President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2001.

By Chris Hofmann

President Obama last week signed the most important education legislation in over a decade, the long-awaited reauthorization of ESEA and No Child Left Behind. The provisions of the law will have a profound effect on what school is like for my class of 26 fourth graders and will reverberate throughout the everyday educational experiences of our nation’s 50 million K-12 students.

The bill, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), is a significant improvement over earlier versions and makes key changes to the way we hold schools accountable for what students learn. It also provides a critical opportunity for experimentation and research in what makes a great school. That said, the law is not without its challenges. Ultimately, it will only live up to ESEA’s legacy as a seminal civil rights law if educators, parents and students hold state lawmakers accountable for learning from past efforts and making changes that improve outcomes for all students.

One way that ESSA improves upon No Child Left Behind is that it recognizes that proficiency on state tests is only one dimension of a school’s quality.

When I think about my fourth graders, I realize that no single data point can truly capture who my students are or what they can do. Likewise, no single data point linked to a state test score can truly capture the educational experience of a school. ESSA recognizes this and requires states to include at least four academic indicators: proficiency on state tests, English language proficiency, high school graduation rates and a fourth state-determined factor of academic quality.

The law also requires states to incorporate at least one other measure of an entirely different sort that aims to tap into the other factors that make a school great. The states will be left to choose this measure, but it could include anything from surveys of family and student engagement to gauges of school discipline and safety.

This is great news for schools. For the last six years, I’ve worked at a 2015 National Blue Ribbon school in east Los Angeles. What makes our school great is not just our high levels of student learning; it’s the way we celebrate our students’ growth. It’s also the way we get to know our families with home visits and the way we encourage parental support with frequent communication. It’s the way we continue to think about and evaluate how we nurture our students’ confidence and character. 

All of these are critically important factors in making a school a vibrant and wonderful place for kids. And with the passage of ESSA, states now have the opportunity to craft accountability systems that account for what teachers, students and parents value.

Of course, our school’s north star is always student learning. Thankfully, ESSA strikes a balance between student learning and other factors in determining a school’s quality. In a significant improvement over earlier drafts of the bill, the final law requires states’ accountability systems to count academic indicators “much more” than the other factors. This will prevent states and schools from using other data points to mask low academic performance. 

In this way, ESSA rightly keeps the focus on a school’s central purpose, teaching knowledge and skills students need to be successful in a competitive world, while acknowledging that there is so much more to a great school.

With 50 states developing their own accountability systems, this moment provides us with a unique opportunity to research and innovate. California should experiment with creating measures that capture students’ academic growth over time. We should experiment with different ways to gather and synthesize non-academic factors of school quality and with how we would weigh all of these distinct factors to create an accountability system focused on what we value in a school.

Most importantly, on a state and federal level, we need to study closely the effects of these systems, learn from each other’s successes and failures and quickly make improvements. There will be a tremendous amount of learning to be done in the next few years and, like our students, we all need to be ready to learn and grow.

Let’s start this new chapter in American education on a high note. Let’s create accountability systems based on what we think is truly important about a school. Let’s be ready to learn from each other. And most importantly, let’s be vigilant in making sure all kids get what they need to thrive.

Chris Hofmann is a fourth grade teacher at a public charter elementary school in east Los Angeles and a Teach Plus Teaching Policy Fellow.

The bill now awaiting the signature of President Obama cuts back on federal oversight of education and shifts much of the power to the states, which will be crafting their own accountability systems that will go into effect for the 2017-18 school years.

LA Unified, along with five other districts part of the California Office of Reform Education (CORE), has been receiving federal waivers from the provisions of NCLB after demonstrating its accountability system was more robust that what NCLB called for.

“We are pleased with the overall balance in the bill regarding accountability and school improvement,” Cortines said in a statement. “As a leader in the CORE districts, which received a federal waiver from many of the unworkable NCLB requirements, we look forward to working with the California Department of Education in designing the state’s new school accountability system. We are hopeful that we will be able to continue implementing the many positive reforms included in our waiver. LAUSD is committed to its work to close the achievement gap, boost overall student achievement and increase high school graduation rates.”

Zimmer said he hopes the new direction will also come with new funds.

“With the passage of this bill, we implore Congress to increase funding in the Fiscal Year 2016 education appropriations bill for critical ESEA programs, including Title I, in order to assist states and school districts in implementing the reauthorized ESEA,” Zimmer said in a statement. “Increasing the federal share of funding for students with disabilities is also of utmost importance to us.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has already offered his praise of the bill when the House passed it on Dec. 2.

“This legislation ushers in a new era in education. I”m pleased that it follows the lead of California in so many important areas, including enhancing local control and providing more flexibility to the states to set up accountability systems that look at multiple measures of success rather than placing so much emphasis on one test,” Torlakson said in a statement. “California is currently in the process of doing just that. I am also glad the legislation encourages states to reduce unnecessary and wasteful testing just as California has done over the years.”

