JULY 2004 POLICY BRIEF

A recent report released by the American Federation of Teachers indicates that the average teacher salary has increased by 3.3% from the previous year (2001-2002). In 2002-2003, the average teacher salary was $45,771 and the average beginning teacher salary was $29,564 (a 3.2% increase from the previous year).

Yet, as AFT reports, the cost of health insurance (which spiked approximately 13%) and other expenses makes the actual increase lower. According to Jewell Gould, AFT Director of Research, the higher figure of 3.3 percent reflects that there were more senior teachers moving to the top of the pay scale--driving up the average salary--while fewer new teachers were hired during a lean economic time.

The report also includes state-by-state breakdowns of teachers salaries. A few highlights indicate:

California, Michigan, Connecticut and New Jersey had the nation's highest average salaries in 2002-03.
South Dakota, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Mississippi had the lowest salaries in 2002-03.
For beginning teachers, the highest average salaries were found in Alaska and New Jersey, while Montana and Arizona ranked lowest.
In 33 states, last year's base salary level gains for teachers beat the 2.1 percent gain in the Employment Cost Index. However, in the largest urban cities, the beginning salary grew just 1.6 percent in the same period.

View the press-release and state-by-state salary survey tables here.

Source: American Federation of Teaches [http://www.aft.org]

ECS Measures States Progress Towards NCLB Mandates

The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has conducted an in-depth analysis of the states based on 40 elements of the No Child Left Behind mandate. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Education granted $2 million for one year to track and report on state policy activity

The report is organized around seven major categories of the law's requirements. Each section looks at how states are doing, what states are doing and issues and challenges states are facing. Among the findings are the following:

All 50 states have met or were partially on track to meeting half of the 40 NCLB requirements
All but two states and the District of Columbia had met or were partially on track to meeting 75% of the requirements
Five states – Connecticut, Kentucky, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania – had met or were partially on track to meeting all 40 NCLB requirements.
Few states are on track to implementing high-quality professional development for all teachers.
Only 10 states appear fully on track to ensuring both new and veteran teachers are qualified to teach in their subject
area.
Fewer than half the states are on track to making sure scientifically based technical assistance is provided to low-performing schools.
Many states do not have in place the technology infrastructure needed to collect, disaggregate and report data at the school, district and state levels. NCLB does not require the development of statewide data systems but, without them, states will have difficulty meeting a number of the law’s requirements.

The report's recommendations include redefining how progress is measured so schools can track the success of students over time. ECS says states should get rid of systems that deem veteran teachers highly qualified under standards that aren't rigorous.

Click here to view more on this report.

Source: ECS [http://www.ecs.org]

Kindergarten-Plus Introduced in Senate

On July 14, 2004, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) told convention delegates that he was introducing the Kindergarten-Plus Act of 2004, to be named in Sandra Feldman's (former AFT President) honor. The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), will help states extend the kindergarten year to 15 months to provide better academic preparation for disadvantaged children entering first grade. Sen. Dodd cited Feldman's initial Kindergarten-Plus proposal, unveiled at the union's 2002 convention, which became the model for the first state law in the country to extend the kindergarten year for disadvantaged youngsters, passed by the New Mexico Legislature last year. New Mexico already is seeing the benefits of that state initiative, with preliminary reports showing that participating students have made substantial gains in achievement and that the number of students referred to special education has dropped.

Source: Inside AFT [July 19, 2004]]

'What Works' Research Site Now Operational

After nearly two years in development, a new clearinghouse funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is now operational. The What Works Clearinghouse was developed as an electronic version of Consumer Reports for research in education. The idea behind the What Works Clearinghouse is to set standards for judging the evidence about the effectiveness of educational approaches. With the No Child Left Behind law emphasizing scientifically based decision making, this site offers practitioners and policy makers reviews of scientifically based programs and strategies to help them in their decision making. The clearinghouse currently has only 10 study reviews of specific experiments on two topics: peer-assisted learning strategies and middle school mathematics programs.

The clearing house reviews reports and gives them either two checks for "meeting standards" or one for "meeting standards with reservations." The reviews also summarize the studies and rate them on specific strengths or weaknesses. Studies that failed to meet clearinghouse standards are also listed on the Web site, but are not formally reviewed.

For more information on this site, visit: http://www.whatworks.ed.gov/.

Source: Education Week [July 14, 2004].

