WASHINGTON & SACRAMENTO’S COLD WAR OVER EDUCATION

Washington and Sacramento must end Cold War on education By Louis Freedberg  | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/15Y7dpg

Advocacy groups urge rejection of NCLB waiver for California districts By John Fensterwald | EdSource Today http://bit.ly/14R682n

April 29th, 2013  ::  Some high level diplomacy is called for to end the Cold War between Sacramento and Washington that has frozen out the state from benefiting from the major education initiatives of President Obama’s education reform agenda. Louis Freedberg>> The administration has awarded 34 states and the District of Columbia waivers from onerous provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation signed into law a decade ago by Obama’s predecessor. But the administration has rejected California’s request for a waiver from the law – the same one that President Barack Obama has criticized during most of the time he has been in office. Instead, his administration has left California to implement a law that his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has described as a “slow-motion train wreck” that “serves as a disincentive to higher standards, rather than as an incentive.” The administration is currently considering a separate waiver application from a consortium of nine school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco and Oakland, with a combined enrollment of more than 1 million children. But even if the waiver is granted, the vast majority of school children, and districts, would still be left laboring under the old law. Still in effect is the unattainable NCLB provision that will require every student in California to be “proficient” on standardized tests by next year. California could meet that goal by simply lowering its standards. But it has, rightly, refused to do so. That means that ever-growing numbers of schools serving low-income students will be effectively labeled as “failures” – in need of “program improvement” – under the NCLB law. At the latest count, there were 4,402 of them in California. The administration’s rejection of California’s waiver follows the state’s near shut out from President Obama’s signature education initiative, the $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund. California has been awarded a mere $50 million from the fund, despite having one in eight public school children in the nation. What’s more, those funds were designated for only three school districts serving about 20,000 students – out of 6.2 million in the state. President Obama declared that the guiding principle for his waiver program would be to give states flexibility in implementing it. But in return he is demanding that to get the waiver every school – nearly 10,000 of them – must meet many new requirements that weren’t even in the original law. The most publicized sticking point is requiring each of the state’s nearly 10,000 schools to introduce a new way of evaluating teachers. The new evaluation system must include “as a significant factor” measures of “student growth for all students including English learners and special education students.” The administration says districts can used “multiple formats and sources” to measure growth, including “rigorous teacher performance standards, teacher portfolios, and student and parent surveys.” It’s obvious that better teaching leads to better learning outcomes. But there is no assurance that the evaluation system being demanded by the administration will be more effective than the NCLB law has been in closing the achievement gap. The administration’s plan could help remove some of the least effective teachers from the classroom. But whether it will drastically improve student outcomes for the majority of California’s students is unknown. Overshadowed by the controversy over teacher evaluation is the additional requirement that California devise an entirely new, and untested, system of “priority schools,” “focus schools” and “reward schools” to “differentiate” schools based on based on student performance. Without additional support from Washington, the state would be required to provide “incentives and supports” to “ensure continuous improvement” of the lowest-performing schools. It is time for a reset of California’s relations with Washington on the education front. The Obama and Brown administrations should initiate discussions at the highest levels to figure out a way for California to receive a waiver from the NCLB law. California’s congressional leadership should do whatever it can to facilitate these discussions. 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. Louis Freedberg is executive director of EdSource. A version of this commentary first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 29, 2013. Going deeper Read California’s request for a waiver request here. Read U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s rejection of California’s waiver application here. Some high level diplomacy is called for to end the Cold War between Sacramento and Washington that has frozen out the state from benefiting from the major education initiatives of President Obama’s education reform agenda. The administration has awarded 34 states and the District of Columbia waivers from onerous provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation signed into law a decade ago by Obama’s predecessor. But the administration has rejected California’s request for a waiver from the law – the same one that President Barack Obama has criticized during most of the time he has been in office. Instead, his administration has left California to implement a law that his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has described as a “slow-motion train wreck” that “serves as a disincentive to higher standards, rather than as an incentive.” The administration is currently considering a separate waiver application from a consortium of nine school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco and Oakland, with a combined enrollment of more than 1 million children. But even if the waiver is granted, the vast majority of school children, and districts, would still be left laboring under the old law. Still in effect is the unattainable NCLB provision that will require every student in California to be “proficient” on standardized tests by next year. California could meet that goal by simply lowering its standards. But it has, rightly, refused to do so. That means that ever-growing numbers of schools serving low-income students will be effectively labeled as “failures” – in need of “program improvement” – under the NCLB law. At the latest count, there were 4,402 of them in California. The administration’s rejection of California’s waiver follows the state’s near shut out from President Obama’s signature education initiative, the $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund. California has been awarded a mere $50 million from the fund, despite having one in eight public school children in the nation. What’s more, those funds were designated for only three school districts serving about 20,000 students – out of 6.2 million in the state. President Obama declared that the guiding principle for his waiver program would be to give states flexibility in implementing it. But in return he is demanding that to get the waiver every school – nearly 10,000 of them – must meet many new requirements that weren’t even in the original law. The most publicized sticking point is requiring each of the state’s nearly 10,000 schools to introduce a new way of evaluating teachers. The new evaluation system must include “as a significant factor” measures of “student growth for all students including English learners and special education students.” The administration says districts can used “multiple formats and sources” to measure growth, including “rigorous teacher performance standards, teacher portfolios, and student and parent surveys.” It’s obvious that better teaching leads to better learning outcomes. But there is no assurance that the evaluation system being demanded by the administration will be more effective than the NCLB law has been in closing the achievement gap. The administration’s plan could help remove some of the least effective teachers from the classroom. But whether it will drastically improve student outcomes for the majority of California’s students is unknown. Overshadowed by the controversy over teacher evaluation is the additional requirement that California devise an entirely new, and untested, system of “priority schools,” “focus schools” and “reward schools” to “differentiate” schools based on based on student performance. Without additional support from Washington, the state would be required to provide “incentives and supports” to “ensure continuous improvement” of the lowest-performing schools. It is time for a reset of California’s relations with Washington on the education front. The Obama and Brown administrations should initiate discussions at the highest levels to figure out a way for California to receive a waiver from the NCLB law. California’s congressional leadership should do whatever it can to facilitate these discussions. 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. Louis Freedberg is executive director of EdSource. A version of this commentary first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 29, 2013. Going deeper Read California’s request for a waiver request here. Read U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s rejection of California’s waiver application here.

