Statement by Eugene W. Hickok, Under Secretary on Implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act
Committee on Education and the Workforce
FOR RELEASE:
July 24, 2002
Contact: Dan Langan
(202) 401-1576
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you this morning to discuss the Department's implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, the recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The enactment of No Child Left Behind was a watershed event in the history of Federal support for K-12 education. It gives me great pleasure to discuss its significance and the Department's efforts to ensure its successful implementation across this country.
Mr. Chairman, only three days after taking office, President Bush unveiled No Child Left Behind as a comprehensive strategy for restructuring Federal elementary and secondary
education programs and leading the way toward national reform and renewal in education. Less than a year later, he signed into law this remarkable, bipartisan legislation for improving the performance of America's elementary and secondary schools while ensuring that no child is trapped in an unsafe or failing school.
No Child Left Behind embodies the key principles and themes that the President emphasized upon taking office. These principles include:
Increased accountability for results: The No Child Left Behind Act provides for real performance accountability in the Title I program by requiring statewide accountability systems covering all public schools and students. These systems must be based on challenging State standards in reading and mathematics (and later, science), annual testing for all students in grades 3-8, and annual progress objectives for ensuring that all students reach proficiency in reading and math within 12 years. Schools and school districts that do not meet these objectives, both for all students and for specific student groups, will be subject to improvement, corrective action, and restructuring aimed at getting them back on track. More choices for parents and students: The new Act significantly increases the choices available to students attending under-achieving schools. Beginning in the coming school year, these students must be given the opportunity to attend another public school that is making "adequate yearly progress" under Title I, and the district will provide transportation to that new school. Public school choice must also be provided for students in persistently dangerous schools. Students attending schools that do not make adequate yearly progress for three years in a row will have the opportunity to receive supplemental academic services, such as after-school tutoring, from providers who can demonstrate success in raising student achievement. The new law also requires states and school districts to post accessible, user-friendly information on the Internet about student performance, teacher characteristics, and graduation rates, as well as other school and district data. This information will help parents make informed choices when it comes to their children's education and will also allow taxpayers and the general public to assess the quality of the schools they help fund. The bill also enhances the Department's support for innovations in public school choice by creating programs for the support of voluntary public school choice and the financing of charter school facilities. Greater flexibility for States, school districts, and schools: Through a number of mechanisms, the new Act greatly expands the flexibility of States, local educational agencies, and schools to use Federal funds in a manner that best reflects State and local needs and priorities. These mechanisms include the "State-Flex" and "Local-Flex" demonstration authorities, which will allow up to 7 States and 150 districts the flexibility to consolidate Federal program funds and use them for any authorized purpose, in exchange for committing themselves to improving student achievement and narrowing achievement gaps. The "transferability" authority, another new innovation, allows all States and most districts to transfer, across program categories, up to half their formula allocations for certain major programs. A focus on what works: The new law consistently calls for States, school districts, and other grantees to use their ESEA funds to implement programs that reflect scientifically based research, that is, programs, activities, and strategies that high-quality research shows are truly effective in raising student achievement. The Congress clearly signaled a lack of patience with the faddishness that frequently substitutes for research-based approaches to educating our children. Particularly in the area of reading, where the Act created the new Reading First program, the Members said that we have a solid research base about what works; now it's time to ensure that all our children benefit.
Those are some of the major themes and messages in the No Child Left Behind Act. These key principles are also guiding our implementation of the Act; they are reflected in our regulations and non-regulatory guidance, and in the instructions we developed for formula and competitive grant applications.
I will use the remainder of my time to give you a brief overview of the Department's progress in implementing the Act.
Regulations and Program Guidance
When a piece of legislation like No Child Left Behind is enacted, educators across the country eagerly await information from the Department on how the new and revised programs will operate. We provide that information either through regulations or non-regulatory program guidance. Through these documents, we interpret provisions that may be ambiguous in the statute, fill in a few of the blanks, and translate statutory text into plain English.
