Illinois PTA president Brian Minsker spoke on Tuesday at a press conference in Decatur calling on Governor Rauner to sign Senate Bill 1 (SB1), a bill that would change Illinois’s school funding formula. His remarks are below, and you can view a video of the press conference courtesy of the Decatur Herald and Review (President Minsker’s remarks begin at 8:25). In addition, Illinois PTA encourages every PTA member to take a couple of minutes today contact Governor Rauner to urge him to sign SB1 using our ready-to-go letter.
Much of the news since the passage of a state budget has focused on the requirement of an evidence-based funding model in order for schools to receive funding this year. The need to keep our schools open for this school year, which for some has already begun, is certainly one reason to support SB1, the only evidence-based funding model that has passed both houses of the General Assembly.
But that budget requirement is not the primary reason that the Illinois PTA is urging the governor to sign SB1. Illinois PTA has long supported education funding that is adequate, equitable, and sustainable as part of our legislative platform. While our state remains far from meeting those three goals, SB1 is an important first step towards achieving them.
As a statewide association with PTAs in rural, suburban, and urban school districts, it was essential that no school district lose funding under an evidence-based model and that such protections last for more than a handful of years. SB1 provides just that, locking in current levels of funding as a foundation.
In Illinois, we currently spend a worst-in-the-nation $0.81 on a low-income student’s education for every $1.00 we spend on a non-low-income student. By determining the unique cost to educate a student in each Illinois school district, by measuring that against the district’s ability to raise its own funding, by treating every school district in Illinois the same in how current, but not legacy, pension costs are handled, and by providing more funding for districts the further they are from their target funding, SB1 begins the process of providing a more equitable distribution of funds throughout Illinois.
This approach is essential to guaranteeing that the quality of a child’s education does not depend on their zip code. Governor Rauner promised to fix our funding formula. His bipartisan commission recommended an evidence-based funding model, which SB1 now implements. The time has come for the governor to deliver on that promise and sign SB1.
We have spent the last two years without a budget, and we have seen the lasting damage that has been done to our community colleges, our universities, and our social services. Now that we finally have a budget, let’s not shift the political fight to our schools and our children, for that is what this fight is truly about. Do we move to provide every child in Illinois a quality education, or do we use our children, our future, as pawns to score political points? Governor Rauner, Illinois PTA urges you to sign SB1 for every Illinois child.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – To further enhance the state’s Comprehensive Third Grade Literacy Initiative, the West Virginia Department of Education’s (WVDE) Office of Early Learning will grant more than $350,000 to state and local partners to expand local-level support for the WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. There were three levels of awards: up to $5,000, up to $25,000, and up to $50,000, with a total distribution of more than $350,000.
The following partners will receive funding as a result of the Campaign Partner Grants competition:
Read Aloud West Virginia
Save the Children
West Virginia Imagination Library
Shepherd University
Western Counties Regional Library System (to benefit the “Facing Hunger” food banks, as well as 31 public libraries in Mason, Putnam, Cabell, Wayne, Mingo, Logan, & Lincoln counties)
Wirt County Prevention Coalition
Tucker County Family Resource Network (to benefit Tucker, Randolph, & Barbour Co. public libraries)
Weirton Bread Basket Bob Burdette Center & East End Family Resource Network (Kanawha Co.)
Partners will receive funding in the coming weeks to be used for school year 2017-18.
“Research shows the importance of ensuring all students read on grade-level by the end of the third grade in order to increase the likelihood of later achievement in school and in life,” said Dr. Steven Paine, West Virginia Superintendent of Schools.
“With continued support from the West Virginia Governor’s office, the West Virginia Legislature and the State Board of Education, the Department’s efforts to support early literacy initiatives and programs at the local level are in full swing in all 55 West Virginia counties. The Campaign Partner Grants Competition serves as an additional avenue through which collaboration and services can be provided to benefit the children and families of West Virginia as we collectively strive to close the critical third-grade literacy achievement gap.”