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the chair of the Senate Afterschool Caucus, also praised the bill and the money it dedicates to after-school programs.

“This legislation preserves a dedicated funding stream for afterschool programs so that more than 1 million children will continue to have a safe, enriching place to go when the school day ends,” Boxer said in a statement. “The bill also helps states support high-quality afterschool programs, encourages parental engagement and ensures that afterschool activities complement the academic curriculum.”

Superintendent Ramon Cortines

LA Unified’s chief lobbyist, Edgar Zazueta, told the school board last week that the House of Representatives version of the revised No Child Left Behind bill could cost the district $78.7 million in Title I money for low income schools, which translates to 22.9 percent of its funding.

The board has voted to protest the House bill but has yet to take a stand on the Senate version, which does not include that provision. Superintendent Ramon Cortines said that he will solicit input about how the district should respond to the Senate bill.

“It will no doubt not be everything we want, we will have to see what eventually comes through,” Cortines said.

The two bills, now before a House-Senate conference committee to reach a compromise, are efforts to revamp the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), commonly known as” No Child Left Behind.” The efforts has been eight years in the making, and significant barriers and compromises remain, Zazueta told the board in his overview.

He predicted that the compromises could take several months, with the biggest issues over accountability, portability and funding. It remains unclear, he said if House Speaker John Boehner would bring the conference bill to the floor for a vote if it would lose a significant number of Republican votes.

In one major difference between the two bills, Zazueta said, the House version would allow parents to opt their children out of tests without penalties to schools. He warned that such action could lead to less accountability of schools, or comparisons across the country.

The House bill also eliminates all school improvement requirements while the Senate plan requires states to create their own testing system and monitor graduation rates.

“Both versions put more accountability on the states,” Zazueta said. “[President] Obama will need to add more teeth to the law to cover accountability.”

Each bill includes plans to eliminate Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) tests and most federal accountability. Both plans ask that states create a system for helping low-performing schools but don’t require specific actions. Nor do they require a certain percentage be identified as low performing.

“Of course, a lot of the votes are on partisan lines, but the good point is that there is bipartisan action in the Senate, and it is noteworthy that they have come together,” Zazueta said. “That has a good chance of going forward.”

Both bills would keep annual math and reading tests in grades 3 to 8 and once in high school. Also, science tests will span grades 3 to 5, 6 to 9 and 10 to 12. New subgroups would be added to reporting categories, such as foster youth and a students of a parent who is active duty in the Armed Forces. The Senate version adds homeless students as a category.

Both bills would eliminate the English Language Learner annual measurable objectives and accountability requirements. They eliminate High Qualified Teacher requirements and do not require states to develop educator evaluation systems.

“Even if we look at the good things that the new plans do, the fiscal provisions are too much to swallow,” Zazueta said.

For example, the House bill would freeze funding for six years and eliminate the Striving Readers literacy program, School Improvement Grants and Preschool Development grants. It would also consolidate many programs such as drug-free schools, after school, physical education, school counseling and other programs into one Local Academy Flexible grant.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

The Senate passed a rewrite of the expired No Child Left Behind law yesterday with broad, bipartisan support.

The George W. Bush-era law is controversial due to the high-stakes standardizing testing it ushered in, and the Senate’s bill would strip away much of the federal government’s test-and-punish powers.

The bipartisan support it received is in contrast to a rival House bill that passed last week without a single Democrat voting in favor of it. The two bills now set up “a showdown between the two chambers, and leaves the fate of a final measure in doubt,” the New York Times reported.

Many leading Republicans and Democrats have voiced support for the Senate’s version, although the White House had a lukewarm reaction, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, a prominent national figure in the Democratic party, was one of three Democrats to vote against it.

Here is a sampling of reaction to the Senate action from political and education leaders:

• “This bill still falls short of truly giving every child a fair shot at success by failing to ensure that parents and children can count on local leaders to take action when students are struggling to learn.”— Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The Hill

• “Every student in America will be better off under this legislation than the generation of students wronged by No Child Left Untested. This bill reflects a paradigm shift away from the one-size-fits-all assessments that educators know hurt students, diminish learning, narrow the curriculum and that they fought to change.” — NEA President Lilly Eskelsen-García. NEA Today

• “I cannot in good conscience support a bill that falls short of investing in the potential and promise of all of our children, especially New Jersey’s most vulnerable students.” Senator Corey Booker, one of three Democrats to vote against the bill. Politico

• “[The rewrite] eliminates basic, fundamental safeguards to ensure that federal dollars are actually used to improve both schools and educational outcomes for those students who are often ignored.” — Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of three Democrats to vote against the bill. WBUR

• “It sends a powerful message that equity really matters and that schooling must be more about teaching and learning than testing and measuring. More must be done to address the needs of historically disadvantaged children, but this bill offers a significant piece of the puzzle.” — AFT President Randi Weingarten. Washington Times

