Educational Trends
ENI will regularly provide updated information and share noteworthy stories related to the issues impacting schools now and in the future. If you would like to respond to one of these news items, please visit www.eniblog.com to post your comments.
The recovery act and stimulus funding
Later this month, the federal Department of Education is expected to announce the metrics by which states will be measured in the Race to the Top competition. The Race to the Top Fund is part of the nearly $100 billion aimed at education in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) that Congress approved in February. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has named Joanne S. Weiss, Director of the Race to the Top Fund. Ms. Weiss will oversee the development and implementation of $4.35 billion in competitive grants that will be awarded to states, beginning in the fall. Weiss is the former chief operating officer of NewSchools Venture Fund, where she focused on investment strategy and management assistance to its portfolio of ventures, led its research agenda, and oversaw the organization's operations. She is the former CEO of Claria Corp., an e-services recruiting firm that helps emerging-growth companies build their teams quickly and well. She spent the prior 20 years in the design, development, and marketing of technology-based products and services for education for various companies. Race to the Top funding will be based on the four "assurances" detailed in the stimulus law:
- Turning around low-performing schools (and expanding charter schools);
- Improving teacher quality;
- Updating state data systems; and
- Enacting common academic standards.
The Momentum Toward National Academic Standards
All but four states—Alaska, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas—have signed on to the effort to adopt a common set of rigorous standards in math and language arts. The states have an ambitious time frame, planning to release their first set of high school exit standards—what students should know to prepare them for college or work—for states to review this month. Grade-by-grade standards, which the organizers are also calling "learning progression standards," are set to be done in December. Bringing more urgency to the effort is U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's commitment last month to set aside $350 million to help states develop common assessments as a result of the new common standards.
Latest Development:
On Wednesday, July 8th, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and National Governors Association (NGA), the two national organizations coordinating a push for common academic standards, named the 29 people who are deciding what math and language arts skills students will need to know and when. The list of those who will write the standards is significantly comprised of members from three organizations: the Washington-based Achieve Inc., which works on college- and career readiness; the New York City-based College Board, which administers the SAT; and ACT Inc., the Iowa City, Iowa-based organization that administers the college-entrance test of that name. The 29-member Standards Development Work Group does include seven other representatives, including two college professors, a retired education consultant, and members from school improvement groups. The CCSSO and NGA also named 35 members of the feedback groups in math and language arts that will critique the standards work, including experts from the fields of math and language arts.
For More Information:
A new Web site, www.corestandards.org, will provide updates on the work.
National study serves as a "report card" for no child left behind
Since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted, critics have questioned whether the law's mandate to bring students to "proficiency" has resulted in schools ignoring the needs of the nation's highest- and lowest-achieving students. A new study, released by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) on June 17, 2009, suggests those fears have not become reality. The 50-state analysis found that test scores for both "advanced" and "basic" students rose in nearly three-quarters of assessments studied across states and grade levels, a level of progress only slightly lower than that of students reaching proficiency. The study examines trend lines in state reading and math scores at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, beginning in 2002, the year former President George W. Bush signed NCLB into law. It requires states to make yearly progress in moving students toward a specific target: proficiency. All students are to reach that mark by 2014. Of 300 possible test-score trend lines in reading and math on state exams, the center had data to evaluate 243 of them. Students showed gains in reaching proficiency 83 percent of the time, while 15 percent declined, and the rest did not change significantly. State scores of students at the basic level, meanwhile, rose 73 percent of the time, and declined in 18 percent of cases. And at the advanced level, 71 percent of the trend lines showed an increase, while 23 percent declined. The CEP study also shows trends that mirror recent results on the prominent federally administered test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress: Math scores rose more than reading results, and elementary and middle schoolers’ progress in math and reading was greater than that at the high school level. The Center on Education Policy is a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.
For More Information:
Visit the Center on Education Policy at www.cep-dc.org.