U.S. Department of Education Vision and Initiatives

U.S. Department of EducationVision and Initiatives Carmel MartinAssistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development - Tuesday, July 28, 2009 -

“By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” President Barack Obama, February 24, 2009 Post-Secondary Secondary (Grades 6-12) • All graduates have opportunities for success in the 21st century economy Elementary (Grades K-5) • All students graduate high school on time prepared for at least one year of post-secondary Birth to Age 5 • All students enter middle school with the foundational skills to tackle advanced subjects • All kindergarten students arrive ready to learn

Expanding & ImprovingEarly Learning Opportunities • Improve quality of early learning systems. • Data • Quality rating systems • School readiness • Research & evaluation (up to 3% of funding in ELCF) • Increase alignment & coordination: • Among early learning programs. • Between early learning programs, public school systems, and other social service providers.

Early Learning Initiatives • Early Learning Challenge Grants: $10 billion over 10 years for a new program that would fund states in developing an infrastructure of integrated early learning supports. • Grants would support states to: • Develop and raise standards for early learning programs. • Build a coordinated zero to 5 data infrastructure that is interoperable with K-12, high education, and workforce data systems. • Increase number of low-income young children who participate in higher-quality settings. • Ensure that more children enter kindergarten ready, with skills and abilities necessary for success. • Title I Early Childhood: $500 million FY10 request.

Key K-12 reforms

Standards and Assessments • Support nation’s movement toward a coherent system of standards, assessments, curriculum, instruction, and educator development. • Support states in moving toward common standards and assessments that are vertically aligned, internationally benchmarked, and college and career ready. • Support the development of assessments that fairly and validly measure progress. • Support the development, dissemination, and implementation of curricula that support effective instruction.

Talent • Dramatically increase the number of effective educators. • Decrease the number of ineffective educators. • Attract and retain a higher percentage of effective educators and eliminate the gap based on income and race/ethnicity. • Make teaching and school leadership more attractive as a profession.

Data Systems • Transparency • Accountability • Performance management • Innovation

Data Systems • ED is examining ways of moving towards consistent standards for critical data elements. • Clear, implementable technical standards for longitudinal warehouses. • States have invested time and money in systems that can enable better decision-making; need to ensure that systems are getting used by teachers, leaders, policymakers. • We are examining how best to support states in supporting LEAs in developing and improving systems.

State Longitudinal Data Systems • $250 million in Recovery Act; $65 million request for FY2010. • Grants to support states in working with state agencies and LEAs to establish seamless data systems. • New focus on coordination: early education, K-12, post-secondary education, workforce. • Getting information into the hands of users (teachers, parents, school leaders) so that they can best support students and make instructional and program decisions.

Turning Around Low-Performing Schools • Tackle the dropout crisis by turning around our 5,000 lowest-performing schools. • Implement one of four aggressive strategies: • Turnarounds with new leaders and staff. • Transformations that include: • Extended learning time. • Using data to identify students at risk of dropping out. • Rewarding effective educators willing to work in turnaround schools. • Closing schools and restarting them as charters. • Closing schools and reassigning students.

ARRA Formula Funds • Historic influx of funding to all states creates strong foundation for reforms.

ARRA Competitive Grants • Targeted competitive grants raise the bar on standards, talent, data, and turnaround.

ARRA State Fiscal Stabilization Fund / Title I / IDEA • SFSF + Title I + IDEA ensures stability and provides base level of funding for all states to create foundation for reform. • State Fiscal Stabilization Fund • For Phase I, we have obligated over $36 billion (education and government service funds). • The Phase II application’s proposed definitions, requirements and review criteria was posted for public comment on July 29; anticipate final application will be available in the late fall. • Title I – $10b • IDEA Part B - $11.3b

SFSF Phase Two: ProposedReporting Requirements • Report against a set of indicators under each assurance. • Mix of confirming existing information and reporting new data. • Do not need to demonstrate progress against indicators. • If unable to report information, States must submit a plan by which data will be transparent to public by no later than September 30, 2011. • Focus on data, not narratives. • Designed to bring transparency and reveal both strengths and underlying challenges.

SFSF Metrics: Human Capital • EXAMPLES: • Number and percent of teachers in the highest-poverty and lowest-poverty schools in the state who are highly qualified. • Number and percent of teachers and principals rated at each performance level in each local educational agency’s (LEA’s) evaluation system. • Number and percent of LEA teacher and principal evaluation systems that require evidence of student achievement outcomes. • Distribution of teachers by performance level by school. • Description of the teacher evaluation system.

SFSF Metrics: Data Systems • EXAMPLES: • Which of the 12 elements described in section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the America COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871) are included in the State’s statewide longitudinal data system. • Whether the State provides teachers of reading/language arts and mathematics in grades in which the State administers assessments in those subjects with data on the performance of their students on those assessments that include estimates of individual teacher impact on student achievement, in a manner that is timely and informs instruction.

