Under the bill, a nonprofit organization partnering with an institution of higher education would receive a single competitive grant to develop the national school leadership academy. The academy would then bring together turnaround experts to create a core body of knowledge regarding effective school leadership and develop an infrastructure for providing open source professional development materials to principals and other school leaders.

The Lead Act is unlikely to pass this year as a stand-alone bill, but efforts are underway to include the language in a larger bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

See the upcoming September issue of NewsLeader for more information.

Posted by Sarah McKibben at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A packed crowd of over 100 attendees listened to how two principals turned around their low-performing schools to make dramatic gains in student achievement. The forum, co-hosted by NASSP and the Alliance for Excellent Education featured two of the 2010 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools Principals.

NASSP Executive Director Gerald N. Tirozzi opened the forum by noting that both principals implemented certain strategies identified as effective in the NASSP Breaking Ranks framework for school improvement, including strong leadership, a rigorous curriculum, and strong collaboration among all staff.

Lavonne Smiley is principal of Tefft Middle School in Streamwood, IL, and oversees roughly 800 7th and 8th grade students, 47% of whom are Latino and 59% of whom are low-income. After specific encounters with angry or frustrated parents, teachers, and students, Smiley knew she needed to turn things around. Adopting the strategies outlined by Richard DuFour in On Common Ground: The Power of Professional Learning Communities, she brought a greater focus to curriculum, assessment, and interventions for struggling students. As a result, the number of students meeting and/or exceeding state test scores at Tefft jumped from 56% in 2002 to 91% in 2010. Smiley advised other educators to implement school reform with fidelity, continuously self-evaluate, and celebrate successes.

Tom O’Brien was principal of Brentwood High School in Brentwood, NY, for 15 years before his recent retirement. The high school serves a staggering 3,500 students in grades 10-12, 68% of whom are Hispanic and 62% of whom are low-income. Forty-one percent of the student population is also transient, posing a unique challenge. One irony that Mr. O’Brien pointed out was that as his school fell deeper into NCLB sanctions from 2002-2006 for not meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP), Brentwood’s test scores were improving steadily for most student subgroups. To turn things around, O’Brien created a collaborative School Improvement Team and staffed teacher coaches and more bilingual teachers to raise student achievement. As a result, special education students’ test scores rose 52 percentage points in math from 2004 to 2008, while limited English proficient students’ test scores rose 89 percentage points in the same time period. Citing lessons learned, O’Brien emphasized focused leadership, data analysis, a strong improvement team, celebrating successes, and time as critical components to effectively turn around a school.

To discuss policy implications for school turnaround, senior staff from the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee also addressed the audience. Both commented specifically on the four turnaround models for school improvement, which all require replacing the principal as the first step for reform. They shared some details about their bosses’ proposals to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, including surprising news that the House bill will not contain the four models, but will instead require a school instructional plan without prescribing one. They also want to identify ways to show improvement beyond AYP indicators, and these strategies will require intensive reliance on data. The Senate has not outright rejected the four school improvement models, but they are seeking the appropriate accountability to place on turnaround schools, and similarly will call on schools to present significant data to show improvement.

NASSP continues to oppose the four school turnaround models and believes that the success stories of these principals invalidate the requirement that the principal be replaced as the first step to school improvement. In contrast, capable, dedicated principals like Smiley and O’Brien prove they are a critical component to successful school turnarounds.

Posted by Mary Kingston, Government Relations Manager at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Senate announced this week that it will not consider the $10 billion proposal to prevent 140,000 educator layoffs as part of the supplemental spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (H.R. 4899), but will instead search for alternative means to approve the much-needed funding. The House approved the proposal on July 1 as an amendment sponsored by Rep. David Obey (D-WI), but the threat of a White House veto and waning support from moderate Democrats made Senate passage impossible. Besides the $10 billion for education jobs (reduced from the originally proposed $23 billion), the bill also contains $4.95 billion for Pell grants and $1 billion for summer youth jobs.

Democratic leaders have acknowledged they lack the requisite votes in the Senate to allocate billions of dollars for teachers’ aid on top of the war spending this supplemental bill proposes, at least amidst widespread concern of the federal budget deficit.

Despite this setback for teachers’ aid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Obey still strongly support the allocation of $10 billion to save educators’ jobs and said they are pursuing other ways to appropriate the money before Congress leaves on its August recess.

The education funding could be attached to legislation that would renew tax break extensions, which the Senate is expected to pass on Tuesday. If that occurs, the House would consider the bill on Wednesday.
NASSP continues to strongly support the funding in this bill to save roughly 140,000 educators’ jobs. We have signed a letter to Senators along with 90 other education organizations in support of the bill, and will continue to urge its passage. We will soon call on you to show your support of the bill as well, so be on the lookout for an action alert on the Principal’s Legislative Action Center (PLAC).

Posted by Mary Kingston, Government Relations Manager at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The House Committee on Education and Labor this past week approved the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act (H.R. 5504), clearing the bill for a vote on the House floor. The legislation seeks to improve access to school meal programs in and outside of school and to improve the quality of these meals through both food safety requirements and, for the first time ever, nutrition standards for food served outside of the lunchroom, such as in vending machines.

In his opening remarks, Chairman George Miller (D-CA) noted that First Lady Michelle Obama has made it her top priority to end childhood obesity and improve children’s health. In order to realize these goals in the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign, however, Congress must support legislation to reauthorize child nutrition programs. Miller noted that over 25% of all Americans aged 17 to 24 are too heavy to join the military and stressed that the issue of childhood obesity combined with the persistence of childhood hunger reveals the importance of this legislation.

The bill seeks to improve child nutrition in a few key ways. First, it would improve access to school meal programs in and out of the school. It would eliminate applications to certify children eligible for the school lunch program and instead would use Medicaid and SCHIP (the state children’s health insurance program) data to enroll eligible students. Similarly, it would use census data instead of paper applications to identify schoolwide income eligibility in high-poverty communities. The bill would also improve access to out of school meal programs for children in school- and community-based summer and after-school programs, in home-based child care, and in low-income rural areas.

In addition to improving access, this bill would improve the quality of school meal programs in an effort to curb the increasing problem of childhood obesity. First, the bill would increase the reimbursement rate to 6 cents per meal-the first increase in 30 years-to encourage healthier meal requirements as proposed by the Institute of Medicine. Also, it would increase funding for nutrition education, promote public and private partnerships to create community-wide strategies, and help communities establish local farm-to-school networks and school gardens, all to promote healthier eating practices for children. The bill also seeks to improve the quality of school meals by extending food safety requirements to anywhere food is stored, prepared or served in the school, and by expediting notification of recalled foods. However, of concern to NASSP and our members, the bill would also establish federal nutrition standards for the first time for food served outside the cafeteria, such as in vending machines and at school-sponsored activities.

This legislation, now awaiting a vote on the House floor, underscores the importance of access and quality of school meals every day of the year, and not just on high-stakes testing days. NASSP sees this bill as an important step toward ensuring that children come prepared each day to achieve at their highest potential.

Posted by Mary Kingston, Government Relations Manager at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)