Federal Education News and Events
Compiled by Danielle Ballard at Van Scoyoc Associates

June 5, 2009

Education news headlines: [please see the end of this email for the full text of all articles]

South Carolina Supreme Court Orders Governor to Apply for Education Stimulus Money [Article 1]

http://chronicle.com/news/article/6589/south-carolina-supreme-court-orders-governor-to-apply-for-stimulus-money

Next Test - Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers [Article 2]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/education/05charter.html?_r=1

Outstanding Charter SchoolsProvide Models to Help Students Succeed, Witnesses Tell Education House Panel [Article 3]

http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/06/outstanding-charter-schools-pr.shtml

CRS Report: America COMPETES Act and the FY2010 Budget

http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40519_20090413.pdf

Congressional Committee hearings: 

No education-related hearings scheduled.

Testimony and an archived webcast of yesterday's House Education Committee hearing on charter schools:

http://edlabor.house.gov/hearings/2009/06/building-on-what-works-at-char.shtml

Other Events:

June 8: "Teacher Equity in Low Income Schools"

9:30 a.m., 2261 Rayburn House Building, Capitol Hill

Panelists: Alice Johnson Cain, senior education policy adviser to Rep. George Miller; Segun Eubanks, director of teacher quality, National Education Association; Roberto Rodriguez, White House Domestic Policy Council; MaryEllen McGuire (moderator), director, Education Policy Program, New America Foundation

RSVP: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2009/equitable_resources_low_income_schools

June 9: Congressional Urban Caucus Briefing: Anchor Institutions as Partners in Building Successful Communities and Local Economies

Cosponsored by Univ of Pennsylvania and the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities

8:30 - 10:30 a.m., The U.S. Capitol, Room HC-6

RSVP: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Presenters: Reps. Chaka Fattah and Michael Turner, Ira Harkavy, Associate VP and Director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Eugenie Birch and Susan Wachter, Co-Directors of Penn Institute for Urban Research, Paul Brophy, Brophy & Reilly LLC, Wim Wiewel, President, Portland State University, James Harris, President, Widener University, David Cox, University of Memphis, Amy Liu, Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution, David Maurrasse, President and CEO, MARGA Incorporated

June 9: Ed week Live Chart: Learning Science in Informal Settings

1:00 p.m. ET

Panelists: Philip Bell, associate professor of the learning sciences, University of Washington

Heidi Schweingruber, Board on Scienc Education, National Research Council

Sean Cavanagh, assistant editor, Education Week

More information: http://www.edweek.org/ew/events/chats/2009/06/09/index.html#email

U.S. Department of Education: 

A list of political appointees at the Department:

http://www.ed.gov/news/staff/update.html 

FY10 Education Budget:

The Education Department has posted FY2010 Budget Justifications (May 13):

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget10/justifications/index.html

The Education Department budget summary (released May 7):

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget10/summary/index.html

The House and Senate conferenced budget resolution:

http://budget.senate.gov/democratic/documents/2009/Conf.%20Rpt_S.%20Con.%20Res.%2013.pdf

Statement of the Managers:

http://budget.house.gov/doc-library/FY2010/04.27.2009_sconres13conferenceexplanstatement.pdf

Federal Education Training and Grant Opportunities, Notices:
Link to today's Federal Register:
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html

Office of Postsecondary Education; Overview Information; Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE)--Special Focus Competition: Innovative Strategies in Community Colleges for Working Adults and Displaced Workers; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-13157.htm

Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools; Overview Information; Grants for Coalitions To Prevent and Reduce Alcohol Abuse at Institutions of Higher Education; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/E9-13162.htm

Yesterday in Congress:

H.R.2710 : To stimulate collaboration with respect to, and provide for coordination and coherence of, the Nation's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education initiatives.
Sponsor: Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] (introduced 6/4/2009)
Latest Major Action: 6/4/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and in addition to the Committee on Science and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (stimulus):

As ofJune 4, 24 states and Puerto Rico have been approved for State Fiscal Stabilization Funding: CA, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MA, MD, ME, MI MN, MS, NC, NV, NY, OR, RI, SD, TN, UT, VA, WA, WI.