• “If you think the federal government should make sure that we’re not letting kids fall in the cracks, if you think the federal government should make sure there is transparency, if you think that the federal funds ought to continue to flow to support low income children, then the Senate bill does all of those thing.” — Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. Mother Jones

• “The truth is that the reforms enacted under NCLB clearly helped all students improve their learning. White children improved, but disadvantaged children improved even more in significant degrees. And we saw some narrowing in the achievement gap. You’d think this would be important and that we would build on it.” — Sandy Kress, one of the architects of NCLB and a longtime advocate of the federal role in education. NPR

• “Though not perfect, this Senate bill reflects positive progress toward fixing the punitive accountability standards under the No Child Left Behind Act. It also moves our national education system toward a structure that provides more control for states and local school districts, while preserving reasonable federal accountability parameters with increased transparency.” — LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines. LA School Report

• “The reauthorization of ESEA is an opportunity to acknowledge what researchers and scientists have been stressing for some time now: education begins at birth. Better connection between early learning and K-12 education is a positive step in building a strong pipeline for our nation’s children” — First Five Years Fund Executive Director Kris Perry. ffyf.org

• “Most important to me is that this bill preserves the stream of funding that is necessary to protect the after-school programs because, to be quite honest, we have had a lot of issues with people trying to grab those funds and use them for something else. And let me tell you why we cannot do that. We now serve more than 1.6 million children of working families every year through this after-school program. That’s progress. Think about 1.6 million children. Think about all of their parents and the relief it brings to them to know they have their children in a quality after-school program.” Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California), speaking on the Senate floor. YouTube. 

Senators Patty Murray and Lamar Alexander (Credit: Senate.gov)

Move over, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

In an unusual show of bi-partisan support, the Senate Committee on Education this week approved the overhaul of the controversial Bush-era legislation, re-branding it ‘Every Child Achieves Act of 2015.’

The bill’s strong bipartisan support — it passed with a 22-0 vote — gives it some momentum as it heads to the Senate floor.

How much of a rewrite is it?
While it still requires federally mandated standardized tests, the bill restores more local control, giving states far more responsibility for setting their own accountability.  Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the committee’s chairman and one of the bill’s authors, explained in a statement that “this change should produce fewer tests and more appropriate ways to measure student achievement. It is the most effective path to advance higher state standards, better teaching, and real accountability.”

Co-sponsor and ranking Democrat Patty Murray (D-Wash.) issued a statement calling the vote a “positive step toward fixing the badly broken No Child Left Behind law and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to learn, no matter where they live, how they learn, or how much money their parents make.” 

Where is the teacher’s union?
There are mixed messages. The Washington Post reports that the National Education Association (NEA) opposes the rewrite, while Stephen Sawchuk at Edweek posted a letter from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) that says the bill “heads in the right direction.”

Does it have a chance?
While the National Journal writes that the Senate bill could be “one of the only bills on the Republican agenda this year that President Obama would sign” it still has to get up enough steam to pass on the floor.

And then there’s the little matter of the other chamber; the House of Representatives is struggling with its own bill called the “Student Success Act” which Republican leadership pulled from a floor vote earlier this year for fear it would fail.

Republican leadership is facing challenges among its ranks on the right on such issues as vouchers and support for Common Core, and strong opposition from Democrats who fear the House bill would strip federal oversight that assures funding for poor and minority students.

While President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the House bill, this week Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a statement he “applauded” the Senate version.

Faced with intense opposition from teachers, Sacramento City Unified announced Wednesday it would not join other California districts in reapplying for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Its defection leaves seven of eight districts seeking to extend a waiver from the federal accountability law through the California Office to Reform Education, a nonprofit that they formed. The waiver they got last year was the first for school districts, as opposed to a state department of education.

The CORE districts applied because California was one of only four states that either didn’t seek a waiver or had its request rejected.

Read the full story here.

“My guess is that there are probably some elements in there that we would embrace, but I think the process itself is flawed,” said CFT President Joshua Pechthalt. “Somehow, the women and men who are actually in the classrooms doing the day-to-day teaching were left out of the process of improving our schools. It’s just not going to work.”

The waiver request was put together by superintendents from eight school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, who received guidance from the U.S. Department of Education and other third parties. Elected school boards were not asked to sign off.

Pechthalt added: “It’s a top-down, one-size-fits-all reform.”

The CTA expressed similar objections to the waiver agreement, blaming Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

“By approving this waiver, Secretary Duncan once again demonstrates how his rhetoric that educators be actively involved in education change is just that – rhetoric,” CTA President Dean Vogel said in a statement. “Not one of the local teachers’ associations in the eight school districts was included in the discussion or signed the waiver application.”

UTLA President Warren Fletcher declined to comment.

Teachers unions had objected to the No Child Left Behind Law, which was signed by George W. Bush in 2001, and had supported California’s request for a waiver. After that waiver request was rejected, the eight districts went back to the Education Department with a waiver request of their own.

It became the first “No Child” waiver granted to districts, rather than a state.

