E-Update for January 9, 2015
E-Update for January 9, 2015
Updates
The 114th Congress convened on January 6 for the start of the new legislative session. On January 7, Senate Republicans voted to make U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) the Chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Senate Democrats followed suit yesterday by voting to elect U.S. Senator Patti Murray the Ranking Member of the Committee.
EducationCounsel News
On January 26, 12-1pm EST, the College Board’s Access & Diversity Collaborative and EducationCounsel will host a free webinar to explore the opportunities and challenges presented by race-neutral strategies. The webinar will be grounded in a new ADC resource on race-neutral strategies, The Playbook: A Guide to Assist Institutions of Higher Education in Evaluating Race- and Ethnicity-Neutral Policies in Support of their Mission-Related Diversity Goals. The Playbook and many other access- and diversity-focused resources are available for free download at the ADC’s website. We encourage you to attend and to extend the invite to your colleagues and coworkers. Space is limited, and registration will close on Thursday, January 22. To register, please complete the following confidential, very brief registration form, available here.
Events
On January 12, the National Association of State Boards of Education will host a webinar on “Performance Assessments: How State Policy Can Advance Assessments for 21st Century Learning,” 2pm-3pm. The panel will include internationally renowned expert Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond; NASBE Director of College, Career, and Civic Readiness Robert Hull (moderator); NASBE Deeper Learning Project Director Ace Parsi; CCSSO Innovation Lab Network Director Jennifer Davis Poon; and CCSSO Innovation Lab Network Program Associate, Adriana Martinez. Mr. Parsi and Dr. Darling-Hammond will release the findings of a joint paper, Performance Assessments: How State Policy Can Advance Assessments for 21st Century Learning, which evaluates key considerations and benefits to successful implementation of these assessments. Ms. Davis Poon and Ms. Martinez will highlight examples of state efforts to promote performance assessments and emerging resources that can support this work. Register here.
On January 14, the World Bank will host a discussion on Joel Klein’s new book, “Lessons of Hope: How to Fix Our Schools,” at 9:30am-11am. Claudia Costin, Senior Director of Education Global Practice at the World Bank, will moderate the discussion. Joel Klein, CEO of Amplify Insight and Executive Vice President of News Corporation; Peter Gorman, Executive Vice President of Amplify Education Services; and Christopher Cerf, CEO of Amplify Insight will present. RSVP here.
On January 15, the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) will host a panel discussion with the four finalists for the 2015 National Superintendent of the Year at 4pm. A question and answer session will follow the panel discussion. Rich Bagin, executive director of the National School Public Relations Association, will moderate the panel. Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, will provide remarks. Members of the media are invited to attend. More information here.
U.S Department of Education
U.S. Departments of Education and Justice Release Joint Guidance to Ensure English Learner Students Have Equal Access to High-Quality Education: The U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Justice (DOJ) released joint guidance reminding states, school districts and schools of their obligations under federal law to ensure that English language learner students have equal access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to achieve their full academic potential. In addition to the guidance, the Departments also released additional tools and resources to help schools in serving English language learner students and parents with limited English proficiency, including: a fact sheet in English and in other languages about schools’ obligations under federal law to ensure that English language learner students can participate meaningfully and equally in school; a fact sheet in English and in other languages about schools’ obligations under federal law to communicate information to limited English proficient parents in a language they can understand; a toolkit to help school districts identify English learner students, prepared by the Education Department’s Office of English Language Acquisition.
January 7, 2015
Congressional Headlines
Alexander Elected by Republican Colleagues to Chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: Senate Republicans voted to elect U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to be the Chairman—or lead senator—of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
January 7, 2015
Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Bill to Cut 108-Question Student Aid Form to 2 Questions: Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) with Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), and Angus King (I- Maine) introduced the FAST Act, a bill to simplify the process of applying for and receiving federal financial aid to attend college, allow year-round use of Pell Grants, discourage over-borrowing and simplify repayments. The bill would reduce to a single postcard—called the “Student Aid Short Form”—the questions 20 million Americans must answer to apply for federal financial aid each year and inform high school students in their junior year of the amount they’ll receive in federal aid to help pay for college. It would also address the problem of some students borrowing too much money, and simplify the options students have to repay their federal loans.
