Striving for Calm Federal Directions in Education The End of Reform?

The Perfect Storm Political opposition to Common Core Parent group opposition to “testing” Teacher opposition to evaluation based on student performance State resentment of federal pressures in Race to Top and ESEA flexibility Shrinking local budgets and big federal stimulus spending Punitive accountability regimes Waves of reform

Every Child Achieves Act (Reauthorization of ESEA) “In a calculated and largely fireworks-free markup of a bipartisan Elementary and Secondary Education Act rewrite, members of the U.S. Senate education committee approved the measure 22-0 Thursday amid much back-slapping and promises to continue working across the aisle.” Education Week, April 16, 2015 Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray, Chair and Ranking Member Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

Key Provisions Maintains the annual federal testing requirement Allows states to create their own accountability systems Maintains disaggregated data for subgroups of students Maintains the requirement that states adopt challenging academic standards Federal government may not mandate or provide incentives for states to adopt any particular set of standards, including Common Core State Standards Rejected amendments for Title I funds to follow students to schools of choice

"This continues the law's important measurement of academic progress, but restores to states, school districts, teachers, and parents the responsibility for deciding what to do about student achievement," Sen. Alexander said.

Arne Duncan "Every family and every community deserve to know that schools are helping all children succeed—including low-income students, racial and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, and students learning English. And they deserve to know that if students in those groups fall behind, their schools will take steps to improve, with the strongest action in the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools."

Randi Weingarten (AFT) "While not perfect—no compromise is—it restores the law's original intent to address poverty and educational inequality with targeted funding for poor children, it moves away from the counterproductive focus on sanctions and high-stakes tests, and ends federalized teacher evaluations and school closings."

Reading the Tea Leafs Ascending Early Learning Renewed focus on achievement gap (Focus schools) Charter schools Turnaround ( bottom 5%)—but with more flexibility in approach Local control (states and districts) Evidence-based strategies Social/emotional learning (Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning Act of 2015-introduced in committee in February) Innovation and technology Non-core (physical education, arts, career tech)

Descending Federal Sanction Regimes Race to the Top (gone) Principal/Teacher evaluation systems based on student performance National standards Adequate Yearly Progress