Approved Applications:  http://www.ed.gov/programs/statestabilization/resources.html

The deadline for applications is July 1.

June 2: The Departmentposted spending reports by state and by program (at the bottom of the webpage):

http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/reports.html

ECS briefing memo: Maximizing Reform in the Stimulus Bill: Supporting Effective Early Education (May 28)

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/80/59/8059.pdf

Training and Employment Guidance Letter: Workforce Investment Act and Wagner-Peyser Act Performance Accountability Reporting for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which provides guidelines for reporting performance accountability information for programs receiving funds under ARRA (May 22):

http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?DOCN=2760

Initial Details Released on Recovery Act’s Green Job Training Grants: Department of Labor Calls for Industry Partnership Approach (May 20)

DOL Training and Employment Notice: http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/ten/TEN44-08.pdf?tr=y&auid=4877834

Summary from the Workforce Alliance: http://www.workforcealliance.org/atf/cf/%7B93353952-1DF1-473A-B105-7713F4529EBB%7D/GREENRECOVERYGRANTS_TENSUMMARY_05.19.09.PDF

The Center on Reinventing Public Education has released a report entitled, “Ranking the States; Federal Education Stimulus Money and the Prospects for Reform.” The report presents “projections of changes in state K-12 education spending, amidst both state revenue gaps and the addition of ARRA funds. The idea is to rank order states according to how much budget gaps and stimulus funds are likely to affect state education spending.” (issued May 20)

http://www.crpe.org/cs/crpe/view/csr_pubs/286

Education Recovery and Reinvestment Center:
http://www.learningpt.org/recovery

The State and Local Resources page is tracking all activity at the state level and has a good collection of links, documents, and local news stories on distribution of education stimulus money:

http://www.learningpt.org/recovery/information.php

The Department has released guidance, fact sheets, and applications for various stimulus funding, including the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, Title I funding, IDEA funding (REVISED April 13), Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants, Independent Living Services funding, Impact Aid Construction Formula Grants and McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and Youth Grants (updated April 13):

http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/index.html

Please contact D'Arcy Philps, Vic Klatt, Rich Stombres or Danielle Ballard at Van Scoyoc Associates with any questions or comments.
www.vsadc.com
(202) 638-1950

Article 1

South Carolina Supreme Court Orders Governor to Apply for Stimulus Money

As expected, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled today that Gov. Mark Sanford must apply for $700-million in federal stimulus money for the state’s public schools and higher education.

In a unanimous opinion, the court’s five justices said the state’s Legislature had the authority to order the governor to ask for that money, which is a portion of the nearly $40-billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund in President Obama’s $787-billion stimulus package.

The court also issued a rare writ of mandamus that requires the governor to apply for the money, according to The State, a newspaper in Columbia, S.C. The U.S. Department of Education has set a July 1 deadline for those applications and has approved the money for 23 states so far.

Governor Sanford, a Republican, had refused to apply for the money unless the Legislature paid off an equal amount of state debt. He also has said he would not contest the court’s decision. —Eric Kelderman

Posted on Thursday June 4, 2009

Article 2

Next Test: Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

So what kind of teachers could a school get if it paid them $125,000 a year?

An accomplished violist who infuses her music lessons with the neuroscience of why one needs to practice, and creatively worded instructions like, “Pass the melody gently, as if it were a bowl of Jell-O!”

A self-described “explorer” from Arizona who spent three decades honing her craft at public, private, urban and rural schools.

Two with Ivy League degrees. And Joe Carbone, a phys ed teacher, who has the most unusual résumé of the bunch, having worked as Kobe Bryant’s personal trainer.

“Developed Kobe from 185 lbs. to 225 lbs. of pure muscle over eight years,” it reads.

They are members of an eight-teacher dream team, lured to an innovative charter school that will open in Washington Heights in September with salaries that would make most teachers drop their chalk and swoon; $125,000 is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, and about two and a half times as much as the national average for teacher salaries. They also will be eligible for bonuses, based on schoolwide performance, of up to $25,000 in the second year.

