More accountability proposed for ESEA

The Administration's legislative proposals to reauthorize ESEA would require states and school districts to turn around failing schools, issue report cards to parents on how schools are doing, put qualified teachers in the classroom, adopt sound discipline codes, and end social promotion of failing students.

ESEA, the largest federal investment in K-12 education, is currently funded at $12 billion. ESEA includes the $8 billion Title I program, which provides compensatory education services to disadvantaged children, and also includes bilingual education, magnet schools, and other programs.

"The overall outline of the Administration's ESEA proposal contains a number of improvements to the 1994 legislation and promising new activities aimed at raising student achievement," says NSBA Associate Executive Director Michael A. Resnick. "However, before commenting on the bill itself, we will need to see the specific legislative language submitted to Congress."

A broad outline of the Administration's bill, released May 19, calls for states and school districts to publicly identify the lowest-performing schools and intervene to turn them around. Intervention would include intensive teacher training, extended learning opportunities, and the implementation of proven approaches to school reform.

If these schools fail to show satisfactory improvement in student performance within two years, districts would be required to take "corrective action." They could permit students to transfer to other public schools, "reconstitute" the school by making significant staff changes, or close the school and reopen it as a charter school.

The Clinton proposal calls for states and school districts to distribute annual report cards to all parents and taxpayers for each school and school district.

The report cards would have information on student achievement, teacher qualifications, class size, school safety, and attendance and graduation rates.

"NSBA supports more accountability as long as it is constructive and not punitive," Resnick says. "We're not convinced that state takeovers have worked. Past experience shows that takeovers have not resulted in higher student achievement, but have eroded public confidence in the schools."

"We support the notion of report cards to parents," he says, "if they provide understandable information and include local indicators that reflect the community's needs and values and not just report on state standards."

The Administration calls for states to adopt performance examinations for all new teachers, requiring them to demonstrate both subject matter knowledge and teaching expertise.

Within four years, states and school districts would be required to phase out the use of teachers with emergency certificates and the practice of assigning teachers to subjects for which they lack adequate preparation.

States would be required to ensure that within four years, at least 95 percent of their teachers are fully certified through regular or alternative routes, are in a program that leads to full certification within three years, or are fully certified in another state and are working toward meeting any state-specific requirements.

Currently, U.S. schools employ 500,000 teachers with emergency certificates, the Education Department notes, and "students have less than a 50 percent chance of having a math or science teacher with a license and a degree in the field."

The Administration would require states and school districts to end the practice of social promotion, "not by holding students back but by providing qualified teachers, meaningful after-school and summer programs, smaller classes, and other early interventions to help students succeed."

The President proposes a continuation of his $112.6 billion, seven-year class-size reduction initiative, which seeks 100,000 new teachers to reduce class size to a nationwide average of 18 in the early grades. Congress so far has appropriated $1.2 billion for this initiative.

To improve teacher quality, President Clinton proposes a new Teaching to High Standards initiative, which would replace three existing programs: Goals 2000, Eisenhower Professional Development, and the Title VI Innovative Education Program Strategies.

The new program would support state and local efforts to help teachers and principals align curricula and assessments with challenging state and local content standards; provide intensive, high-quality professional development in core academic content areas; support new teachers during their first three years in the classroom; and help ensure that all teachers are proficient in content knowledge and teaching skills.

Noting that the nation needs 2.2 million new teachers over the next decade, the proposal also includes several measures to support state and local efforts to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. These include a national job bank and efforts to increase the portability of teaching licenses and pensions.

A proposed Transition to Teaching program, an expansion of Troops to Teachers, would provide scholarships and other support to encourage retiring military and non-military, mid-career professionals to become teachers.

All new teachers in programs supported with Title I funds would have to be certified in the subject they teach. And within two years, teacher aides in Title I schools with less than two years of college would be limited to non-instructional duties.

Noting that the "breakdown of classroom discipline remains one of the biggest obstacles to learning and one of the greatest concerns for teachers, students, and parents," the President proposes requiring states and school districts to adopt "fair, consistent discipline policies that are developed with the participation of the school community."

When students are suspended or expelled, the proposal calls for schools to "provide appropriate supervision, counseling, and educational services."

The Administration proposes to strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities program by requiring school districts to develop comprehensive plans, use proven anti-drug and violence prevention programs, collect and report relevant data, intervene with troubled youths, and establish security procedures.

Current law requires schools to expel and report to law enforcement officials any student who brings a gun or explosive device to school. The new proposal would require schools to assess any student expelled for bringing a firearm to school to determine if the student poses an imminent threat, and if so, to require appropriate treatment before the student can return to school.

Noting the "parents have a right to know that their children are safe," the President would require schools to give parents an annual report of gun, drug, and violent incidents in their child's school.