Grant proposals had to support data-driven programs, initiatives or efforts applicable to counties’ identified needs and goals associated with their approved Early Literacy Action Plans submitted to the WVDE Office of Early Learning. Each selected grant proposal was directly connected to one or more components of the WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, including:
school readiness, attendance, extended learning opportunities, and/or high-quality classroom instruction.
The WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading began as a result of legislation passed in 2014, which led to the passage of State Board of Education policy 2512 that focuses on a transformative system of support for early literacy, ages birth through third grade. The campaign serves as West Virginia’s initiative to close the literacy achievement gap by the end of the third grade year.
Yesterday, a twelve-member task force, convened by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), released a report on “Quality Education.” The task force was formed in December 2016 after the NAACP’s October 2016 call for a national moratorium on expanding charter schools until a set of conditions were met.
The charge of the task force was to bring forward “practical recommendations that respond to the urgency of this resolution and the inequities undermining public education.” In order to fulfill their charge, from December 2016 to April 2017, the task force held public hearings in seven cities—New Haven, Memphis, Orlando, Los Angeles, Detroit, New Orleans, and New York.
The report acknowledged that, from testimonials at the public hearings, they found some positive aspects of charter schools. However, the report ultimately concluded that “even the best charters are not a substitute for more stable, adequate and equitable investments in public education in communities that serve all children.”
Criticism of Public Hearings
According to NAACP task report report, the “hearing format [for the public meetings] ensured testimony” from all of the following stakeholders: educators, administrators, school policy experts, charter school leaders, parents, advocates, students, and community leaders. However, some have questioned the authenticity and fairness of these meetings, claiming that they did not include groups and individuals who were charter supporters.
For example, in Tennessee, members of Memphis Lift, a parent-activist organization, voiced disapproval when they were only allowed 12 minutes at the end of a four-hour meeting. Additionally, in Orlando, Minnesota education activist Rashad Anthony Turner was ushered out of the meeting by police after he interrupted a speech by Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers President, because opponents of the moratorium were kept waiting.
Task Force Provides Five Recommendations Based on Public Hearings
According to the report, the testimonials illuminated the “perceived” benefits and problems with charter schools. Using those testimonials, the task force created five recommendations, summarized below, that would improve the quality of charter schools.
Recommendation #1: Provide more equitable and adequate funding for schools serving students of color. The task force argued that education funding has been “inadequate and unequal for students of color for hundreds of years.” In order to remedy the problem, the task force recommended that states should implement weighted student formula systems and model them after the systems that Massachusetts and California have pursued. They also recommended that the federal government should “fully enforce” the funding equity provisions within the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
Recommendation #2: Invest productively in low-performing schools and schools with significant opportunity and achievement gaps. In order to ensure that all students receive a high-quality education, the task force recommends that federal, state, and local policies need to “sufficiently” invest in three things: creating incentives to attract and retain teachers, evolving instruction to be more challenging and inclusive, and providing more wraparound services for students such as health and mental services.
Recommendation #3: Develop and enforce robust charter school accountability measures. There were five parts within this recommendation. They are as follows:
Create and enforce a rigorous chartering authorizing and renewal process. The task force recommends that states should only allow districts to serve as authorizers. This is significant since, of the 44 states that allow charter schools, only four—Wyoming, Virginia, Iowa, and Kansas—have district-only charter authorization.
Create and enforce a common accountability system.
Monitor and require charter schools to admit and retain all students. This recommendation calls for open enrollment procedures, and asserts that charter schools should not be allowed to counsel out, push out, or expel students that they “perceive as academically or behaviorally struggling, or whose parents cannot maintain participation requirements or monetary fees.”
Create and monitor transparent disciplinary guidelines that meet students’ ongoing learning needs and prevent push out. The report recommends that charter schools should be required to follow the “same state regulations regarding discipline as public schools,” and use restorative justice practices.
Require charter schools to hire certified teachers. Many states allow charter schools to hire uncertified teachers at higher rates than traditional public schools, however Minnesota is not one of them.