The waiver includes provisions to measure student progress by a number of different metrics and to evaluate teachers based, in part, on student progress. One provision problematic for teachers: if a teacher is evaluated as “unsatisfactory” and fails to “improve substantially” after one year, that teacher may be fired.

“The craft of teaching is not something that you learn or change quickly,” said Pechthalt. “Rather than set one year as make-or-break, it seems to me that if an educator is showing commitment to improve, let’s continue to see progress rather than seeing if you’ve met a certain bar.”

Although the unions denounced the deal, they are not seeking to block or overturn it any way.

Previous posts: The ‘California 8′ Waiver: What it Means for Local Schools; No Child Left Behind Waiver for CA Districts Includes ‘Unique’ Oversight Panel;  ‘No Child’ Waiver OKd for LA Unified, 7 Other CA School Districts

Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the panel “unique” among the waivers granted to 39 states and the District of Columbia.

“We went back and forth about how to have oversight and hold these districts accountable,” said Duncan. “The panel idea was a significant improvement from the system they first proposed.”

The 14-member oversight body will provide an “unbiased external compliance review” of each district’s progress after a series of self- and peer-evaluations.

The group includes a Governor’s appointee and a representative for administrators, school boards, superintendents, unions, parents, the civil rights community, English learners and disabled students.

In effect, compliance with the terms of the waiver will require agreement from factions that routinely disagree with each other to sign off on academic progress.

An oversight panel was not included in earlier versions of the waiver request. It was added after multiple revisions as a way to discourage dissent and win support from groups that might otherwise have objected to protocols of the wavier.

“We welcome this oversight board because we want to be very transparent,” said Long Beach Supt. Chris Steinhaus. “We put the oversight committee under the Brown Act so the work of the panel will be open to the public.”

The eight districts from California Office to Reform Education (CORE) include Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sanger and Santa Ana Unified School Districts. Altogether, they represent over 1 million students.

The waiver is being granted only for one school year, and no other district can join the eight in that span. After reviewing the first-year results, Department officials will decide whether to renew it for 2014-2015.

The education department will give the participating districts more flexibility and accountability in how they measure student performance and raise academic performance at the district level, as well as more realistic goals for students. This is the first time the Department has granted a waiver to a group of districts.

Duncan said no other district or group of districts have applied for a waiver, nor does he expect any other No Child Left Behind waivers to be granted to districts.

“Our strong preference is to work with states because it makes more sense and is much easier to manage,” said Duncan. “But this was a unique situation. We didn’t have an application from a state but this waiver affects so many children.”

*An earlier version said the panel included nine members.

Previous posts: ‘No Child’ Waiver OKd for LA Unified, 7 Other CA School Districts, Update: Federal Review “Going In the Right Direction” for LAUSD, Final Decision Close on CORE’s ‘No Child’ Waiver Request, Teachers Unions Oppose NCLB Waiver That the ‘CA 9′ Want

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan

The U.S. Department of Education today approved a long-awaited federal waiver that allows LA Unified and seven other California districts to replace No Child Left Behind accountability rules with their own school improvement system.

The waiver creates a unique 14-member oversight body to provide an “unbiased external compliance review” of each district’s progress after a series of self- and peer-evaluations. The group includes a Governor’s appointee and a representative for administrators, school boards, superintendents, unions, parents, the civil rights community, English learners and disabled students.

In effect, compliance with the terms of the waiver will require agreement from factions that routinely disagree with each other to sign off on academic progress.

An oversight panel was not included in earlier versions of the waiver request. It was added as a mechanism to discourage dissent and win support from groups that might otherwise have objected to protocols of the wavier.

Secretary Arne Duncan called the body “unique” among the waivers granted by the Department.

The eight districts from California Office to Reform Education (CORE) include Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sanger and Santa Ana Unified School Districts. Altogether, they represent over 1 million students.

The waiver will give participating districts more flexibility and accountability in how they measure student performance and raise academic performance at the district level, as well as more realistic goals for students. This is the first time the Department has granted a waiver to a group of districts.

Until now, 39 states and the District of Columbia have received waivers.

The new accountability system, known as the School Quality Improvement System, will also closely align with California’s new Local Control Funding Formula and the Common Core Standards.

The system will be fully in place by the 2015-16 school year. It measures school improvement by assessing graduation rates, suspension, expulsions and chronic absences; English learner improvement. It will also take into account surveys taken by parents, student and staff.

The No Child Left Behind law applies strict sanctions if certain educational goals are not met by 2014, such as limitations on Title I funding for low-income students and federal intervention in low-performing schools. The inability to meet the goals can also force a school to close.

The group’s waiver application has sparked controversy among other state superintendents, who see a district waiver as giving too much power to locally-run districts. Teacher unions have argued they were not consulted in deciding how to evaluate teachers.

Under the new system, educator and principal success will now be linked to student achievement, a hotly-contested method that was at the heart of disagreements with past California No Child waiver requests.