Our guiding principle in implementing No Child Left Behind is to regulate only when it is absolutely necessary, because non-regulatory guidance tends to provide States and local educational agencies with greater flexibility. Thus we worked assiduously to develop guidance for the major formula grant programs, and have at this point issued, in either final or draft form, guidance for Reading First, Teacher Quality State Grants, Language Acquisition State Grants, Comprehensive School Reform, Enhancing Education through Technology, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and on Title I issues such as paraprofessionals and teacher quality. Draft guidance on supplemental services should be out in early August. For other programs, the guidance packages are in final clearance, and we fully expect to complete all of them during the remainder of the summer. We have worked closely with State educational agencies and others who administer these programs, to ensure that the guidance fully addresses their concerns.
In some cases, we do have to issue formal regulations. In particular, the Act called on the Department to develop, through a negotiated rulemaking process, regulations for the standards and assessment requirements under Title I. We carried out this negotiated rulemaking, or "reg-neg" as its called, during the second and third weeks of March. We assembled a panel of State and local officials, school principals, teachers, parents, and representatives of students and the business community. The negotiators successfully reached consensus on such important issues as the requirement for inclusion of all students in State assessments, the use of "out-of-level" tests in assessing students with disabilities, and the assessments administered to private school children who participate in Title I. After completion of the negotiations, we published proposed regulations in the Federal Register, took public comment on them (including at regional meetings that we convened in May), and published the final regulations by the statutory deadline set by Congress.
We also determined that regulations would be needed for certain other key Title I provisions, such as adequate yearly progress, accountability, and teacher and paraprofessional qualifications, because of the complexity of these provisions and the need to resolve clearly some of the statutory issues. These proposed regulations will be published in the Federal Register during the week of July 29th.
Consolidated State Applications
For each State formula program in ESEA, the Act provides detailed instructions on the information States must provide to the Department in their State applications. However, the Act also permits States to submit a consolidated application, in place of some or all of the individual program applications.
Because we knew that most or all States were likely to take advantage of the consolidated application option, the Department spent a great deal of time this winter and spring developing instructions for the consolidated application and working with States on their submissions. In the end, all States submitted consolidated applications. The Department's instructions, consistent with the statutory language, required States to provide, in their applications, only the minimum information needed for the Department to operate the programs, but also the data and documentation essential for ensuring program integrity and accountability. States responded very favorably to this direction, and we received many commendations from them on our conduct of the process. While States had only a short period of time to complete their applications, we were able to complete the reviews in time to make awards when the formula grant money became available on July 1.
New Flexibility Initiatives
The new Act holds States and school districts accountable for educating all their children to high standards. But more than ever before, it gives them room to use Federal funds to develop and implement their own strategies for improving education. States and local educational agencies will have new opportunities to combine Federal funds, rather than using them within narrow categories, in a manner that reflects local needs and priorities.
The new flexibility provisions include the State and local flexibility demonstrations, or "State-Flex" and "Local-Flex" as we call them. They allow selected States and districts to consolidate their Federal funds and use them for any authorized purpose, in exchange for a commitment to improving student achievement. In addition to those competitive authorities, all States and most districts will be able to take advantage of the "transferability" provisions, which allow the transfer of up to half the money they receive under certain formula programs across those programs or into Title I.
Ever since the legislation passed, we have been working to ensure a swift and successful implementation of these important new authorities. We want all States and school districts to know about these new opportunities to improve their use of Federal dollars. We want to receive as many high-quality applications as possible for the demonstration programs, and are ready to provide technical assistance to applicants. We have published proposed rules for both State-Flex and Local-Flex, and have taken steps to inform States and districts about the new provisions and to receive their input on implementation. We expect to announce the first group of Local-Flex districts in December and the first States in January. Thirteen States have told us that they intend to apply for State-Flex.