Recommendation #4: Require fiscal transparency and equity. The task force recommends that all charter schools be held to the “same level of fiscal transparency and scrutiny as other public schools.”
Recommendation #5: Eliminate for-profit charter schools. This recommendation not only states that all for-profit charter schools should be eliminated, but that all for-profit management companies that run nonprofit charter schools should be eliminated as well. Approximately 13 percent of U.S. charter schools are run by for-profit companies. Additionally, at least 15 states allow virtual schools, with many of them operated by for-profit organizations.
Report Elicits Scrutiny from Education Advocates
In response to the NAACP report, Nina Rees, CEO and President of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), issued a statement where she indicated that NAPCS was glad to see the NAACP recognize the value of charter schools and agreed with them that “whoever oversees a public school should take that responsibility seriously, have the highest expectations, and hold educators in the school accountable” for educating students.
However, Rees also asserted that the NAACP’s policy resolution and report failed to “acknowledge that Black parents are demanding more and better public-school options,” citing a nationally representative survey which found that found 82 percent of Black parents favored allowing parents to choose their child’s public school.
She also cited a 2015 CREDO Urban Charter Schools Report, which found that Black public charter school students gained 36 days of learning in math and 26 in reading over their non-charter school peers.
Chris Stewart, based in Minnesota and former director of outreach and external affairs for Education Post, asserted that “the NAACP has lost its way,” claiming that they have become an “unwitting tool of teacher unions” due to the union’s significant contributions to the NAACP over the years. He also claimed that the unions are “threatened by the growth and success of non-unionized charter schools.”
District-Charter Collaboration: Hope in a Time of Political Tension
The growing and contentious disagreements between education organizations and advocates regarding the merits of charter versus traditional district schools are not new and will likely continue to dominate the news cycle.
However, in recent years, a growing number of districts and charter schools have put aside their political differences and worked together in order to do what’s best for students. Our next two blog posts will examine the cities where some of those collaborative relationships are taking place, as well as provide history on district-charter collaboration in Minnesota.
Education stakeholders remain “concerned” about the state’s submitted ESSA plan. Atnre Alleyne, executive director of the Delaware Campaign for Achievement Now, shared his fear that the states plan is “just an exercise in compliance,” and questioned if the state was “really serious about getting to a place where we’re closing the achievement gap.”
Tennessee’s state education leaders have launched a plan that positions the state’s schools for a historic opportunity. The Volunteer State — more than any other state so far — is taking important steps to reframe accountability from a system of sanctions and compliance to one of aligned supports and authentic outcomes. Other states should take note as they devise their own accountability plans.
Tennessee was one of the first states to submit a plan for the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. The comprehensive approach prepared by Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen and her team represents a powerful blueprint for updating the state’s instructional programs.
The Tennessee Succeeds plan addresses achievement gaps with strategies informed by leading-edge school practices like personalized learning, which have begun to take root in diverse settings like Knox County Schools and Rocketship charter schools in Nashville. In addition, leaders like those at Tullahoma City Schools have pursued the use of innovative educational technology that incorporates cutting-edge digital tools into everyday learning.
Like every state in the union, Tennessee has large and persistent achievement gaps between poor and non-poor students, as well as between minority and non-minority students. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress (also known as “The Nation’s Report Card”), there is a nearly 25-point gap between poor and more-affluent students. A similar gap exists between white and black students in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math. While the differences in performance between white and Hispanic students have narrowed since 2011, the white-black achievement gaps have increased.
These gaps are evidence that large numbers of historically underserved students are not able to read at grade level or competently perform in math. Lags in either subject or grade can lead to academic struggles, the potential to drop out, and a lack of college or career readiness. Tennessee states in its ESSA plan that nearly half of all high school graduates do not go on to college and that first-time students in community colleges need at least one remedial course.
ESSA requires states to address achievement gaps, and Tennessee is tackling the challenge head-on. In its plan, the state emphasizes that “All Means All” by providing individualized support and opportunities to all students, particularly those who are behind. In fact, Tennessee states in its plan, “To support the department’s rigorous standards, aligned assessments, and strong accountability model, the department recognized the need for more personalization in the learning experiences for teachers and for students.”
