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Association & Related News
CCSSO Releases Report on How NAEP is Related to State Standards and Assessments
2009 CCSSO Annual Policy Forum and Business Meeting
Advocacy in Action
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act Approved by House
Education Newsbriefs
"State Seeks Private Programs for Special-Needs Students" (ME)
"New MT School Strategies Plotted" (MT)
"State Revises K-12 Course of Study" (NC)
"State Education Commissioner Outlines Priorities During Jamestown School Visit" (RI)
"98 Percent of VA Schools Fully Accredited" (VA)
"Education Secretary Arne Duncan Designates 314 Schools as 2009 Blue Ribbon Schools"
Association & Related News
CCSSO Releases Report on How NAEP is Related to State Standards and Assessments
By Alyssa Alston
CCSSO commissioned the development of Alignment and the States: Three Approaches to Aligning the National Assessment of Educational Progress with State Assessments, Other Assessments, and Standards. The report is designed to compare three National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) alignment approaches: the NAEP Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI) Procedural Manual, the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) Model, and the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) Model.
Written by consultant Martha Vockley, the report focuses on the questions each model is designed to answer; the methodologies, tools, resources, analyses, and products offered; and the amount of time and human resources required. Also included are a table for side-by-side comparison of each model’s key features and a glossary of alignment-related terms.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) sponsored the development of these approaches to support state alignment initiatives. State NAEP coordinators, state and district assessment and curriculum directors, and other state and district officials can use this information to compare and select an alignment approach or model that best matches their needs, expectations, and resources to achieve their alignment objectives. These alignment approaches could also prove useful to states interested in comparing their assessment systems to international assessments.
Aligning NAEP to state assessments and/or standards can help states consider:
- Whether NAEP measures the same general knowledge and skills that state assessments measure
- How “proficient” on state assessments compares to “proficient” on NAEP
- Whether students are learning what is being tested
- Whether the relative standing of subgroups of students remains constant across assessments
- How NAEP results relate to and inform school improvement policy initiatives
To access the report, please click here. For more information, please contact Alyssa Alston at alyssaa@ccsso.org or 202-336-7050.
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2009 CCSSO Annual Policy Forum and Business Meeting
Registration is open for CCSSO’s 2009 Annual Policy Forum (APF) and Business Meeting, November 19–22, 2009, at the Naples Grande Resort and Club in Naples, Florida. The APF is designed to bring chiefs, deputies, and federal liaisons together to conduct the annual business of the Council. The forum will focus on the following:
- to review the chiefs’ four strategic priorities and call upon members to engage in a collective theory of action around those priorities;
- to discuss the policy effects of the chiefs’ strategic initiatives, the implications for collective state action, and their intersection with current federal opportunities; and
- to prepare the organization and the states to collectively act on the chiefs’ strategic priorities with a variety of key education policymakers in the coming year.
The deadline for registration is close of business Friday, October 30, 2009. For questions about the program or registration, please contact Bevin Kennedy at bevink@ccsso.org or 202-336-7014.
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Advocacy in Action
Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act Approved by House
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (SAFRA) with a vote of 253-171. Under SAFRA, all new federal student loans will originate from the Direct Loan program. The House bill calls for $8 billion of the savings from redirecting federal student loans to be put towards early education through a new competitive grant program. The Early Learning Challenge Fund will reward states that implement comprehensive reforms of their early learning systems in an effort to improve the school readiness of young children within the state.
CCSSO is pleased to announce that this bill included legislative language allowing for federal funds to be used in the development of enhanced assessment tools to document the developmental and learning progress of children birth to age five. This provision was proposed to the House Committee on Education & Labor by CCSSO’s Director of Early Childhood Tom Schultz. CCSSO’s Advocacy Team is now working to ensure this provision’s inclusion in the Senate version of the bill.
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Education Newsbriefs
State Seeks Private Programs for Special-Needs Students
Morning Sentinel (ME) (09/20/09) Stone, Matthew
Maine Education Commission Susan Gendron told members of the Legislature's Education Committee that lower-cost alternatives to placing special education students in private programs are being sought to help close a $66 million budget gap. School districts pay anywhere from $100 per student per day to more than $500 per student, in addition to transportation costs, to send students with autism, mental illness, rare learning disabilities, and emotional disorders to private schools that work with them one-on-one. "When you look at the expenditures, you see special education costs are growing twice as fast as regular education," Gendron said. "There are different ways of doing things instead of tuitioning that student out of the district." Gendron is calling on special education directors to develop regional, in-school programs, such as the one established in the Maranacook-area school district to help students with autism. The district opened a regional center for autism in a vacant wing of Wayne Elementary School, which will save the district money by eliminating the need to bus students to private programs outside the area.