While each district will develop its own specifics and guidelines, each has to choose from two options that incorporate student growth as a significant factor when assessing teacher performance:

• Student growth integrated through a “trigger” system. With this option, an evaluation will be conducted using multiple measures, not including student achievement. The results will be compared to student achievement results. Any misalignment between teacher/administrator professional practice and student performance will initiate a dialogue to identify why a discrepancy between scores exists, followed by district action in the interest of professional development of the teacher.
• Student growth as a defined percentage. Student growth will represent a minimum of 20% of teacher and principal evaluation calculations. Student growth will be calculated using a growth model which will be developed by the CORE Board of Directors in the 2014-2015 school year. However, if a district currently uses or seeks to use another high quality student growth model, the district will have the opportunity to apply to the CORE Board for the option to use an alternative method, provided the district provides a strong research-based rationale.

CORE’s system also shrinks the number of students measured for subgroup performance from 100, which is California’s current law, to 20. By reducing the subgroup size across all participating districts, schools will be held accountable for reporting the progress of about 153,000 additional students who are mostly Latino, African American, English Learners, or students with disabilities.

CORE first submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Education in February with the hopes of getting it approved by the start of the 2013-14 school year. The group has been continuously going back and forth with D.C. officials, resubmitting the application multiple times after receiving feedback.

A few CORE representatives, including L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy, flew to Washington earlier this month to speed up the review.

*An earlier version said the panel included nine members.

Previous posts: Update: Federal Review “Going In the Right Direction” for LAUSD, Final Decision Close on CORE’s ‘No Child’ Waiver Request, Teachers Unions Oppose NCLB Waiver That the ‘CA 9′ Want

CORE Executive Director Rick Miller

Pressed for time, a small group of superintendents and officials from a coalition of nine California school districts, representing 1.1 million students, are on their way to D.C. to ensure that its No Child Left Behind waiver proposal is passed in time for the upcoming school year.

Representatives from the California Office to Reform Education (CORE) will be meeting with federal officials on Wednesday and are still confident that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will approve their request to be exempted from requirements of the federal law that could cause school closures if not met by 2014.

On his way to the airport, CORE Executive Director Rick Miller said the districts might have a better chance of getting the waiver passed if everyone was in the same room.

“We feel like we are really close to getting the waiver passed,” said Miller. “But it’s a 70-something page document with a lot of technical information and it’s a difficult conversation to continue to have digitally.”

LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy is joining Miller, along with superintendents from Fresno Unified, Long Beach Unified, San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified, in an effort to speed up the federal review.

Miller said CORE has been having ongoing conversations with officials in D.C. over the past few months, but summer’s ticking clock was causing concern.

Districts are up against deadlines for contracts with companies that provide services, such as tutoring, in schools that have failed to meet NCLB’s academic targets, EdSource reported. Especially for Los Angeles Unified, these must be signed within a week or so.

After California’s waiver was rejected back in January, CORE submitted its own application to the Department of Education, marking the first time districts filed a unified proposal. Typically, a request comes from a state, and the department has already granted waivers to 39 states and the District of Columbia.

“The state board is OK with it,” said Miller. “They wrote a letter to Duncan raising some concerns but overall supported our application.”

The unique proposal raises a new and difficult question since districts took the NCLB waiver into their own hands: What role would the state play in this new accountability system?

“We are still figuring out how to make sure we are not splitting the state up,” said Miller. “It’s a very new idea.”

The group will be working through three different aspects of CORE’s proposed accountability system, known as the School Quality Improvement Index.

Intervention in low-performing schools has been one of the government’s biggest issues with the proposal, said Miller.

“We are focusing on peer review rather than having the state come in, meaning we would be paring high performing schools with struggling ones to help them improve and that hasn’t been done before in the U.S.,” said Miller.

“They want to know how that kind of locally-controlled intervention is going to work,” he added.

If the three-year waiver is approved, the coalition will have flexibility to spend $100 million in Title I dollars funded for low-income children. The districts would use some of that money for teachers and administrators to work collaboratively instead of relying on previous contracts, EdSource reported.

Controversial teacher evaluation methods will also be brought up in the D.C. meetings, especially since the coalition is developing its own way to judge teacher effectiveness.

“We’re using the Massachusetts Model System,” said Miller. “You first conduct an evaluation without student achievement data to see if they are effective and then compare that finding to student achievement in the classroom. If there is a large disconnect, you look at that.”

The group expects to stay in D.C. until Friday to ensure all issues are resolved so that students in the nine districts will not be faced with nearly impossible NLCB requirements, like becoming proficient in English and math by 2014.

“I hope the meeting lasts for a few days,” said Miller. “We will stay there for the rest of the week to make sure we get this passed.”

Previous posts: Update: Federal Review “Going In the Right Direction” for LAUSD; LA’s Most Famous Teacher Critiques Common Core; Reform Group Splits over Federal Waiver for LAUSD

It’s still a waiting game for LA Unified and eight other California school districts who have yet to hear if their revised No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver application will be given the thumbs up by the US Department of Education in Washington.

