Increase Educational Flexibility for States, Local School Districts

Press release below from Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), Senior Republican Member, Congressional Education and Labor Committee. Yes. For my sins I do now get a lot of press releases. The many tiny teeth of bloggers are getting respect

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has empowered states and local schools districts unlike any federal education law in history. For instance, within the current law, states - NOT the federal government - design and implement their own testing systems, set academic standards, define the meaning of "highly qualified" teacher, and decide how millions in federal education funds will be spent on student achievement. While this amount of flexibility is unprecedented, I believe we must give state and local officials even greater flexibility, because a "one size fits all" approach to education simply cannot meet the needs of our nation's diverse schools.

During this year's NCLB reauthorization, Congress has the opportunity to enhance the flexibility provisions and grant greater control to states and local school districts. With that in mind, I soon will introduce legislation - the State and Local Flexibility Improvement Act - to give states and local school districts the freedom to target federal resources to best serve the needs of their students. While maintaining strong accountability standards, the State and Local Flexibility Improvement Act would:

* Allow states to waive certain statutory or regulatory requirements under law, consolidate federal education programs, and use an alternative method for making allocations to local school districts instead of the current formula if their new proposal targets more funds effectively to those areas with high concentrations of low-income families;

* Measure individual student growth to determine whether schools and school districts meet Adequate Yearly Progress, including through well-designed growth models; and

* Expand the poverty threshold for schoolwide programs, which frees local schools to consolidate all federal funds to improve the quality of the entire school.

Most notably, the State and Local Flexibility Improvement Act would empower states and local schools to use federal dollars on programs that best suit their unique needs and allow states and school districts to transfer 100 percent (up from 50 percent under current law) of its federal funds within certain programs - such as the Safe and Drug Free Schools, teacher quality, or classroom technology programs - and into the Title I program.

For example, if a state or local school district decides to transfer all of the funding that it receives under the Teacher and Principal Training and Recruitment, Education Technology, Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and Innovative Block Grant Programs into the Title I program, it would only have to comply with the requirements of the Title I program to do so.

State and local leaders should be given the power to use federal dollars on programs that best suit their unique needs. By building on current local flexibility options already outlined in NCLB, this measure would significantly strengthen the law's overall reforms. For more information on the bill please visit here




English Learners: It's the Teaching, Stupid

From Joanne Jacobs

Forty to 60 percent of students who start California schools as "English Learners" never reach full English proficiency; many won't graduate from high school.

My article, How Good is Good Enough? Moving California's English Learners to English Proficiency (pdf) is up on the Lexington Institute web site.

California schools lose funding when students are reclassified as "fluent English proficient," an obviously perverse incentive. Many set high standards for reclassification: ELs have to do as well or better than the average native English speaker to qualify as proficient.

But the larger issue is that many ELs go to schools that don't do a very good job teaching reading and writing to anyone. They're not reclassified as proficient because they score below-average in English Language Arts on the state exam, even though they may speak "playground English" as their preferred language. ELs become proficient in English more quickly if they attend schools that focus on building the reading and writing skills of all students.

This isn't really about teaching in English (more than 90 percent of ELs are in mainstream English classes) or teaching in Spanish. It's about teaching well.

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

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