March 17, 2010
Lobby Day Next Wednesday, March 24th
The number one golden rule of Lobbying is to help your legislator understand why your position is important not only to you but also to many of his or her constituents. Next Wednesday is your opportunity to meet face to face with lawmakers from your area. Come take advantage of it!
Lobby Day Details
| 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. |
Registration, bagels and coffee at OEA upstairs in the Dyer Room. |
| 9:00 a.m. |
Welcome and remarks from gubernatorial candidates Jeri Askins and Drew Edmonson along with Kenneth Corn, a candidate for Lt. Governor. (Dyer Room) |
| 9:30 a.m. |
Explanation of packet materials and instructions for the day |
| 9:45 a.m. |
Walk over to the Capitol |
Parking Details
Parking will be available at the OEA building and at the south side parking lot at the Capitol. Lunch will be on your own.
ESEA Reauthorization
Obama Administration Releases a “Blueprint” for the Reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act formerly known as No Child Left Behind.
ESEA directly impacts your school site, your classroom, you and your students. Take the time to visit the links and review the information. Be informed and get in the conversation. Below are links for more information. There is also a subject outline of the blueprint and NEA’s major concerns with the potential legislation. Take the NEA survey below so that your voice can be heard.
Other links
Click here for more information about NEA’s principles for the reauthorization of ESEA.
Click here to read the U.S. Department of Education’s Blueprint for ESEA reauthorization. (This may be slow to download because it is more than 2 megabytes.)
Click here to take a five-minute 10 question NEA survey so that OEA members can let the people in Washington know what we think is important to public education here in Oklahoma.
Administration’s Blueprint for Reauthorization
Below is a list of the key titles and headings which appear in the Administration’s Blueprint for ESEA Reauthorization.
College and Career-Ready Students
- Raising standards for all students
- Better assessments
- A complete education
Great Teachers and Leaders in Every School
- Effective teachers and principals
- Our best teachers and leaders where they are needed most
- Strengthening teacher and leader preparation and recruitment
Equity and Opportunity for All Students
- Rigorous and fair accountability for all levels
- Meeting the needs of diverse learners
- Greater equity
Raise the Bar and Reward Excellence
- Fostering a Race to the Top
- Supporting effective public school choice
- Promoting a culture of college readiness and success
Promote Innovation and Continuous Improvement
- Foster innovation and accelerate success
- Support recognize and reward local innovation
- Supporting student success
Major Concerns
Continues Test Focus with No Requirement of Multiple Measures
- The Administration’s proposal still focuses the initial categorization of schools (reward vs. challenge schools) based on two standardized tests, plus graduation rates for high schools.
- Multiple, valid measures of student learning still are not required; states merely are permitted to add test scores from other content areas
- While the Administration is calling for better assessments that will take years to implement, schools will continue to be assessed on the existing, low-quality tests and labeled accordingly.
- Furthermore, the Administration’s attempt to create better assessments will be done through another competitive grant process. Therefore, a few states will be developing what the Administration hopes are model assessments while all other states are destined to continue using the same poor quality standardized testing systems. President Obama promised we would fix the testing system in all states, not just a few.
Prescribed and Limited Models of Reform
- The School Turnaround Models required to be used by the bottom 5% of persistently low-performing schools still are limited to four (transformation, turnaround, restart, and school closure)
- The Blueprint does not address whether it will back off of its current rules that undermine local decision-making around the selection of appropriate school improvement models. The regulatory language for the Administration’s School Improvement Grant program arbitrarily limits the use of effective strategies for a particular school or district by restricting school districts with more than nine 5% schools. The “Rule of 9” provision states that if a school district has nine or more schools in the bottom 5%, then the district CANNOT use a single model for all of its identified schools; it must use more than one prescribed model regardless of what experts believe will fix the schools.
- The current models do not reflect the shared responsibility that should be required in educational systems and should be promoted in the Administration’s proposal
- NEA opposes three of the models (turnaround, restart, and closure) because there is no evidence that they work and do not offer viable options for rural and frontier districts
- The transformation model offers the best chance for long-term success
Teachers Effectiveness Based on Student Test Scores
- The Blueprint requires a statewide definition of effective teachers and principals that is based in significant part on student academic growth.
- NEA believes that evaluation systems should be developed and implemented at the local level using components agreed to by educators that support professional practice and student learning.
- These determinations will likely be made using the existing, poor quality standardized tests that are neither a full or fair judge of student performance, let alone a teacher’s performance.
- How will effectiveness be determined in subjects where traditional tests are not given?
- For the federal government to mandate specific elements of a teacher evaluation or compensation system, it is a little like the federal government telling all mayors or corporations how to evaluate and pay their employees. It is not the federal government’s role to get involved in individual employee performance or compensation issues.
Insufficient Efforts to Address Inequity Across each State
- The Administration’s proposal falls woefully short of what is needed to remedy the inequities that run rampant in every state in this country. Equity does not merely mean the equitable distribution of accomplished educators.
- There is a corridor of shame in every state and the proposal does not do enough to eliminate them.
- NEA calls on the Administration to require states to provide them with the comprehensive plans to remedy inequities in education opportunities, tools, and resources as a condition of receiving federal funds.
No Engagement of Parents/Families
- There is no support of parents’ efforts to be more involved in their childrens’ education.
- We all know that parents and caregivers are students’ first teachers—we need to support their involvement in students education and encourage their involvement in school activities and plans.
- The Administration’s budget proposal—the document on which this blueprint is largely based--eliminates funding for parent resource centers.
Legislative Update
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