The sad reality is that disproportionate numbers of poor and minority kids wind up in special education due to a lack of educational success. These students often slip through the cracks until their cumulative learning deficits become too large to ignore and their needs are finally addressed through individual attention mandated by federal disability law. Personalized learning holds real potential to turn this all-too-familiar pattern on its head by providing students immediate learning support when it is needed. Instead of waiting for students to fail before they get more time and attention, personalized learning is a just-in-time approach that can help teachers address academic deficiency before it snowballs into failure.
School accountability under the new plan will better support personalizing teaching and learning. In personalized learning models, students can learn at their own rates in different subjects with standards-aligned content. Among a number of changes, the state is proposing to use growth in student achievement over time to measure performance and reward academic growth at all levels of achievement, rather than just grade-level proficiency.
The state also lays out four areas of focus for piloting personalized learning approaches for students and teachers:
Blended learning for Algebra I:Launched last school year, this pilot was the state’s first personalized learning initiative and is set to double in size to 10,000 students for the 2017–18 school year. This effort is guided by evidence that technology can support teachers in delivering personalized instruction by leveraging data and quickly diagnosing student needs.
Predictive analytics:Personalized learning strategies often leverage technology to increase the efficiency of the learning cycle by using data trends to develop insights into learning patterns and streamline data-informed decisions.
Teacher micro-credentialing:Thisapproach to professional development more closely aligns the acquisition of teaching knowledge and specific skills with identified needs, instead of the generic, one-size-fits-all approach. During the 2017–18 school year (the initiative’s second year), the state plans to reach up to 5,000 educators by partnering with districts to use micro-credentials.
Competency-based education:To support personalizing learning, the plan calls for encouraging initiatives that allow students to demonstrate mastery and advance through curricula and grades as mastery is achieved, informed by progress seen by some districts trying this approach and others outside Tennessee.
To take full advantage of the state’s ESSA plan, Tennessee districts will need to take action and put the state’s plans to good use. Tennessee is poised to make an innovation leap, using ESSA to launch efforts to personalize the education experience of every learner, combining effective teaching with adaptive technology to bring individualized instruction to every student.
And nationally, the Volunteer State has drafted a plan that its peers can — and should — seek to emulate within the context of their own unique educational ecosystems. There is no question the nation faces a national imperative to improve educational outcomes for all students, and Tennessee’s comprehensive approach to layering innovation and personalization into its strategic design seems destined to yield results.
Doug Mesecar is an adjunct scholar at the Lexington Institute. He previously served as a senior official at the U.S. Department of Education and in Congress.
AUSTIN – Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced today that a public comment period for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) consolidated state plan will begin Monday, July 31. The ESSA consolidated state plan is scheduled to be submitted by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to the U.S. Department of Education later this year.
ESSA became law in December 2015, replacing the No Child Left Behind Act. The new law increases flexibility and decision-making authority afforded states, encourages states and schools to be innovative, and holds states accountable for results. ESSA requires federal review and approval of a state consolidated plan, which provides a comprehensive overview of how each state will use federal funds to advance its own goals and visions of success for students.
“The Every Student Succeeds Act represents the first major overhaul to federal education policy in almost two decades,” said Commissioner Morath. “ESSA provides an opportunity to leverage new flexibilities that bring greater emphasis to our state’s own priorities while working to strengthen public education outcomes for our more than five million schoolchildren.”
Since taking office in January 2016, Commissioner Morath has focused on developing systems within the agency that support ESSA implementation through an established TEA Strategic Plan. All work at the agency is now centered around four strategic priorities. The four strategic priorities include: (1) recruiting, supporting and retaining teachers and principals; (2) building a foundation of reading and math; (3) connecting high school to career and college; and (4) improving low-performing schools.
An overview of TEA’s strategic plan is available on the agency website.