The nine districts, known as California Office to Reform Education (CORE), are still in the dark as to if and when they might be exempted from some of the more stringent requirements of the federal NCLB law that among other things requires all students to be proficient in English and math by 2014.

But spirits remain high.

The Obama administration continues to send positive signals about the process.

“If there are millions of kids and we could make a difference, then that’s something we have to look at,” said Joanne Weiss, chief of staff to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in a recent EdWeek interview.

And, according to CORE, the plan to have the waiver accepted by the start of this upcoming school year is still very much in motion.

“We’ve been having less formal, ongoing conversations with the U.S. Department of Education” in recent weeks, Hilary McLean, CORE’s director of communications told LA School Report. “Things seem to be going in the right direction.”

California submitted an application for a state waiver back in January, but was rejected because it was unable to include provisions that linked teacher evaluations to student performance.

In May, State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson said that the state would not make any more attempts, saying that the standards were “too difficult” for a state of this size.

CORE first submitted an application to the U.S. Department of Education in February, marking the first time that school districts, not an entire state, submitted a unified proposal.

The CORE districts, consisting of Clovis, Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sanger and Santa Ana Unified School Districts, represent 1.1 million students. Under its proposal, which was revised and re-submitted in May, the waiver would be extended to any other district or charter school system in the state that agrees to follow its guidelines.

As of this week, the US Department of Education is still looking over CORE’s proposed accountability system, known as the School Quality Improvement Index, which aims to create what CORE describes as more realistic goals for students and more flexibility to student performance regulations at the district level.

The State Department of Education would not comment on the nine school districts’ decision to pursue their own waiver, though Torlakson did say California remained “committed to local flexibility and decision-making.”

The U.S. Department of Education also had no updates on whether getting the goal approved by the upcoming school year was a possibility.

“We are still working with CORE on their waiver request,” said JoAnn Webb of the US Department of Education.

Despite concrete deadlines, the nine districts believe their new school improvement proposal will be replacing No Child Left Behind’s “narrow accountability rules” come September.

“It is a little bit of a waiting game and we are mindful of the ticking clock,” said McLean. “But we know the US Department of Education has to make sure everything is right.”

Previous posts: Reform Group Splits over Federal Waiver for LAUSD; Feds Want More Details from Waiver Application; District Waivers Worry State Education Chiefs

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan seems to be trying to turn over a new leaf with California Gov. Jerry Brown after years of tense disagreements, notes EdSource Today after Duncan praised Brown’s new funding formula at an event Friday night in San Francisco.

Even more immediately important for LAUSD, Duncan sounded sympathetic to the newly resubmitted No Child Left Behind waiver application request by a consortium of districts including LAUSD calling itself The California Office to Reform Education (CORE) to allow them to revamp school accountability ratings and free up federal funding.

“I think we have some really courageous superintendents who are trying to do the right thing, so we’ll continue to work through the details and go back and forth,” Duncan said of the CORE district application.

Previous posts: Feds Want More Details from Waiver Application;LAUSD Will Resubmit Federal Waiver Application – But Not State;Reform Group Splits over Federal Waiver for LAUSD

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Truancy would be a key factor in the new school rating system that’s being proposed by a consortium of California districts including LAUSD, according to a new EdSource Today article.

Chronic absenteeism would be one of the criteria of the group’s proposed new “School Quality Improvement Index,” which is part of a so-called waiver of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind which is currently under review in Washington.

Previous posts: Truancy Series Wins National Journalism Award, Feds Want More Details from Waiver Application

But there’s still no news on the fate of LAUSD’s application, or whether the state will try and get a statewide waiver.

*UPDATE:  The state Department of Education has issued a statement that it will not be applying for a waiver.  (See below.) The coalition representing LAUSD says that it plans to re-submit its application early next week.

The Obama administration’s waiver program is intended to provide relief from some of NCLB’s more onerous accountability and funding requirements, while still maintaining protections for low-income and minority students.

Fives states — including California — have either held off on applying for the waiver or withdrawn their applications, according to the Associated Press.[There is some disagreement between the state and Washington over whether California formally applied, according to the LA Times‘ Howard Blume.]

In the meantime, LAUSD and several other districts have created a consortium named California Office to Reform Education (CORE) and applied for their own waiver, which is currently under review by the US Department of Education. “The Department will continue its consideration of a separate request for waivers from the CORE districts in California,” according to the US Department of Education.

Several other states — Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming — have applications pending. Read the Associated Press story here.

*CADOE Statement:  “Despite consultations with the U.S. Department of Education in recent weeks, California will not be submitting an additional request for a waiver of federal requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act at this time.

“While California’s efforts to improve its education system continue to move forward, including implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the modernization of our assessment and accountability systems, the standards for obtaining a federal waiver remain difficult to meet for a state committed to local flexibility and decision-making.”

The initial draft of the waiver application sent in by LAUSD and other districts was given to an anonymous peer review group established by the Federal government.  It’s since been reviewed, though neither CORE nor LAUSD are releasing the details.

