NEA adopts ESEA Positive Agenda; NEA leaders spread the word: Since the adoption of It’s Time for A Change: NEA’s Positive Agenda for the ESEA Reauthorization at this summer’s Representative Assembly, NEA leaders and staff have been invited to testify and serve on panels regarding the ESEA reauthorization:

• NEA President Reg Weaver testified before the final national hearing of the Aspen Institute’s NCLB Commission (9/25/06). Note: The Commission has posted complete coverage of the hearing on its Web site, including the webcast, testimony from all participants, and supporting materials. Weaver also served as a panelist at the National Press Club at the fourth national NCLB forum sponsored by the Business Roundtable (9/20/06) (transcript online) and testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce on growth models (7/26/06).
• Executive Committee member Becky Pringle served on an NCLB reauthorization panel hosted by National Journal’s Policy Council (9/28/06) and testified before the Aspen Institute’s NCLB Commission on "High Schools/College Readiness and NCLB" (8/4/06).
• EPP special education policy expert Patti Ralabate testified before the Aspen Institute’s NCLB Commission on "Children with Disabilities and NCLB" (8/2/06).

NEA offers action plan to prevent dropouts: NEA recently announced a 12-point plan that combines the efforts of parents, teachers, business leaders, and lawmakers in an effort to reverse the trend of students dropping out of school. Included in the plan:

• Mandatory high school graduation or equivalency for everyone below the age of 21
• Workplace options that allow parents to participate in their child's education
• Early intervention through high-quality universal preschool and full-day kindergarten programs.

"We’ve identified the crisis, and it will take everyone sharing responsibility to correct it," President Weaver said at a press conference."This is no longer about students slipping through the cracks of our educational system. Those cracks are now craters."

NEA protests recent guidance negating savings clause: President Weaver sent a letter on August 24 to ED Secretary Margaret Spellings protesting recent guidance that would negate the savings clause that provides protections under collective bargaining agreements, as well as federal, state, and local law, to education employees whose schools are subject to school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under NCLB. To date we have not received a response. We are working with several Congressional offices on a letter to the Secretary in support of our position.

In the Congress ————————

Growing list of NEA-supported NCLB bills: Since late June, nine more NEA-sponsored bills to improve ESEA have been introduced, 2 by Republican sponsors, and several other NEA-backed bills have gained new cosponsors. You can find the latest list of NEA-supported bills (total of 39) on NEA’s public Web site.

Congressional panel reviews Supplemental Education Services: Under NCLB, schools that receive federal Title I money and miss Adequate Yearly Progeress (AYP) reading and math goals three years in a row must offer supplemental education services (SES) to low-income students. But nationally, just 10-20 percent of eligible students nationwide participate in the program. This figure was part of the conversation during a recent hearing before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce during which Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) and some of his colleagues asserted that some schools are not doing all they can to promote SES. Participants also discussed a recent GAO report indicating that states are not doing enough to promote the participation of students. Raising the funding issue, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) asked how schools and students are supposed to get ahead if Title I is not fully funded and funds are siphoned off to pay for supplemental services. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) pointed out the irony of federal funds being used for SES when SES-provided tutors do not need to meet the same "high quality teacher" standards as educators in the public school system.

ED Department—————————

Department reverses course on HOUSSE after prodding by NEA: On June 2, President Weaver sent a letter to ED Secretary Margaret Spellings calling on her to reverse a policy announced in May that mandateds tates to limit the use of HOUSSE after the end of the 2005-06 school year. In addition to our letter, several members of Congress and chief state school officers also protested this limitation. On September 5, Spellings issued a letter to all states’ chief state school officers that essentially acknowledges that the Department does not have the authority to eliminate HOUSSE. It says the agency now will pursue its efforts to phase out HOUSSE through the ESEA reauthorization process, but fornowis simply "encouraging" states to eliminate HOUSSE. In addition, on October 11, in a conference call with NEA and other education organizations, the Secretary clearly stated that states may continue to use HOUSSE.

Department issues regulations on LEP students and plans meeting: On September 13, ED issued final Title I regs on assessments required under NCLB for recently arrived Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. They go into effect October 13. The Department made clarifying but not substantive changes to the proposed regulations. For example:

• The proposed regulations defined a "recently arrived" LEP student as one who has attended schools in the United States for up to 10 months. The final regulations extend that time period slightly—up to 12 months. (NEA had recommended the time frame be extended to at least 24 months.)
• The proposed regulations would have exempted "recently arrived" LEP students from the reading test, but would have required states to include them in state math assessments. The final regulations still require "recently arrived" LEP students to take the math assessment, with accommodations as necessary, but states are not required to include the results in AYP determinations. (NEA had recommended states have the option to exempt recent arrivals from the math assessment based on the fact that most math tests require a certain level of reading proficiency.)

Properly including and assessing LEP students is a challenge in many states, so the Department has initiated a partnership to help states improve the assessment of LEP students. The first step: a meeting of 25 states was held August 28-29 where experts provided details regarding ways to design appropriate assessments, including accommodations, for LEP students. Coming next: a meeting for all states on October 28–29. ED will provide state teams with opportunities to talk with some of the nation's top researchers, looking at short-term approaches to improving the assessment of LEP students as well as long-term, multi-state initiatives.

Watchdog finds serious wrongdoing in Reading First Program: Last month, ED's Office of the Inspector General issued a scathing report on The Reading First Grant Application Process. The findings of the report  indicated serious wrongdoing on the part of ED officials, to the point of possibly violating the law.

NEA signs on to arts education statement: NEA has signed onto Arts Education: Creating Student Success in School, Work, and Life, which states that "The federal commitment to arts education must be strengthened so that the arts are implemented as a part of the core curriculum of our nation's schools and are an integral part of every child's development." We are one of 50 education, art, and music groups that signed the statement.

Think tank criticizes use of AYP to measure achievement: The Great Lakes Center, whose members are NEA and state affiliates in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, on September 25 released a policy brief that finds Adequate Yearly Progress, the main indicator of academic achievement under NCLB, is an "unproven, unrealistic and underfunded system for improving student performance in the nation’s public schools."