NCLB

MARCH 13, 2010, 1:37 P.M. ET

Obama Outlines Sweeping Education Revamp
Wall Street Journal

By NEIL KING JR. And BARBARA MARTINEZ
[Obama] AFP/Getty Images

Obama's education revamp would set firmer standards for success while lifting nearly all the measures that the Bush law used to try to prod change at failing schools.

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration plans to upend how the government measures and encourages success in the country's public schools as part of a sweeping proposal to rewrite President George W. Bush's signature No Child Left Behind law.

Reauthorization of ESEA: Why We Can't Wait
Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the Monthly Stakeholders Meeting

FOR RELEASE:
September 24, 2009 Speaker sometimes deviates from text.

Reauthorization of ESEA: Why We Can't Wait
Secretary Arne Duncan's Remarks at the Monthly Stakeholders Meeting

FOR RELEASE:
September 24, 2009

Good morning and thank you so much for coming today.

As you know, this is the first of a series of public conversations our department is holding here in DC on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

This is the next phase of our Listening and Learning tour that has taken me to about 30 states and scores of schools. I have spoken with students, parents and educators all across America.

2009 AYP Summary attached

Dear Representative Bauer and Committee Members:

Today, Michigan Legislators are facing many difficult, unpopular
decisions. As high school principals who are put between ‘a rock and a hard place’ each day, we empathize with what you are going through.

In 1999, MASSP provided testimony to the Senate as to the critical need for an award system that would provide an incentive for students to take the HS MEAP. MASSP has not wavered in our support of the

The Michigan Education Association agrees with the call to improve the state's lowest performing schools, said spokesperson Doug Pratt, but the state needs to provide those schools with a picture of what is going wrong and some ideas for fixing those problems before removing the staff or closing the building.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires audits of a school's program to assess its needs, but Mr. Pratt said information the MEA has collected shows of 48 schools that appear to qualify as failing under bills under consideration in the House (see related story), 39 have not had such an audit.

And he argued the audits the Department of Education is now using because of staffing shortages do not provide the information schools would need to improve.

U.S. education secretary lauds Michigan's high bar for graduation

Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News

Washington -- Michigan's rigorous new high school requirements are on the right track, despite criticism from some in the state who say they could result in more students dropping out, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a gathering of the nation's top education reporters Thursday night.

Duncan told The Detroit News that education in Detroit will be corrected only by raising expectations the district places on students and teachers.

Sent on February 12, 2009

Dear Mr. Battaglieri,

Attached is the April 2009 installment of the NASSP Advocacy Update. This quarterly update includes information on legislative activities and updates in the following areas:
President Barack Obama
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (*please see my note below)
FY 2009 Appropriations
FY 2010 Budget
No Child Left Behind Act
Comprehensive Literacy Policy
Success in the Middle Act
SCHIP Reauthorization
Freshman Members of Congress
National Coalition for Public Education
NASSP Board Position Statements
NASSP Federal Grassroots Network
NASSP State Lobbyists Network

One of the items discussed at the OEAA Committee Meeting was the newly-proposed Michigan School Accreditation System MI-SAS. The Accreditation system, if approved by the State Board of Education, will replace the letter-graded EdYes! accreditation system.

The MI-SAS proposal is now available for public comment. Click here for the link to more information and to make your comments!

From the conservative side of the education policy discussions comes this letter to the new administration. It really gives the reader perspective.----------A "third way" for Arne Duncan?On Tuesday, President-Elect Obama ended weeks of speculation by selecting Chicago schools CEO Arne Duncan to be his secretary of education. The conventional wisdom is that Duncan is a "consensus" pick, bridging the Democratic Party's major divide on education.The camps on either side of this divide have been described, variously, as the establishment versus the reformers, incrementalists versus disrupters, or, by some, the true progressives versus closet Republicans.