The school, called the Equity Project, is premised on the theory that excellent teachers — and not revolutionary technology, talented principals or small class size — are the critical ingredient for success. Experts hope it could offer a window into some of the most pressing and elusive questions in education: Is a collection of superb teachers enough to make a great school? Are six-figure salaries the way to get them? And just what makes a teacher great?

The school’s founder, Zeke M. Vanderhoek, 32, a Yale graduate who founded a test prep company, has been grappling with just these issues. Over the past 15 months he conducted a nationwide search that was almost the American Idol of education — minus the popular vote, but complete with hometown visits (Mr. Vanderhoek crisscrossed the country to observe the top 35 applicants in their natural habitats) and misty-eyed fans (like the principal who got so emotional recommending Casey Ash that, Mr. Vanderhoek recalled, she was “basically crying on the phone with me, saying what a treasure he was.”)

Mr. Ash, 33, who teaches at an elementary school on the outskirts of Raleigh, N.C., will take the social studies slot.

The Equity Project will open with 120 fifth graders chosen this spring in a lottery that gave preference to children from the neighborhood and to low academic performers; most students are from low-income Hispanic families. It will grow to 480 children in Grades 5 to 8, with 28 teachers.

The school received 600 applications. Mr. Vanderhoek interviewed 100 in person.

Along the way, Mr. Vanderhoek, who taught at a middle school in Washington Heights before founding Manhattan GMAT, learned a few lessons.

One was that a golden résumé and a well-run classroom are two different things. “There are people who it’s like, wow, they look great on paper, but the kids don’t respect them,” Mr. Vanderhoek said.

The eight winning candidates, he said, have some common traits, like a high “engagement factor,” as measured by the portion of a given time frame during which students seem so focused that they almost forget they are in class. They were expert at redirecting potential troublemakers, a crucial skill for middle school teachers. And they possessed a contagious enthusiasm — which Rhena Jasey, 30, Harvard Class of 2001, who has been teaching at a school in Maplewood, N.J., conveyed by introducing a math lesson with, “Oh, this is the fun part because I looooooove math!” Says Mr. Vanderhoek: “You couldn’t help but get excited.” Hired.

Teachers said the rigorous selection process was more gratifying than grueling.

“It’s so refreshing that somebody comes to a teacher and says, ‘Show me what you know,’ ” said Oscar Quintero, who goes by Pepe and will teach special education. “This is the first time in 30 years of teaching that anybody has been really interested in what I do.”

The school will use only public money for everything but its building. It is close to signing a lease for private space on 181st Street, to be covered by a combination of public school financing, a charter school grant and what Mr. Vanderhoek described as a “small amount” of private donations (he ultimately hopes to raise enough private money to build a permanent space).

To make ends meet, teachers will hold responsibilities usually shouldered by other staff members, like assistant principals (there will be none). There will be no deans, substitute teachers (except for extended leaves) or teacher coaches. Teachers will work longer hours and more days, and have 30 pupils, about 6 more than the typical New York City fifth-grade class.

The principal, Mr. Vanderhoek, will earn just $90,000. Teachers will not have the same retirement benefits as members of the city’s teachers’ union. And they can be fired at will.

That did not scare Mr. Quintero, who is in his 60s and is moving from Florida; Heather Wardwell, 37, who is leaving East Greenwich High School, in Rhode Island, after a decade, to teach Latin; or Judith LeFevre, 54, the Arizona teacher who earned about $40,000 as recently as two years ago.

Ms. LeFevre, who will teach science, wrote via e-mail that the school was “an experiment of sorts, in which I’m one of the subjects.” She added, “This could be unsettling were it not for the excitement of working with a team of master teachers, all of whom are motivated to help every student succeed, with no excuses and no blame.”

Her other teammates: Damion Frye, 32, who teaches English at Montclair High School in New Jersey, has a master’s degree from Brown University and is pursuing his doctorate at Columbia’s Teachers College, and Gina M. Galassi, 40, who teaches music at Kingston High School in Ulster County, N.Y.

Mr. Carbone, 44, spent four years as head strength and conditioning coach for the Los Angeles Lakers. He left for a quieter life in Spring Valley, N.Y., last year, after overhearing one of his three sons say, “I want to play basketball, but my dad hasn’t taught me yet.”