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New MT School Strategies Plotted
Montana's News Station (09/15/09)
The Montana Office of Public Instruction recently announced new strategic objectives to bolster education statewide. The goals--improving the education system from preschool to employment, supporting struggling schools, offering up-to-date information to schools, enhancing the relationship between schools and the community, and beefing up staff training--have no official deadline. According to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau, "If we can formulate plans around each of these goals, each of these directions . . . within our agency . . . we will work more efficiently as an agency. We will become a better support system for schools, and in return schools can really get down to the business of doing what they need to do and that's educating students."
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State Revises K-12 Course of Study
The Franklin Press (NC) (09/17/09) Lebert, Melanie
The North Carolina State Board of Education recently approved K-12 standards for math, English 10, an Occupational Course of Study, and information and technology. The first group of standards will take effect during the 2011-12 school year as part of the board's "Framework for Change." State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. June Atkinson says, "North Carolina's Standard Course of Study has been criticized for being an inch deep and a mile wide. The new essential standards clarify for teachers and others the fundamental skills and knowledge students must master to be successful at the next grade level." As part of the state's Accountability and Curriculum Reform Effort, state officials hope to pinpoint the most critical skills and knowledge students need to learn; create reading and math tests for grades 3-8, science tests for grades 5-8, and tests for certain high school courses; and provide a model for measuring school success that helps parents and educators gauge schools' effectiveness in preparing students for college and careers. The board is now working on standards for grades K-9 and 11-12 English language arts, K-12 social studies, foreign languages, healthy living, and fine arts, which will take effect in the 2012-13 school year. Science standards for K-12 are expected to be implemented that year as well. Atkinson says, "This is an incredible undertaking and the efforts currently underway to make this a reality are inspiring. I applaud North Carolina educators for their willingness to tackle so much in a relatively short time." For more information about ACRE, click here.
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State Education Commissioner Outlines Priorities During Jamestown School Visit
Jamestown Press (RI) (09/17/09) Chadwick, Dara
Rhode Island Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist outlined her priorities while visiting schools in Jamestown on Sept. 15, including determining how policies at the state level are being implemented in schools. Students had an opportunity to raise their own concerns about certain policies with Gist, particularly those dealing with school lunches. Students noted that they are forced to accept side dishes with their lunch, which they do not eat and end up wasting. Gist said, "We don’t always know how a policy is going to be when the action happens. [When the policy was created mandating that students had to take a side,] no one thought about sides being thrown away. No one thought, 'What if we're wasting food?'" Gist will visit 60 schools statewide, including charter and private schools, to determine if policies implemented at the state level are making positive changes in schools. She also will discuss with parents and teachers the state's "Transforming Education in Rhode Island" plan and its top priorities: "ensuring educator excellence, accelerating all schools toward greatness, establishing world-class standards and assessments, developing user-friendly data systems and investing resources wisely." Gist's department is working on draft teacher evaluation standards that will include parent input, observation, student input, and student achievement.
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98 Percent of VA Schools Fully Accredited
WTVR.com CBS 6 (Richmond, Va.) (09/16/09) Pyle, Charles
A Virginia Department of Education 2008-09 assessment reveals that 98 percent of the state's schools meet or exceed the state's Standards of Learning objectives for achievement in English, math, history, and science, and 98 percent of high schools and elementary schools are fully accredited, marking a 10-year high. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Patricia I. Wright says, "Virginia's public schools have accomplished what many ten years ago thought was impossible. With the sustained support of governors, legislators, and policy makers from both parties, teachers and other educators have met the challenge of higher standards and students are achieving at significantly higher levels in nearly every school in the commonwealth." High schools and middle schools must achieve a pass rate of 70 percent or more in all four subject areas to receive accreditation. Elementary schools need only a combined pass rate of 75 percent or more in English for grades 3-5; a pass rate of at least 70 percent in math, grade 5 science, and grade 5 history; and pass rates of 50 percent or more in grade 3 science and grade 3 history. The report also shows an increase in fully accredited middle schools to 96 percent from 87 percent last year and 69 percent two years ago.
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Education Secretary Arne Duncan Designates 314 Schools as 2009 Blue Ribbon Schools
ED.gov (09/15/09)
A total of 314 schools nationwide--264 public and 50 private--were designated 2009 National Blue Ribbon Schools by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The schools must meet Adequate Yearly Progress in reading and math, and they must meet one of two criteria: schools must have students performing in the top 10 percent on state tests for public schools and nationally normed tests for private schools, or schools with 40 percent of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds must show substantial improvement on state or nationally normed tests. "These Blue Ribbon Schools have shown that all children can learn with appropriate support," said Duncan. "Some have shown dramatic improvement in places where students are overcoming the challenges of poverty, and others serve as examples of consistent excellence that can be a resource for other schools. They are places where improved teaching and learning benefits every student, and where students are challenged to meet high expectations with the active support of teachers, parents and the community." To view a list of the 2009 Blue Ribbon Schools, click here.
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