About NCLB

"OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN" HILL BRIEFING DRAWS CROWD OF STAFFERS AND ADVOCATES

John Jackson, President of the Schott Foundation, Patricia Gándara, Co-Director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, and Molly Hunter, Director of Education Justice, at Education Law Center, spoke at the Russell Senate Office Building on February 22, highlighting the gross disparities in our schools and the need to build Opportunity To Learn into the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Bethany Little, Chief Education Counsel, Senate HELP Committee, responded, and Republican staffers were also invited to respond. Senator Sherrod Brown co-sponsored the event, and his legislative assistant for education, Moira Lenehan, welcomed everyone on his behalf. Arnold Fege, Public Education Network’s Director of Public Engagement and Advocacy, moderated and summarized the event, concluding: "We need to restore the link between the academic aspirations we have for our students and the opportunities that are necessary to achieve those expectations."

Dr. Jackson explained: "adopting an Opportunity To Learn Resource Accountability System is necessary to ensure that all students can achieve high outcomes and to stimulate sustainable growth in the U.S. economy." A recent Schott Foundation study found that students from low-income homes are less likely to have access to highly effective teachers, early childhood education, college preparatory curriculum, and access to other important school resources. If we want to close the achievement gap, Jackson stressed, then we need to close this opportunity gap.

Jackson also criticized Secretary Duncan's "Race to the Top" initiative, which has states vying for monetary awards. By distributing funds through a competition in which only some states will be rewarded, Race to the Top ensures that some states will lose, which means that children from those states will lose too, Jackson pointed out. "If California loses, American loses; if Florida loses, American loses," he said. Instead of a race, we should be striving for opportunity for all in the reauthorization of the ESEA, according to Jackson.

Molly Hunter cited examples of missing education resources revealed in state lawsuits seeking better opportunity. "Students must pass a laboratory science course in New York State," she reported, "but the court found that 31 New York City high schools had no science labs." Hunter offered the Forum on Educational Accountability's (FEA) recommendations for Opportunity To Learn in the ESEA reauthorization, including:
 

• requiring comprehensive data collection to identify key inequities, in both school and out-of-school factors, that affect learning outcomes;

• helping states move quickly toward greater equity;
  requiring states to develop strategies to provide resources that overcome inequities and inadequacies;

• requiring each state to report on their indicators, strategies and progress, and federal biannual reporting as to status and progress; and

• fully funding Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act part B; making these programs mandatory federal budget items; and enforcing the requirement that states use Title I funds to supplement, not supplant, state and local funding.

Dr. Gándara reminded attendees that students who are learning English have large, unmet needs. "At least 30% of all teachers of English learners have no preparation to teach English learners. Under NCLB, these students must demonstrate significant annual progress, without a fair opportunity to learn or to be assessed accurately. It is absurd to expect these students to prosper under such circumstances. It is time to change the law to reflect this reality."

Bethany Little, warmly embracing Opportunity To Learn concerns as a moral imperative, also asserted that better education is critically important to economic development. She encouraged those present to organize and mobilize to influence the members of the Committee and all Members of Congress.

The Opportunity to Learn Hill briefing was the second in an FEA series titled "Transforming ESEA: Helping Public Schools Improve." The next topic is "Accountability that Advances Learning." That forum will take place on Wednesday, March 17 at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, DC from 1pm until 3pm. Featured speakers include: EPI Research Associate Richard Rothstein, who authored Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right; former Nebraska Commissioner of Education Doug Christensen, a leading advocate for performance assessment; and Beth Foley, a Senior Policy Analyst at the National Education Association.

From the Newsletter of Education Justice at the Education Law Center, February 26, 2010