AUGUST 2005 POLICY BRIEF V2I6

www.nacctep.org/briefs

VOLUME 2

ISSUE 6

Inside This Issue

Education Department Gives States Approval on Changes

2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress

The Returns of a Community College Education

Teacher Quality Among Top Priorities in Reauthorization of HEA

Quick Links

State by State...

This Policy Brief is developed by the National Center for Teacher Education of the Maricopa Community Colleges.

Please direct any comments or submissions to:
Dr. Cheri St. Arnauld
Executive Director,
National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs/ National Director of Teacher Education Programs

2411 W. 14th Street
Tempe, AZ 85281
Phone: 480.731.8760
Fax: 480.731.8786

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Education Department Gives States Approval on Changes

In mid-July, Federal officials sent decision letters to 16 states approving some of their requested changes to accountability plans under the NCLB act. These changes should make it easier for schools and districts to show progress. Another 31 states are awaiting similar decisions, although many have received verbal approvals or denials. The changes were due in part, by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ April 7 pledge to take a more “common sense” approach to carrying out the law. The most commonly approved amendments are:

Raising the minimum subgroup size.
Using a confidence interval of 99 percent in calculating adequate yearly progress.
Using a confidence interval of 75 percent under the law's "safe harbor" provision, which provides a second look at schools and districts that did not make AYP initially.
Averaging results across years.
Identifying districts for improvement only when they do not make AYP in the same subject for two consecutive years in elementary, middle, and high school.
Revising annual AYP targets to increase in 10 equal increments through 2014.
Adjusting upward the percent of proficient students with disabilities in schools that failed to make AYP based solely on their special education subgroup.

2004 National Assessment of Educational Progress

NAEP's 2004 Long Term Trends in Academic Progress is now available online at www.nces.ed.gov. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "the Nation's Report Card, is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. Since 1969, assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, geography, and the arts.

Students were measured at three ages: 9, 13 and 17. Major results indicate the following:

The average reading scores of students at ages 9 and 13 were higher in 2004 than in 1971. There was no statistically significant difference between average scores in 1999 and 2004 for 17 year olds.
The average mathematics scores of students at ages 9 and 13 were higher in 2004 than in 1973. The average score for 17 year olds in 2004 did not show a significant change when compared to the score in either 1973 or 1999.
At all three ages, female students outperformed male students in reading.
At all three ages, black students' average reading scores in 2004 were higher than in 1971.
At all three ages, Hispanic students' average reading scores were higher in 2004 than in 1975.
In 2004, male students scored higher than female students in math scale scores only at ages 13 and 17. At age 9, the apparent difference was not statistically significant.
At all three ages, the average mathematics scale scores for black students were higher in 2004 than in 1973.
At all three ages, hispanic students' average scale scores in mathematics were higher in 2004 than in 1973.

The Returns of a Community College Education

An article published in the Journal: Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, discusses the economic effects of a community college education using the latest available nationally representative dataset. The authors find substantial evidence that a community college education has positive effects on earnings among young workers, especially for those who earn an associate degree. This effect was larger for annual earnings than for hourly wages. Earnings benefits accrued both to those who failed to earn a credential and to those who earned an associate degree. Using the 2000 follow-up of the National Education Longitudinal Survey, the authors estimated earnings effects of a community college education. Previous research relied on data collected from students enrolled 20 or 30 years ago. Because the labor market and community colleges have changed dramatically since then, the authors provide an update by studying students enrolled in the 1990s.

Click here to read more.

Source: Community College Research Center [July 2005]

Teacher Quality Among Top Priorities in Reauthorization of Higher Education Act

As members of the 109th Congress work toward reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), their attention seems trained on two priority areas: access and teacher quality. Already several bills are circulating on Capitol Hill, some of which have been introduced in the Senate or in the House of Representatives.

Access to Higher Education
The bills address access to higher education through loan regulations, incentive grants, and other measures of mostly financial nature. New proposals, for example, enhance incentives to enter the teaching profession; expand Pell Grants and ease loan-refinancing restrictions; amend loan-forgiveness programs for “highly qualified” Head Start teachers; increase tuition waivers for future math, science, and special education teachers; and institute grants to support post-baccalaureate opportunities for Hispanic Americans, digital and wireless technology systems at minority-serving institutions, and similar programs.

Teacher Preparation, Innovation, and Accountability
Several legislators and groups have also drafted bills to amend Title II of HEA, which deals with teacher preparation. Program innovation and accountability for student learning dominate most of the proposals. One of the least popular results of the current law is the confusion generated by variation in required teacher licensure tests and acceptable scores from state to state. Without common standards across states and institutions, meaningful comparison of programs has been elusive. Proposed amendments to Title II attempt to rectify this problem through strategies such as national benchmarking of scores.

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education has also contributed a proposal to amend Title II. A summary of AACTE’s bill is posted at http://www.aacte.org.

Click here to read more.

Reprinted with Permission from AACTE; Briefs [June 6, 2005]

QUICK LINKS

Public school officials are trying to meet teacher-recruiting targets to fill classrooms in high-growth and high-turnover areas. The issue: by the end of the coming school year, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law requires "highly qualified" teachers in all core academic classes. New data show that one-fourth of Maryland's classes this year did not meet that standard. That is an improvement over last year’s figure of one-third of classes statewide falling short of the teacher quality standard. Schools in high-poverty neighborhoods were far less likely than those in affluent communities to have highly qualified teachers. Teacher-quality rules vary widely across the country, making interstate comparisons difficult. In Virginia, the latest data show nearly 95 percent of core academic classrooms in 2004 had highly qualified teachers. Read more here.
Source: Washington Post [July 10, 2005]

The U.S. Department of Education will publish a common graduation rate for every state in an attempt to provide a clearer picture of how successful the states are in ensuring that students complete high school. The department will calculate each state's graduation rate based on the number of high school graduates in a given year divided by the average of the number of students who entered the 8th grade five years earlier, the 9th grade four years earlier, and the 10th grade three years earlier. The "averaged freshman graduation rate" will be published alongside the graduation rates that states report under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Read more here.
Source: Education Week [July 14, 2005]

STATE BY STATE. . .

Utah Facing Teacher Shortage
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, without the legislature's help, Utah potentially faces a teacher shortage in coming years. Educators have asked lawmakers to pay for several programs to recruit, retain and train Utah teachers. In their annual report, members of the state Board of Education and state Board of Regents said Utah is losing 1,175 teachers a year. A projected increase in the number of students combined with that attrition rate means the state would have to fill approximately 80,000 teacher vacancies during the next 20 years. Although educators say the teacher shortfall is manageable now, according to the annual report, steps such as increasing teacher salaries must be taken. Read more here.
Source: The Salt Lake Tribune [July 26, 2005]

Connecticut Governor Backs NCLB Lawsuit
Governor M. Jodi Rell signed a law that authorizes Connecticut's lawsuit challenging NCLB. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal plans to file the lawsuit in August even though the State Board of Education has not endorsed it. Connecticut is one of many states that have clashed with the U.S. Department of Education over No Child Left Behind. The federal government has repeatedly rejected Connecticut's requests for flexibility in interpreting the law, including Commissioner Sternberg's appeal for a waiver of a requirement to test three additional grades in the state's annual testing program next spring. Read more here.
ASCD Smart Brief [July 26, 2005]