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Headlines
Association & Related News
CCSSO Concludes Successful EIMAC Meeting
Advocacy in Action
U.S. Department of Education FY2010 Budget Released
Education Newsbriefs
"Florida Celebrates National Charter Schools Week" (FL)
"Moving Toward Better Futures for Oklahoma Children" (OK)
"Fed Grant Boosts Learning Center Program" (WI)
"The 21st Century Learning Imperative" (WV)
Association & Related News
CCSSO Concludes Successful EIMAC Meeting
By Maureen Matthews
Last week over 160 participants from 48 member states, several partner organizations, the U.S Department of Education and associate members from the business community attended the biannual Education Information Management Advisory Consortium (EIMAC) meeting in Arlington, VA. During the meeting, participants deliberated a re-imagined EIMAC, and a new vision for information sharing in our country. The deliberations led in several directions and ended in overwhelming support for collective state advocacy and action in the area of data collection, reporting, and use.
Over the course of the meeting, EIMAC members focused on how to address information sharing barriers meaningfully. EIMAC members discussed the limitations in the ability to share data across states, between sectors, and through the education pipeline. They discussed the critical importance of teachers being able to access their students’ data, parents having access to data about their child, students being able to access their own data and the ability to track a child from pre-K through postsecondary education into the workforce.
Over the next few months EIMAC members will continue to meet virtually to shape a vision and proposal for a national information system for education. That vision is of an open platform system that builds a cloud of services to allow complete interoperability of education data through the entire country. This system will build on what each state has already accomplished and work with data exchange mechanisms already in place. Local control will be honored by building data vaults that ensure security and identity management. A core of services will be developed that can be easily expanded and built on to meet a state or district’s unique needs. The vision is to build smarter schools by building smarter systems.
Recommendations will be sent to chiefs within the next few days. For more information on EIMAC please contact Maureen Matthews at maureenm@ccsso.org or 202-336-7023.
Advocacy in Action
U.S. Department of Education FY2010 Budget Released
Last Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released a $47.6 billion budget for FY2010. In a briefing, Secretary Duncan asserted that this budget would build upon the investments of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and addressed three levels of education: early childhood, K-12, and higher education.
- For early childhood, the focus of the budget is to increase access and opportunity to early education services as well as emphasize the importance of literacy at initial stages of education. To that end, the budget includes $500 million for Title I Early Childhood Grants and $300 million for the Early Learning Challenge Fund.
- In regards to K-12, the Secretary again reiterated the importance of literacy, not solely for early childhood, but for all students—especially for students in secondary school. ED intends on using forty percent of the $1.5 billion Title I School Improvement funds towards the secondary level. Also in K-12, there is a $420 million increase in the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) with $517.3 proposed in the budget, which includes $30 million for a National Teacher Recruitment Campaign. Charter School Grants also received a $52 million increase, raising its funding allocation to total $268 million.
- Funds for higher education demonstrate an emphasis on college access and completion. One significant change in this budget would be to convert Pell Grants to a mandatory program, which would increase Pell Grants by approximately $46.7 billion over the next five years.
CCSSO is currently writing its response to the FY2010 budget and a budget request for the allocations to key federal programs. To view the FY2010 Budget, click here.
Education Newsbriefs
Florida Celebrates National Charter Schools Week
WJHG TV (FL) (05/04/09)
The recent celebration of National Charters Schools Week in Florida covered the theme of "Promoting Innovation and Excellence." Public charter schools across the state work to offer smaller class sizes, alternative curriculum, and more opportunities for parents to be involved. There are 389 public charter schools in the state with more than 117,000 students. State Superintendent of Education Eric J. Smith says, "Charter schools are an essential component within Florida's educational framework and the extraordinary progress we have been making would not be possible without them. I'm truly proud of the top quality work these schools are doing and the healthy and effective learning environments they provide for our children."
Moving Toward Better Futures for Oklahoma Children
Oklahoman (05/10/09) Marks, Dawn
The Oklahoma Pilot Early Childhood Program is almost at the end of its third year, and the number of slots available in the program's 138 classrooms has risen from 1,204 in June 2008 to a projected 1,438 for June 2009. The program targets children in low-income families from birth to age 3 and requires at least one teacher per two classrooms to have a bachelor's degree. The program helps children develop language and reasoning skills, while also helping parents. Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett says she is waiting to hear from the legislature about funding, but the State Education Department may seek additional federal stimulus funds for the program. Garret says, children learn skills in the program that help them become more successful students in prekindergarten and kindergarten. The George Kaiser Family Foundation is one of the largest private donors for the program, contributing $15 million in funding this year.
Fed Grant Boosts Learning Center Program
Madison Capital Times (WI) (05/07/09)
Wisconsin has received a $2.5 million grant from the federal government that allows 22 school districts and a charter school to join the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. The program aims to boost the academic performance, attendance, and behavior of underprivileged children through before-school, weekend, and summer activities. The funds go to schools where 40 percent or more of students are eligible for free or reduced lunch. According to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster, "The program coordinators, instructional staff, and activity leaders of Wisconsin's 21st Century Community Learning Centers are partners in our efforts to close the achievement gap." The school districts joining 147 already participating in the program are Adams-Friendship, Appleton, Bayfield, Cashton, Cornell, Elcho, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Janesville, Kenosha, La Crosse, Manitowoc, Mellen, Milwaukee, Norwalk-Ontario-Wilton, Oshkosh, Reedsburg, Rhinelander, Tri-County, Wausau, Wautoma, and West Allis-West Milwaukee, along with the United Community Center in Milwaukee. To learn more about the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, click here.
The 21st Century Learning Imperative
T.H.E. Journal (04/09) Nagel, Dave
At the recent FETC Virtual Conference & Expo, West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Steven L. Paine talked about the state's push toward 21st Century learning. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the state saw a drop in achievement scores between 2001 and 2005, prompting participation in the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the adoption of the Framework for 21st Century Learning. The state's implementation, called Global21, concentrates on students, particularly with regard to achievement in core subjects, and teachers, with a focus on teaching and assessment. According to Paine, "We clearly want to make sure that our kids increase their cognitive knowledge, their learning ability, the skills that they acquire in those content areas. And then secondly we are focused in integrating some of the skills within the Framework for 21st Century Learning into our core subject content, standards, and objectives. And this is our approach. We're not in a rush to do this. No Child Left Behind took us down a path where we're all on timelines to make progress. We're finding that that's not the best way to make progress. Yes, there has to be accountability, but for every ounce of accountability there ought to be two ounces of capacity building." The Global21 framework seeks to integrate core subject content with 21st century skills, content, context, assessment, and technology, as well as provide mentoring programs for teachers and enhance collaboration among educators, among other things. The framework calls for assessments of learning and assessments for learning, said Paine. He remarked, "I think we're probably about two to three years from seeing real student achievement results, as we've just implemented this world-class benchmark curriculum this year. And I'm optimistic . . . that we have absolutely taken on the right venture for our kids for their future as we strive to allow our kids to figure out how to be globally intelligent and resilient in this 21st century." For more information about the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, click here. To learn more about the Framework for 21st Century Learning and Global21, click here and here.
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