Over the past year and a half, the Commissioner and TEA staff have taken part in more than 200 stakeholder meetings statewide. In addition, TEA has engaged with outreach to a wider range of stakeholders, including meetings with teachers, school board members and parents. These meetings have focused on gathering feedback on the broad aspects of the agency’s overall strategic plan, as well as specific input on the development of key policy decisions related to ESSA implementation.
A draft of Texas’ state consolidated plan will be posted on July 31. The public comment period will formally begin on that date and run through Aug. 29, 2017. TEA will submit the Texas consolidated state plan to the U.S. Department of Education sometime in September.
For more information regarding the state’s efforts on ESSA implementation, please visit the TEA website.
The U.S. Department of Education tells the Trib’s education team that DeVos on Monday called out special education leaders gathered in Arlington, Va., at the Office of Special Education’s Leadership Conference.
DeVos, who has been a champion of charter schools and alternatives to traditional public classrooms, continued to tout school choice to the group. She referred to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring a public school district to pay private school tuition for a special education student as a major victory for children with disabilities.
ALBANY – The state Education Department has released a revised schools accountability proposal that’s slated to be considered for adoption in September.
The latest version of the plan, released Monday, includes proposals to use out-of-school suspensions as a measure of school quality and student success beginning in 2018-19; to cut down math and English language arts testing requirements for third through eighth graders from three days to two (something the Board of Regents already has voted on); and to revise benchmarks for schools educating English language learners.
In a noteworthy sign of the political times, the plan was revised to more explicitly highlight concerns about the implementation of a new state law to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18, and its impact on educational services as minors transition out of county jails and take courses in secure and non-secure detention facilities and other voluntary placement agencies. That law, which raises the age from 16 years old, was approved as part of the state budget in April.
The federal Every Student Succeeds Act serves as a guiding document for accountability statewide. States were authorized to come up with such accountability systems under eponymous congressional legislation approved last year to replace the No Child Left Behind Act.
The state Education Department produced the initial draft in May. The plan includes proposals to rate schools based on student performance science and social studies in addition to English and math; on five- and six-year graduation rates instead of just on four-year numbers; and on students’ “civic readiness,” in addition to existing college- or career-readiness benchmarks.
The standards would be used to score schools and identify those that require state intervention and improvement plans.
The draft plan now goes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has 30 days to review it, make suggestions for inclusion in the final plan, and choose to sign or not sign it.
A Cuomo spokesman said the executive will review the draft.
he Board of Regents is set to take action on the plan in September. With that, education officials can send it on to the U.S. Department of Education for final approval, with implementation to follow.
“Through ESSA, New York is poised to take a more holistic approach to accountability that looks at multiple measures of school and student success,” Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa said in a statement. “This approach allows us to continually evolve and adapt so we can ensure that our systems are culturally responsive and place an emphasis on educating the whole child.”
The revisions to the plan follow a public comment period that drew more than 800 written comments and 270 verbal responses.
A full breakdown of changes to the plan can be found here. The full plan is here.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ home state education chief thinks her department is sending some conflicting signals when it comes to the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Brian J. Whiston, the state superintendent, said the message he’s heard from DeVos has been all about state leadership and leeway.
But he got a very different sound bite from Jason Botel, the acting assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education. Botel called the state earlier this month to talk about what the department sees as missing from its ESSA plan, in advance of an official feedback letter…
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is shooting back at one of her biggest political foes and defending her approach to civil rights enforcement.
In a July 11 letter to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., DeVos said that while upholding the nation’s civil rights laws is “among the most important missions” at her department, the Obama administration’s decision to expand the scope of investigations into potential violations meant that too many individual students’ complaints went unaddressed. That approach, DeVos said, created a “justice delayed is justice denied” situation.
Murray, however, didn’t respond directly to DeVos’ message. In a July 14 response, the top Democrat on the Senate education committee told the secretary that her department still hasn’t provided information Murray had asked for, including on open cases involving transgender students and sexual harrassment as of the end of January and on all the civil rights probes at her department that have been closed…
Illinois PTA president Brian Minsker spoke on Tuesday at a press conference in Decatur calling on Governor Rauner to sign 
