UPDATE, Jan. 28: The Department of Education has posted an audio recording and a transcript of the conference call here.
By Jon Hale
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
Eliminating the federal mandates for supplemental education and public-school choice, changing the way teacher effectiveness is measured, creating greater flexibility with funding, and putting les reliance on "adequate yearly progress" are four major changes the Obama administration wants to make to No Child Left Behind to help rural schools, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told rural reporters today.
"The president and I understand NCLB doesn’t work at every school in America, particularly schools in rural communities," said Duncan, right. "We are going to be much more flexible in terms of interventions. For instance, our proposal eliminates the federal mandate to provide supplemental education services and public school choice" when schools don't measure up. "Public school choice might make sense in an urban community but if there is not another school within 30 or 40 miles, it doesn't quite make as much sense."
Duncan said he hopes Congress will make the changes in time for the next school year, and was encouraged by a meeting he had this morning with Democratic and Republican senators and the bipartisan dialogue among senators and members of the Republican-controlled House. (For a story on that from Education Week, click here.) Daily Yonder Co-Editor Bill Bishop notes, "Duncan was silent, however, on the other major issue facing rural schools — restoring balance to the formula used to distribute Title I funding" for poor students.
The conference call, arranged with the help of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, came the day after President Obama made education a major topic in his State of the Union address. Obama called for greater investment in education despite the renewed focus on cutting the federal budget. "Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine," he said. "It may feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't take long before you'll feel the impact."
During the speech Obama focused on his administration's plan to reform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which includes No Child Left Behind. One change would shift the focus from adequate yearly progress, under the current law, to "growth and gain," Duncan said. "I think it is a much fairer and more thoughtful way to evaluate progress," he said. "No teacher I've talked to is scared of accountability, they just want to make it fair." He said it isn't right to label a school as failing when it is making progress.
The way teacher competency is measured under No Child Left Behind has been a frequent criticism of rural educators, who say rural teachers often teach multiple subjects and face different challenges than their urban counterparts.
"Right now the way teachers are measured in terms of 'highly qualified' is based upon paper credentials," Duncan said. "A lot of fantastic teachers, excellent teachers, in rural communities are under current law by definition not highly qualified. Then that school, that district, has to send home letters to students' families that say your teacher is not highly qualified. It's just not honest. We don't think that is accurate."
Instead of focusing on degree qualifications, the administration wants teachers to be evaluated in terms of effectiveness, Duncan said. "It doesn't matter what the degree or pedigree of the teachers are," he said. "The question is, 'Are those students learning?'"
Duncan said No Child Left Behind has a "one size fits all" approach that need to allow more flexibility. He said federal education policy should be "tight on goals (and) much looser on how you get there," and that the Department of Education would undergo a "culture shift" from being "a compliance bureaucracy to being an engine of innovation. . . . We want a narrow, more targeted approach for the federal government."
UPDATE, Jan. 27: That approach was endorsed by conservative columnist George Will, who wrote, "The changes Duncan proposes -- on balance, greater state flexibility in meeting national goals -- make him the Obama administration's redeeming feature."
Small enrollments at rural schools make their scores more vaiarable, said John Hill of Purdue University, director of the National Rural Education Association, whom Duncan hosted on the call. "How one student performs can make a difference on whether a school is making adequate yearly progress or not," Hill said, and the fact that central-office personnel often perform multiple duties can make it "really hard to work through that one person."
Hill and Duncan said rural schools need to use more technology. "We've used technology to conduct administrative functions really well in rural schools," Hill said. "What we haven't done well is use technology as a teaching tool."
Rural schools have at least one advantage over urban schools: bringing real-life math and science applications into the classroom, Hill added. "In rural areas I think that's where the solution for biofuels, alternative energies and the care of the environment in the lab is right there," he said.
By Jon Hale
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
Eliminating the federal mandates for supplemental education and public-school choice, changing the way teacher effectiveness is measured, creating greater flexibility with funding, and putting les reliance on "adequate yearly progress" are four major changes the Obama administration wants to make to No Child Left Behind to help rural schools, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told rural reporters today.
Duncan said he hopes Congress will make the changes in time for the next school year, and was encouraged by a meeting he had this morning with Democratic and Republican senators and the bipartisan dialogue among senators and members of the Republican-controlled House. (For a story on that from Education Week, click here.) Daily Yonder Co-Editor Bill Bishop notes, "Duncan was silent, however, on the other major issue facing rural schools — restoring balance to the formula used to distribute Title I funding" for poor students.
The conference call, arranged with the help of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, came the day after President Obama made education a major topic in his State of the Union address. Obama called for greater investment in education despite the renewed focus on cutting the federal budget. "Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine," he said. "It may feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't take long before you'll feel the impact."
During the speech Obama focused on his administration's plan to reform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which includes No Child Left Behind. One change would shift the focus from adequate yearly progress, under the current law, to "growth and gain," Duncan said. "I think it is a much fairer and more thoughtful way to evaluate progress," he said. "No teacher I've talked to is scared of accountability, they just want to make it fair." He said it isn't right to label a school as failing when it is making progress.
The way teacher competency is measured under No Child Left Behind has been a frequent criticism of rural educators, who say rural teachers often teach multiple subjects and face different challenges than their urban counterparts.
"Right now the way teachers are measured in terms of 'highly qualified' is based upon paper credentials," Duncan said. "A lot of fantastic teachers, excellent teachers, in rural communities are under current law by definition not highly qualified. Then that school, that district, has to send home letters to students' families that say your teacher is not highly qualified. It's just not honest. We don't think that is accurate."
Instead of focusing on degree qualifications, the administration wants teachers to be evaluated in terms of effectiveness, Duncan said. "It doesn't matter what the degree or pedigree of the teachers are," he said. "The question is, 'Are those students learning?'"
Duncan said No Child Left Behind has a "one size fits all" approach that need to allow more flexibility. He said federal education policy should be "tight on goals (and) much looser on how you get there," and that the Department of Education would undergo a "culture shift" from being "a compliance bureaucracy to being an engine of innovation. . . . We want a narrow, more targeted approach for the federal government."
UPDATE, Jan. 27: That approach was endorsed by conservative columnist George Will, who wrote, "The changes Duncan proposes -- on balance, greater state flexibility in meeting national goals -- make him the Obama administration's redeeming feature."
Small enrollments at rural schools make their scores more vaiarable, said John Hill of Purdue University, director of the National Rural Education Association, whom Duncan hosted on the call. "How one student performs can make a difference on whether a school is making adequate yearly progress or not," Hill said, and the fact that central-office personnel often perform multiple duties can make it "really hard to work through that one person."
Hill and Duncan said rural schools need to use more technology. "We've used technology to conduct administrative functions really well in rural schools," Hill said. "What we haven't done well is use technology as a teaching tool."
Rural schools have at least one advantage over urban schools: bringing real-life math and science applications into the classroom, Hill added. "In rural areas I think that's where the solution for biofuels, alternative energies and the care of the environment in the lab is right there," he said.
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