviet satellite launching. Mr. Finn, who has visited schools all across China, said, “I’ve seen how relentless the Chinese are at accomplishing goals, and if they can do this in Shanghai in 2009, they can do it in 10 cities in 2019, and in 50 cities by 2029.”

The test, the Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, was given to 15-year-old students by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based group that includes the world’s major industrial powers.

The results are to be released officially on Tuesday, but advance copies were provided to the news media a day early.

“We have to see this as a wake-up call,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in an interview on Monday.

“I know skeptics will want to argue with the results, but we consider them to be accurate and reliable, and we have to see them as a challenge to get better,” he added. “The United States came in 23rd or 24th in most subjects. We can quibble, or we can face the brutal truth that we’re being out-educated.”
Read the full article here:

Also read my colleague Mel Riddile’s take on the PISA results from his December 9 Principal’s Difference blog entitled “PISA: What School Leaders Need to Know”: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ThePrincipalDifferenceASchoolLeadershipBlogByMelRiddile.

New Report Shows Decrease in High School Dropouts

From Adam Honeysett at the Department of Education: “According to a new report released by America’s Promise Alliance, Civic Enterprises, and John Hopkins University’s Every Graduates Center, which frequently references Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded work, the United States is making progress in reducing the number of students who drop out of high school. Nationwide, the graduation rate increased from 72% in 2002 to 75% in 2008. Furthermore, the number of “dropout factory” high schools (where less than 60% of students who start out as freshmen make it to their senior year) decreased by 13%, from 2,007 in 2002 to 1,746 in 2008.

“Building a Grad Nation: Progress and Challenge in Ending the High School Dropout Epidemic” shows progress is possible, even in low-performing schools in lower-income, urban, and rural school districts. The report highlights four cases studies of success: Alabama; Richmond, Indiana; New York City; and Tennessee. Among the common elements of success: strong leadership with clear graduation rate goals; multi-sector collaboration guided by data; commitment to innovation and continuous improvement; technical assistance for evidence-based solutions; and raising expectations, improving policies, and increasing student supports.

Other findings of the report include:

• More than half the states (29) increased statewide graduation rates substantially from 2002 to 2008. Just three states lost ground. The graduation rate held steady in the remaining 18 states.

• Tennessee and New York led the nation by boosting graduation rates 15 and 10 percentage points, respectively, and 10 additional states had gains larger than the national average.

• 22 states had a decline of dropout factory high schools in urban areas, and most of the decline in dropout factory schools (216 of the 261) occurred in the South.

Secretary Duncan, speaking at the release event, called the report “required reading for those who believe that the high school dropout problem is too intractable to successfully take on…. The conclusion of this study is that schools, districts, and states have demonstrated high school graduation rates can increase significantly in the very communities where the dropout problem has been most severe.” FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO http://www.americaspromise.org/our-work/grad-nation/building-a-grad-nation.aspx. (Note: Secretary Duncan’s full remarks are available here).

Also: This year, 730 schools are receiving a federal School Improvement Grant to implement one of four turnaround models. Among the schools, 48% are high schools, 24% are elementary schools, 21% are middle schools, and 7% are some combination of the three. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE GO TO http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/highest-percentage-turnaround-funds-are-going-high-schools.”

Gates Study Offers Teacher Effectiveness Clues

From Stephen Sawchuck at Education Week: “Value added” gauges based on growth in student test scores and students’ perceptions of their teachers both hold promise as components of a system for identifying and promoting teacher effectiveness, according to preliminary findings from the first year of a major study.

The analysis, released today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, shows that teachers’ value-added histories strongly predicted how they would perform in other classrooms or school years—as did students’ perceptions of their teachers’ ability to maintain order in the classroom and provide challenging lessons.

The findings are part of the Seattle-based foundation’s $45 million Measure of Effective Teaching study. The project seeks to identify the most accurate measures of superior teaching. ("Multi-City Study Eyes Best Gauges of Good Teaching," Sept. 2, 2009.)

While underscoring the preliminary nature of the findings, Gates officials said they were heartened to see that some of the measures being studied do appear predictive of good teaching.

“I was hugely excited and encouraged” by the findings, said Vicki Phillips, the foundation’s director of education programs. “It has implications for what people can be doing right now. It begins to answer questions teachers have had. And I think it shows that valid teacher feedback doesn’t need to be limited to test scores alone.”

Among its education philanthropy, the Gates Foundation provides grant support to Editorial Projects in Education, the publisher of Education Week.
Read the full article here.

Rural Schools Get Nearly One Fourth of Turnaround Grants

From Alyson Klein at Education Week: “Data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education on the $3.5 billion School Improvement Grant program show that the federal turnaround grants haven’t just gone to schools in urban areas, or for less-drastic school improvement efforts.

The school improvement program was developed under the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, to help schools that were perennially failing to meet the goals of the law, but the Obama administration has given it a complete makeover, pushing for an infusion of $3 billion for the program, and giving schools a very specific menu of four turnaround options from which to choose.

Advocates for rural schools have said that the four models, which, in some cases, require drastic actions, such as closing down a school or firing its principal, don’t offer enough leeway. They view the program as urban-centered.

But just over half of the 730 schools implementing the program since earlier this year—53 percent—are in urban areas, while 23 percent are in rural areas, and 24 percent are suburban schools.

By far, the most popular model was the so-called “transformational” model, which is considered by many to be the most flexible, and generally least likely to require removal of staff. Seventy-one percent of schools are using that model, including the vast majority of rural schools in the program.

More than one-fifth of schools—21 percent—are using the so-called “turnaround” model, which is widely viewed as more stringent than the transformational model. It calls for, among other strategies, replacing the principal and at least 50 percent of the school’s staff, adopting a new governance structure and implementing a new or revised instructional program.

Read the full article here.