Only Few States Continue to Actively Challenge NCLB

Less than six months ago, twenty-seven state legislatures had drafted 54 bills to protest the costs, penalties and unprecedented federal oversight of school policy under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Ultimately, only the Democratic governor of Maine and the Republican governors of Utah and Vermont signed bills against the act. Yet, the effort did not go unnoticed, as the Department of Education did make several changes to the bill. States are now able to defer test scores of limited-English speakers for one year, more disabled students are allowed to take alternative tests and rural school districts will have more time to meet federal requirements for teacher qualifications.

In lieu of drafting bills to protest the law, approximately 40 state agencies are negotiating for even greater flexibility - trying to reduce the number of schools penalized by the act. The goal is for states to lower the number of "low-performing" schools so that they can focus specifically on troubled schools. Many states are asking for more flexibility such as limiting the law's achievement standards to low-income students, missing state benchmarks twice before being labeled as low-performing, using confidence intervals, or increasing the number of students for a subgroup's test scores to count against a school's achievement. Read more on this by clicking here.

Source: www.Stateline.org, [July 6, 2004].

No Child Left Behind - Charter Schools

On May 5, the U.S. Department of Education announced the awarding of a $4 million grant to the state of Massachusetts to enhance the credit of its charter schools to help meet their facility needs.

The Department's Credit Enhancement for Charter Schools Facilities grant program provides funds on a competitive basis to help public and nonprofit entities with loan guarantees, insuring debt and other means of leveraging funds to help charter schools obtain school facilities through such means as purchase, lease and donation. The funds may also be used to help charter schools construct and renovate school facilities.

This year marks the 12th anniversary of the opening of the first charter school. Since then, almost 3,000 charter schools have opened in 38 states and the District of Columbia, educating more than 700,000 children.

The creation and support of charter schools are key elements of the No Child Left Behind Act. President Bush's fiscal year 2005 budget proposes almost $320 million for charter schools, including $100 million for the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities grant program.

For more information about the Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities program, visit www.ed.gov/programs/charterfacilities, and for the State Charter School Facilities Incentive program, visit www.ed.gov/programs/statecharter.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, The Achiever [June 1, 2004].

Planting the Seeds of Knowledge

As the accountability movement increases the focus on student test scores, many schools are reluctantly abandoning programs that are viewed as extras -- even though they offer valuable learning opportunities. At a time when educators are being instructed to devote more time to math, science and language arts, what are they doing to keep environmental education in their curriculum? How can they help their students master the skills that will help them thrive as learners? Read this article in Curriculum Update.

QUICK LINKS

An analysis by the State Higher Education Executive Officers finds that states have substantially increased support for higher education, but continue to struggle to keep pace with enrollment growth and inflation. Find the full report here.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education is conducting a multi-year project entitled: The Project on the Next Generation of Teachers. This project addresses several critical questions regarding the future of our national teaching force. The Project examines issues related to attracting, supporting, and retaining quality teachers in U.S. public schools. Project researchers are currently studying new teachers’ careers and career decisions, hiring practices in schools, professional culture, induction, principal leadership, new teachers' experiences with curriculum, and alternative certification programs. Click here for more information on this project.

GreatSchools.net has launched a user-friendly feature for 30 U.S. states that allows parents, policymakers, and others to easily ascertain whether a school is in need of improvement under No Child Left Behind. If it is, the site offers a list of schools in the district not in need of improvement, which parents can consult as they consider their pubic school choice options. The site also contains a list of approved supplemental educational services providers. This database is funded by a grant from OII.

Published by the Education Commission of the States, and supported by a grant from the Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program, the University of Southern California has released a policy brief entitled Charter School Laws and Partnerships: Expanding Opportunities and Resources.

BACK TO TOP

STATE BY STATE. . .

Georgia approves new science standards, delays math
Recently, Georgia officials approved new K-12 science standards but decided to take more time to review a proposed math curriculum which would replace traditional courses with a blended approach. State schools chief Kathy Cox said she would resubmit a more detailed math curriculum to the board by October.

Maryland district promotes kindergartners, ready or not
Prince Georges County (Md.) schools chief Andre J. Hornsby says retaining kindergartners can damage them psychologically. He believes in promoting all children to first grade, even those not participating in a special summer program the district has established to help struggling youngsters strengthen their math and reading readiness skills.

Florida Adopts American Board Certification
Last month, the Florida State Board of Education voted to accept the Passport to TeachingSM as a new route to full certification for the state's public school teachers. Florida is now the third state (after Pennsylvania and Idaho) to recognize the American Board as a formal program. For more information visit: http://www.abcte.org.