For the most part, the review panel wanted more details.

“Our original waiver was written at the 30,000-foot level,” said CORE spokesperson Hilary McLean. “The peer review feedback came back, they wanted it at the 10,000-foot level.”

She added: “We’ll be providing more information about indicators, and the weights given to various aspects of the accountability system. We’ll be providing more information about how districts communicate with each other. We’ll provide more information and detail about how students with disabilities will participate in the system. ”

Other suggested changes, which are outlined in this three-page memo, include changing the assessment level of each school. The original draft had schools getting evaluated based on the last (final) grade at the school site. After getting feedback, the revised waiver application will include student progress from grades 3 through 11.

Not everything about the first draft will be tossed out. One of the main freedoms CORE wants from the federal regulations that currently govern NCLB are, according to Superintendent John Deasy, “a more balanced accountability system that deals with things other than just test scores.”

Much like LAUSD’s new teacher evaluation system, the CORE waiver application wants school ratings to include dropout rates, graduation rates, truancy rates, school disciple and other criteria.

“That’s not likely to change,” Deasy told LA School Report.

While several states made their NCLB waiver application proposals and review sheets available online, the review group’s letter to CORE has not been made publicly available by the Education Department in Washington or the California districts that are applying for the waiver.

Civil rights and reform groups have been divided over the wisdom of providing a waiver to a group of districts, rather than to state education agencies.

Previous posts: Reform Group Splits over Federal Waiver for LAUSD; Civil Rights Groups Oppose LAUSD Waiver;  New Concerns About LAUSD Waiver; District Waivers Worry State Education Chiefs

Gloria Romero

Earlier this week, a number of civil rights and school reform groups including Democrats for Education Reform (or DFER) sent a letter to United States Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan opposing the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver that LAUSD and eight other California school districts had applied for.

But the next day, Gloria Romero, head of the California chapter of DFER, sent her own letter to Secretary Duncan in support of the LAUSD waiver request.

So what happened?

According to an initial account in Education Week, Romero described the dueling letters as the unintentional result of miscommunication between the state and national divisions.

Commenting on the waiver issue at EdSource, Romero wrote that the national letter “reflected the DC branch and was, unfortunately, submitted without input from the CA DFER office which has long supported the CORE waiver request.”

“I understand the national [DFER organization] is looking at this and saying, let’s be consistent federally,” Romero told LA School Report. “But I think, locked in the bowels of Washington DC, they weren’t privy to the real issues on the street. They didn’t understand — these are the reformers.”

“The CORE group came together to overcome the political obstacles at the state level,” said Romero.  “We need to reward the guys willing to reform by any means necessary.”

“It probably is unusual, but I felt strongly that this was a state issue,” she said — adding later, perhaps a bit jokingly: “I might be out of the job tomorrow. Who knows?”

Previous posts: Civil Rights Groups Oppose LAUSD Waiver;  New Concerns About LAUSD “Waiver”; District Waivers Worry State Education Chiefs

The Messy Complications of Breakfast in the Classroom
The Los Angeles Unified School District is in a period of tremendous upheaval that, it’s hoped, will result in better education for its students. With so much changing and so much at stake, of course there are more than a few daggers drawn. But when the teachers union and district administration can’t even get together over feeding hungry kids, something sick is going on. LA Times Opinion

Pre-K Funding is Delivered Another Blow
California state funding per child fell by more than than $400 compared with the previous year, and only 41% of 4-year-olds were served by public pre-K programs and Head Start in the 2011-12 school year, the institute reported. LAT

Washington and Sacramento Must End Cold War on Education
It is too late for California to get more than the sliver of Race to the Top funds it has already received. But the administration’s rejection of California’s NCLB waiver request is too important an issue to accept without further urgent efforts on both sides to reach a resolution. EdSource (opinion)

Walton Foundation Gives $8 Million to StudentsFirst
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Granada Hills Honored for Record Three-Peat As Academic Decathlon Champs
To raucous cheers and the skirl of the school’s bagpipers, the nine-member Academic Decathlon team from Granada Hills Charter High School was celebrated Monday for winning its third consecutive national championship – the first such achievement for a California campus. LA Daily News

New Science Standards Hard Sell at Cash-Strapped Sylmar High School
Ronald Hitchcock has been teaching science at Sylmar High School for more than a decade. He’s seen a lot of changes, but perhaps nothing has hit the school harder than the news last fall that it lost a $3.5 million QEIA grant.  “We’re pretty cash strapped right now,” he said. KPCC

Positive School Climate Boosts Test Scores, Study Says
It’s the million-dollar question or, given the size of the California education budget, the $50-billion-dollar question: What makes extraordinarily successful schools different from other schools? The answer: school climate, according to a new study from WestEd. EdSource

Attack on School Reformers Rings Hollow
This time, the powerful teachers’ unions went too far. At this month’s California Democratic Convention, a resolution attacking education reform movements was approved by delegates. It was sponsored by the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers and the California Faculty Association. O.C. Register Editorial