Competitive Grant Programs
A major focus of our efforts in recent months has been on implementing the competitive grant programs included in the No Child Left Behind Act. We must make awards under most of the competitive programs by September 30, which has left us very little time between enactment of the statute and completion of the competitions. Some of the programs have proved to be very popular; for instance, for the Mentoring program we received more than 1,200 applications, for Early Reading First, we received more than 900, and for the Carol M. White Physical Fitness program, more than 700. We will spend much of the remainder of the summer conducting the peer reviews for these competitions and preparing to make the awards.
I should also mention two other programs that are not competitive but that have also been major areas of focus or activity. Reading First embodies the President's commitment to ensuring that all children learn to read by the third grade. All States are eligible to receive formula grants for implementation of programs of scientifically based reading instruction, particularly in schools where high percentages of students are not learning to read. The statute requires a different, particularly intensive peer review for Reading First than for other programs, and thus States could not include Reading First in their consolidated State applications. Thirty-nine States have now applied for the program, and we have proceeded with the peer reviews and are working collaboratively with States to correct any deficiencies in their applications. State applications have reflected both the great urgency to improve reading achievement and a great commitment to use proven methods to achieve that goal. On June 25, we announced the first group of Reading First awards—Alabama, Colorado, and Florida—and we expect to announce a second group in early August.
A second program that has required some special attention is the Small, Rural School Achievement program. The No Child Left Behind Act created this authority for low-enrollment districts serving rural areas to apply directly to the Department for flexible funding that supplements the funds they receive from the State formula programs. Our first action was to contact each State to determine which districts were eligible and to obtain average daily attendance figures for those districts. With that information in hand, we invited the districts, approximately 4,700 in all, to apply for the funding. Even though the application process is very simple and is accomplished entirely on line, many of these districts have never before applied directly to the Department for a grant and they have required considerable technical assistance in completing their applications. Last week we extended the application period in order to give the eligible districts some additional time to apply; we will, however, make all of these grants within the next few weeks.
Public Outreach
Implementing No Child Left Behind involves more than just issuing regulations, reviewing applications, and making the grants. It really means bringing the whole country together around the idea that, if we are to continue to flourish as a Nation, no child really can be left behind, that it is time to stop making excuses for educational failure, and time to use the framework provided by this legislation to get on with what we have to do. Toward that end, we have communicated continually with governors, chief State school officers, school superintendents, teachers, parents, business leaders, and the general public on this Act and on the vision that it embodies.
On the week of the signing, Secretary Paige convened an historic summit with State superintendents to discuss implementation of the new law. The Secretary has traveled across the country, visiting over 15 cities to spread the word about the new options the Act makes available to parents, and has forged new partnerships with groups like the National Council of Negro Women, Alpha Kappa Alpha, and other groups that have strong links to parents and communities.
In the Department, we held heavily attended regional meetings to discuss the Title I standards and assessments regulations, national conferences on teacher quality and charter schools, and a special conference on supplemental educational services. For this fall, we are planning regional meetings on the topic of "Student Achievement and School Accountability" and a series of leadership academies on early childhood education. We also have held three leadership academies with State officials and one with big-city districts to acquaint them with the Reading First program.
We created a series of publications on No Child Left Behind, including a parents' guide, brochures and fact sheets that provide information for parents about key provisions of the law. We created publications that give parents tips on helping their children with reading and homework. These publications are available in both English and Spanish. We developed the NoChildLeftBehind.gov website, which provides a wealth of information to tens of thousands of constituents every week; our bi-weekly e-newsletter reaches over 11,000 subscribers; and, in the last four months, we have distributed over 100,000 parents' guides to No Child Left Behind.
In conclusion, let me say that implementing No Child Left Behind has been a major challenge for the Department, but it is a challenge that we were very eager to take on, and I think we have responded to the challenge very strongly. I welcome your support as we continue with this most important endeavor to improve education for all the Nation's children.
I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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