Whatever the magic formula for a great school or teacher may be, Mr. Vanderhoek has come to believe that there is an essential ingredient to the search for such teachers: Time spent in that teacher’s classroom, watching students learn. Then again, his team has yet to hit the court.

“I have tremendous confidence that the staff is going to be excellent,” he said. “But we will see.”

Article 3

Outstanding Charter Schools Provide Models to Help Students Succeed, Witnesses Tell Education House Panel

Chairman Miller Urges Congress to Support Expanding High Performing Charter Schools and Not Limit Growth

June 4, 2009 3:42 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congress should find a way to replicate and support the successes of outstanding charter schools as it works to improve our public schools, witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee today.

Some of the most promising and influential public school reform strategies in recent years have been pioneered by the charter movement, including extending learning time, principal autonomy over staff and budget decisions, high expectations for all students, using data-driven research and focusing relentlessly on results.
 

“Outstanding charter schools are proving that low-income and minority kids can achieve at the highest levels, graduate from college and thrive as adults,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the committee. “The challenge ahead will be to take the lessons learned in these schools and bring them to scale, so every child can have the same opportunity to succeed”

President Obama and Secretary Duncan are strong advocates for charter schools. In March, President Obama encouraged states to reform charter laws to lift caps while increasing the rigor of selection and promoting greater accountability.

“Improving our education system by expanding high-quality public charter schools is one of this Administration’s highest priorities,” said Jim H. Shelton, III, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education. “States must remove arbitrary caps that have limited the replication and expansion of some of our nation’s highest-performing charter schools and charter school networks.”

41 states and territories have enacted charter school laws. There are over 4600 schools today, serving 1.4 million students. Over 60 percent of the students served by charter schools are minority and over 50 percent are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

Witnesses also emphasized that being a charter school does not necessarily ensure that a school will be successful.

High performing charter schools with commitments to a rigorous curriculum with high standards, accountability, and autonomy, are able to turn around student achievement very quickly and effectively, and are often able to close the achievement gap, witnesses explained.

Dr. John King, the Managing Director with Uncommon Schools, a non-profit charter management organization, discussed the incredible successes of Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Boston, a charter school he co-founded. Roxbury Prep has been the highest performing urban middle school in Massachusetts for five years and has closed the racial achievement gap on state exams.  Roxbury Prep and other schools in the Uncommon Schools network have similar percentages of African American, Latino, and students living in poverty than other schools in their districts.  The success of this school and others is “replicable and scalable when school leaders are given autonomy with respect to budget, staffing, curriculum and instruction, and school culture and held strictly accountable for their results,” he testified.

“Charter schools offered a way to stimulate innovation within public education by giving educators greater autonomy in exchange for greater accountability,” said Barbara O'Brien, Lt. Governor of Colorado. “Charter schools create opportunities and open doors for kids who would otherwise be left behind. They do it by using the best of the American spirit -- entrepreneurship, innovation, and hard work. They are an asset, not a threat, to our public education system.”

Steve Barr, founder and chairman of Green Dot Public Schools -- where 80 percent of students graduate and 80 of graduates are accepted to four year colleges -- discussed the dual role of the charter schools he founded. They serve both to help provide excellent education opportunities for the students at the schools, but also to provide research and development opportunities to the district, to show what is working:

“The result of the R&D of Green Dot is clear-cut across the board—and that’s that African American kids and Latino kids can learn when they’re in a system of schools that are small, are college and work ready, the dollars get in the classroom, there’s support for our product, we’re accountable to parents and we ask parents to be involved. In that vision, we think it not only serves our ultimate stakeholders—which are the students—but also teachers.”

Barr also discussed the unique partnership Green Dot schools has formed with the teachers union.  Green Dot teachers are unionized. The union contract has “just-cause” protections instead of tenure.

“There’s ultimate accountability; job stability is not just based on seniority but also on performance,” Barr said.  “[Green Dot asks] teachers to be more involved in decision-making and [it pays] more. Our Green Dot/UFT School in New York has total alignment between the mayor, the chancellor, and the president of the teachers union.”