Bill Seeks to Limit School Police in Discipline Matters
As the national debate grows louder over deploying police in schools, the largest state in the union ­– California – is considering a bill that would require schools to set “clear guidelines” defining the role of school police and limit their involvement in disciplinary matters. CA Watch

School Discipline Survey Finds Challenges in Making Changes
Many school districts are changing their codes of conduct in a way that limits the use of out-of-school suspension and expulsion and defines the role of law enforcement in school. But the resources—human and financial—needed to make those changes don’t always match what districts can muster. EdWeek

New National Goals Set for Teaching Profession
A blueprint for improving the teaching profession nationally calls for more emphasis on quality preparation programs, higher standards for entry into the profession and better compensation for both classroom educators and school administrators. SI&A Cabinet Report

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has been a key proponent of the so-called “district waiver,” which he says would allow LAUSD to implement a school accountability plan that’s better than the current one required by NCLB and would also free up roughly $80 million in federal funding currently earmarked for tutoring and transportation.

Signed by the Education Trust, Democrats for Education Reform, the National Center for Learning Disabilities and other groups, the letter argues that putting districts in charge of their own accountability systems — rather than states, which traditionally oversee local school districts — would set a dangerous precedent that theoretically could reduce pressure on districts to improve education results for low-income, minority, and other disadvantaged students.

Similar concerns have also been raised by state education chiefs and right-leaning think tanks.  It’s unclear what if any effect the letter will have on the Obama education team making the decision.We’ll let you know what if any response we get to the news from LAUSD.

Previous posts: New Concerns About LAUSD “Waiver”; District Waivers Worry State Education Chiefs;

In a recent blog post titled “Mr. Secretary, please don’t do it,” Fordham Foundation pundit Andy Smarick writes that a waiver approval for LAUSD and other districts would be “an unprecedented and unwise decision.”

Unlike others, the Fordham Foundation analyst isn’t so much concerned about what LAUSD is asking to do, or the federal government’s ability to oversee the progress of individual districts around the country, but rather the possibility that a waiver for LAUSD gives too much power to the Education Department in Washington and bypasses state education agencies.

Teacher Dismissal Bill Off and Running With Committee Approval
A bill intended to make it quicker and less costly to dismiss teachers received a 7-0 approval from the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday, and its author – the chair of the committee, Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo – received much praise from her colleagues for taking on a contentious issue. EdSource
See also: Sac Bee

Calif. Districts’ Waiver Bid Now in Review Phase
The U.S. Department of Education and a band of outside peer reviewers are now weighing the details of a precedent-setting waiver application from nine districts in California that want flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act even though their state’s bid for a waiver was unsuccessful. EdWeek

L.A. Unified Filling Security Jobs Created After Newtown Shooting
Los Angeles Unified has hired more than 750 security aides in response to the 26 deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. About 250 openings remain. LA Times

California’s Prop 30 Gains Could Be Eaten Up by Crisis in Teacher Pension System
A recent report from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found a $70 billion shortfall in state teachers’ retirement plans — and that deficit has the potential to suck up a significant amount of Prop 30 revenue. HuffPo

Atlanta Cheating Scandal Reverberates
The criminal indictments last week of retired Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly L. Hall and 34 other educators for their alleged roles in a far-reaching cheating scandal could have widespread fallout and potentially undermine efforts in other school districts to improve the academic achievement of poor and minority students, according to education leaders. EdWeek

Winners of Head Start Grant Re-Competition Announced
Every one of the four California Head Start operators required to compete for their federal grant in a new process aimed at improving program quality was told Tuesday that their grant had been renewed. But some of those grants will be smaller next year, as the money will now be divided between additional grantees. EdSource

Educators and Safety Experts Reject NRA-Funded Plan
Leading educational and school safety groups rejected key recommendations of a National Rifle Association-funded school safety report released Tuesday. MSNBC

5 Disruptive Education Trends That Address American Inequality
Fixing how we teach our children is of paramount importance. What if the solution also started to fix America’s broader socioeconomic problems? New ways of thinking about edtech just might start that process. Co.Exist

Calif. Bill Would Require Panic Alarms in Schools
Lawmakers gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would require panic alarms to be installed throughout school campuses in California, but only if the federal government pays for it. AP

School-to-Prison Pipeline Presents Growing Concern for Administrators
Federal mediators and public school administrators in Meridian, Miss., have reached a landmark agreement to launch a rewards-based disciplinary plan, aimed at keeping in the classroom more black students who routinely received harsher disciplinary action when accused of relatively minor infractions. LA Daily News

An Urban School District That Works — Without Miracles or Teach For America
Union City makes an unlikely poster child for education reform. It’s a poor community with an unemployment rate 60 percent higher than the national average. Three-quarters of the students live in homes where only Spanish is spoken. A quarter are thought to be undocumented, living in fear of deportation. WaPo Opinion