January 7, 2014
King, Burr Lead Bipartisan Push to Reform Student Loan Repayment Programs: U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), along with Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), introduced legislation to reform federal student loan repayment programs. The Repay Act, which Senators King and Burr originally introduced last Congress, would simplify the complex maze of federal student loan repayment programs by consolidating many of the benefits of current repayment programs into two plans: a fixed repayment plan, based on a 10-year period, and a single, simplified income-driven repayment option.
January 7, 2014
New Legislation
H.R.73 : To establish a grant program for stipends to assist in the cost of compensation paid by employers to certain recent college graduates and to provide funding for their further education in subjects relating to mathematics, science, engineering, and technology.
Sponsor: Rep Jackson Lee, Sheila [TX-18] (introduced 1/6/2015)
H.R.106 : To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to restore State sovereignty over public education and parental rights over the education of their children.
Sponsor: Rep Culberson, John Abney [TX-7] (introduced 1/6/2015)
Committees: House Education and the Workforce
H.R.121 : To allow a State to opt out of K-12 education grant programs and the requirements of those programs, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a credit to taxpayers in such a State, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Garrett, Scott [NJ-5] (introduced 1/6/2015)
H.R.193 : To amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide for State accountability in the provision of access to the core resources for learning, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Rep Fudge, Marcia L. [OH-11] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.37 : A bill to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide for State accountability in the provision of access to the core resources for learning, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Reed, Jack [RI] (introduced 1/6/2015)
S.60 : A bill to prohibit aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States from being eligible for postsecondary education benefits that are not available to all citizens and nationals of the United States.
Sponsor: Sen Vitter, David [LA] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.63 : A bill to require all public school employees and those employed in connection with a public school to receive FBI background checks prior to being hired, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Vitter, David [LA] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.72 : A bill to allow for the portability of funds under title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
Sponsor: Sen Vitter, David [LA] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.73 : A bill to prohibit the Federal Government from mandating, incentivizing, or coercing States to adopt the Common Core State Standards or any other specific academic standards, instructional content, curricula, assessments, or programs of instruction.
Sponsor: Sen Vitter, David [LA] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.75 : A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the social security number of the student and the employer identification number of the educational institution for purposes of education tax credits.
Sponsor: Sen Vitter, David [LA] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.85 : A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish a simplified income-driven repayment plan, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen King, Angus S. Jr. [ME] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.101 : A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to expand the Coverdell education savings accounts to allow home school education expenses, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Vitter, David [LA] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.102 : A bill to amend the public charter school provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Vitter, David [LA] (introduced 1/7/2015)
S.108 : A bill to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve access for students to Federal grants and loans to help pay for postsecondary, graduate, and professional educational opportunities, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Alexander, Lamar [TN] (introduced 1/7/2015)
Publications
Education Week Quality Counts 2015 Reports: State Highlights: The 19th annual edition of Quality Counts resumes Education Week’s long-standing tradition of grading the states on their performance. This year, those grades return in a newer, leaner form that focuses on outcomes rather than on policy and processes. A state’s overall grade is the average of its scores on the three separate indices tracked by the report. These legacy indices are Chance-for-Success (updated in 2015); K12 Achievement (updated in 2014); and school finance (updated in 2015). State Highlights Reports contain each jurisdiction’s data on the summative grades, the three indices and the nearly 40 indicators that comprise Quality Counts’ overall grading rubric.
January 2015
Participation and Pass Rates for College Preparatory Transition Courses in Kentucky: The purpose of this study was to examine Kentucky high school students’ participation and pass rates in college preparatory transition courses, which are voluntary remedial courses in math and reading offered to grade 12 students in the state. Three groups of students were compared using the population of grade 12 students in Kentucky public schools in school year 2011/12 (n=33,928): students meeting state benchmarks, students approaching state benchmarks (1 to 3 points below), and students performing below state benchmarks (4 or more points below). Despite the intention of the policy, students from all three groups (meeting, approaching, and below state benchmarks) enrolled in the courses. Statewide pass rates for students who did enroll in transition courses in math or reading were more than 90 percent. Examining participation and pass rates can help schools and districts understand how college preparatory transition courses are used and may be adapted to meet the needs of students targeted for intervention.
January 2015