- Race to the Top: The Blueprint for the New "No Child Left Behind" Act
- Holding the Line on Graduation Requirements
Race to the Top: The Blueprint for the New "No Child Left Behind" Act
President Obama’s stimulus and education budget signals a bold direction for K-12 education policy. Building from the unprecedented level of funding for education in 2010, the 2011 budget seeks $49.7 billion for education programs and signals a broad commitment to supporting education policies seen in the Race to the Top competition.
The budget includes $1.35 billion to extend Race to the Top and opens the competition to districts, not just states, and $500 million to continue the Investing in Innovation (i3) competition. Beyond continuing to fund these stimulus competitive programs, the budget expands its Race to the Top policies into other major funding streams.
The budget includes a $3 billion increase in funding for K-12 education programs through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), plus an additional $1 billion if Congress reauthorizes ESEA to require states to adopt higher, clearer standards and assessments; develop a strong teacher and principal evaluation system; and authorize state intervention in low-performing schools. As Secretary Arne Duncan said, “[The Department of Education] wants accountability reforms that factor in student growth, progress in closing achievement gaps, proficiency towards college and career-ready standards, high school graduation and college enrollment rates.”
Finally, a significant portion of the budget includes $14.5 billion for Title I School Improvement Grants, which will be renamed “College and Career Ready Students.” Funding will now reward districts where the state has established a definition of teacher effectiveness that measured by student growth, adopted new clearer and higher standards and assessments, developed strong longitudinal data systems and is turning around its lowest performing schools.
The Department of Education’s 2011 budget is a clear indication that the Administration is committed to investing in states that take bold actions to increase teacher and principal effectiveness, improve curriculum standards and use data to improve instruction. It is imperative that Washington state implement reforms allowing for the use of student growth data in teacher and principal evaluations and use evaluation data as a means to expedite the dismissal of poor-performing teachers. Given that Washington state has already committed it's $820 million in education stabilization funding to schools, without taking bold action on education reforms, the state will receive no additional stimulus funding, this fall.
Clearly, now is the time for reforms – the state, and our youth, cannot wait.
While Washington’s current Race to the Top legislation, SB 6696, contains some bright spots—authorizing the state to intervene in the lowest achieving schools and adopting common core standards—we must go further to address the bold reforms the federal government is requesting.
To learn more about what needs to be done to make Washington competitive for Race to the Top, please read this Partnership for Learning analysis. To learn more about the Obama Administration’s 2011 Budget for Education, please see this overview.
Holding the Line on Graduation Requirements
While Superintendent Randy Dorn’s proposal to further delay the math and science graduation requirements died in fiscal committees, another bill that would weaken Washington’s graduation requirements continues to persist in the Senate.
SB 6778 would allow students who meet the minimum requirements for entrance to higher education (15 credits), earned a 3.0 GPA, and completed both a Culminating Project and a High School and Beyond Plan to graduate without passing the state assessment.
This bill would return our high school graduation policies to the days prior to 1993.
Currently, the state requires that all students take and pass a series of assessments, based on a common set of standards and performance expectations. These assessments are critical for students demonstrate their mastery of basic skills and readiness to graduate from high school. SB 6778 would eliminate these important requirements.
Regardless of the path they choose, college and work ready skills—and the power they give students to solve problems and design innovative solutions—are critical, not only to student success, but to preserving our state’s competitiveness and prosperity.
By 2014, 77 percent of new job openings in Washington state that pay enough for an individual to sup-port a small family will be held by workers who have had education or training beyond high school. Of these jobs, more than half will be held by workers with four-year college degrees.
We can’t afford to give Washington students anything less than a fighting chance for these jobs, which is why we need to make sure that every single one graduates with the same rigorous college and work ready skills.
SB 6778 calls into question whether or not our state is serious about ensuring students are leaving with the skills they need to succeed after high school. And, if Washington is to be competitive for Race to the Top and future federal education funding, we need to continue to move forward and raise standards, not move backwards and lower them.