SFSF Metrics: Standards & Assessments • EXAMPLES: • Whether the state has developed and implemented valid and reliable assessments for students with disabilities and the percent of students with disabilities tested on state mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) assessments. • Whether the state has developed and implemented valid and reliable assessment for English language learners and the percent of English language learners tested on state mathematics and ELA assessments. • Whether the most recent state reading and mathematics NAEP scores is on 2009-10 State Report Cards;. • The number and percentage of students by school who graduate high school and go on to complete at least one year’s worth of college credit (as applicable to a degree) within two years. • #/% of students who graduate from high school using the 4 year adjusted cohort rate. • #/% who enroll in IHE. • #/% who complete one year’s worth of credit in two years.

SFSF Metrics: Struggling Schools • EXAMPLES: • The number of schools in school improvement status that have demonstrated substantial gains in student achievement, closed, or consolidated within last three years. • Of the schools in school improvement status, the number of schools in the bottom five percent that have demonstrated substantial gains in student achievement, closed or consolidated within the last three years. • Whether the state allows charter schools and whether there is a cap restricting the number of such schools, the number of charter schools currently operating in the state, and the number of charter schools closed for academic, financial or purposes.

SFSF Resources • Comments: To submit comments on our Notice of Proposed Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria, go to www.regulations.gov or send your comments via postal mail, commercial delivery, or hand delivery. • Homepage: http://www.ed.gov/programs/statestabilization/index.html, you will find the Notice of Proposed Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria, factsheet, charts with indicators broken out by assurance area, and a link to the specific page on www.regulations.gov where you can submit a comment.

Race to the Top: Overview • $4.35 billion competitive grant fund to encourage and reward states making dramatic education reforms, especially in the four assurance areas. • Human Capital Data Systems • Standards & Assessments  School Turnaround • Structured in two competitions: • State Competition: approximately $4 billion. • Standards and Assessment Competition: approximately $350 million. • For both, 50% of funds flow through States to LEAs.

Race to the Top: Overview • Focus on supporting states in: • Creating conditions for innovation and reform (legal/regulatory). • Enabling system-wide approaches to continuous improvement (practice). • We encourage state leaders to: • Design a unified state effort around ambitious reforms. • Support districts’ reform efforts: identify effective practices, replicate and disseminate those practices, then hold districts accountable for outcomes. • Repurpose and align ARRA and other funds to have the most dramatic impact. • Set goals for progress.

Race to the Top: Timelines Preliminary Timeline – State Competition Phase 1 Last week Release proposed requirements and criteria for public comment 30 days Public comment period October “Notice inviting applications” available December Application deadline for Phase 1 (2 months to apply) March 2010 Winners announced for Phase 1 Preliminary Timeline – State Competition Phase 2 June 2010 Application deadline for Phase 2 (8 months to apply) September Winners announced for Phase 2 Preliminary Timeline – Standards and Assessment Competition Early 2010 “Notice inviting applications” available June Application deadline September Winners announced

Other DiscretionaryGrant Programs • Innovation Fund: $650 million in ARRA for competitive grant fund to scale up and support proven reforms and strategies. • School Improvement Grants: $3 billion in ARRA and $1.5 billion in FY10 request for grants that target lowest-performing schools for significant interventions. • Teacher Incentive Fund: $200 million in ARRA, $487.3 million in FY10 request grants to LEAs and SEAs that develop innovative performance-based compensation systems targeted to high-need schools. • State Longitudinal Data Systems: $250 million in ARRA, $65 million in FY10 request for grants to support states in working with state agencies and LEAs to establish seamless data systems.

College Access and Completion: Goals • We will work with states to: • Strengthen state and community colleges. • Ensure college readiness among high school graduates. • Expand access to and awareness of federal financial aid, so that financial barriers do not prevent students from going to college. • Dramatically increase need-based aid, access to loans and expand tax credits.

Postsecondary Initiatives • Shorter, simpler, and more user friendly Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). • Major initiatives and funding streams include:

Community College Initiatives • Innovation - $6.3b over 10 years • Series of competitive grants to institutions, states and consortia. • Includes both Community College Challenge Grants and the College Access and Completion Fund • Institutional Reform and Strategies for college completion • Modernization - $2.5b one time – leveraged for $10b impact • Many community college facilities are over 50 years old. Funds would expand colleges’ ability to meet employer and student needs. • Online learning - $50m per year for 10 years • Create state-of-the-art high quality courses that would be freely and widely available to help students gain knowledge, skills, and credentials they need for both college and career.

Looking Ahead: ESEA Reauthorization • Listening tour: hearing from educators, parents, students, and other stakeholders about what is and is not working in education. • Goals for reauthorization: • Raise the bar, but close the gap. • Ensure that major federal funding streams are going to the most effective uses and directed at kids that need the most support. • Continuing accountability, but improving systems for evaluating school progress and providing flexibility to allow for innovation. • Build better evaluation and technical assistance components into each program.

Looking Ahead: Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization • Modernizing adult education. • Ensuring better coordination of programs for those eligible for vocational rehabilitation. • Addressing the needs of disconnected youth. • Revitalizing community colleges as engines for economic development. • Improve postsecondary data systems.

U.S. Department of Education Vision and Initiatives