April 29th, 2013  ::  Seven advocacy and civil rights organizations, led by Washington-based The Education Trust, have called on Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to deny nine California districts a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, saying any deviation from a statewide waiver “would be the wrong path forward.” “Instead, we urge California’s district and state leaders to work together on a strong statewide application. And we urge the U.S. Department of Education to stand firm, both in its commitment to equity and its commitment to statewide accountability systems,” the organizations state in a letter sent to Duncan on Monday. California and other states in white haven’t submitted a waiver application responding to federal requirements. The 34 states in blue have waivers; the states in green have applications under review. Source: U.S. Department of Education. The nine districts, which have formed the California Office to Reform Education, or CORE, last month submitted a unique district application for a waiver that would give them more flexibility to enforce key provisions of NCLB while freeing them from some of its penalties. They would commit to improve the lowest performing schools, integrate test scores and other data into teacher evaluations and develop college and career standards. The districts are in the process of responding to a critique of their application by reviewers for the Department of Education and hope to have the waiver approved soon to take effect this fall. Duncan already has granted 34 state waivers, with nine more under review. Last year, Duncan rejected California’s statewide waiver application, and the state has no application pending. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson told EdSource Today recently that discussions are continuing with Duncan’s staff. The civil rights groups argue there is no replacement for a statewide accountability system that can “serve as a backstop to forces pressuring districts to sweep low performance under the rug … and declare that local schools are doing just fine.” Moreover, they write, “Moving away from a system of statewide accountability and state-led commitment to improving student outcomes will result in different expectations for students from one district to the next.” Responding by email, CORE Executive Director Rick Miller noted that the CORE districts would open the waiver process to all California districts that agreed to adhere to the federal requirements. And he argued that CORE’s waiver application would commit to “robust accountability” for minority students, English learners and students with disabilities. “We believe our application provides necessary innovation and is ultimately based on what’s best for students, not the protection of systems,” he wrote. The seven groups signing the letter are Easter Seals, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the National Indian Education Association, the National Women’s Law Center, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Democrats for Education Reform and The Education Trust, which is the parent group of Oakland-based Education Trust-West. (Update: As readers will note in a comment today elsewhere on this site, Gloria Romero, head of the California office of Democrats for Education ®eform, said that the state group continues to support the CO®E waiver application and that the Washington office of CORE did not consult with her before coming up with its position.)