NASSP Advocacy Update – April 2008

No Child Left Behind Act

The House Education and Labor Committee released a discussion draft on NCLB reauthorization last September. The committee posted the draft on their Web site and asked for specific comments/recommendations and was apparently inundated with e-mails from across the country. The committee held a hearing on September 10 at which over 40 witnesses testified and shared their comments on the draft. NASSP President Barry Stark was the 2nd witness to testify at the hearing, and his written testimony is available on our Web site:

The House committee was expected to mark up a reauthorization bill in October, but momentum collapsed after there was opposition from the NEA (pay-for-performance) and House Republicans and civil rights groups (multiple measures for AYP).

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee released portions of their draft in October but did not include the most controversial sections on school accountability and improvement, literacy (Reading First has become very controversial), and Title II (teacher and educator quality).

Sen. Kennedy still says that he plans to release a new draft this year (possibly in May) and hold a markup soon after, but many in Washington are pessimistic that a bill will get done before the November elections. And because none of the presidential candidates are talking about NCLB, some fear that the law won’t be reauthorized until 2010 at the earliest…

NASSP has taken the position that Congress should reauthorize NCLB this year with significant changes. We have concerns that if the reauthorization does not take place this year, educators will be forced to comply with current law for many years to come. In addition, Congress has an opportunity to make a much-needed investment in middle level and high schools with this reauthorization. This message was conveyed in a NewsLeader editorial written by Dr. Tirozzi to all NASSP members: and in an Education Week advertorial (attached to e-mail as separate document). In addition, NASSP and 22 state associations sent a letter to Congress in support of the reauthorization: The letter went to all members of the House and Senate education committees, Senators in supporting states who are not committee members, and other selected House members. Finally, an action alert was sent to all NASSP members in late-February, and over 1,600 letters have been sent to Congress through the Principal’s Legislative Action Center (PLAC).

Striving Readers Act

NASSP, along with the International Reading Association and the Alliance for Excellent Education, has advocated for an expansion of the Striving Readers program. Initiated by President Bush in 2004, Striving Readers aims to enhance the overall level of reading achievement in middle level and high schools through improvements to the quality of literacy instruction across the curriculum, improve the literacy skills of struggling adolescent readers, and help build a strong scientific research base around specific strategies that improve adolescent literacy skills.

Although never authorized by Congress, Striving Readers received more than $35 million in FY 2008. However, this funding level only supports grants in eight school districts and is not nearly enough to address the more than 8 million students in grades 4–12 who read below grade level. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education received 148 applications for those eight grants, showing that there is a clear need for an additional investment. Although the federal government has allocated more than $1 billion annually for the Reading First program ($72 per child in grades K–3), only 13 cents is provided for each middle level and high school student.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) andRep. John Yarmuth(D-KY)haveintroduced a bill to expand Striving Readers into all 50 states. The Striving Readers Act (S. 958/H.R. 2289)would authorize $200 million in FY 2007 with annual increases up to $1 billion in FY 2011 for grants that would be awarded to states on a formula basis according to poverty levels and eighth-grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Local districts could then use these funds to develop schoolwide literacy plans and provide professional development for school leaders and teachers in core academic subjects to create “a culture of literacy” within the schools.

The Striving Readers Act has 24 cosponsors (in addition to Sen. Sessions) in the Senate and 40 cosponsors (in addition to Rep. Yarmuth) in the House.

Success in the Middle Act

This year, NASSP joined forces with National Middle School Association, the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, and a number of other education associations to improve middle level education and promote our joint recommendations for NCLB reauthorization. As part of this effort, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)introduced the Success in the Middle Act (H.R. 3406/S. 2227) to create the Middle Schools Improvement Fund. Specifically, the bill would:

  • Authorize $1 billion for formula grants to states to help local school districts improve low-performing schools that contain middle grades
  • Require states receiving a grant to implement a statewide plan for improving student achievement in the middle grades
  • Ensure that statewide plans describe what students are required to know to successfully complete the middle grades and make the transition to succeed in an academically rigorous high school
    that prepares students for postsecondary education and the workplace
  • Require states and districts to develop an early identification data system to identify those students most at risk of dropping out, and to help school districts provide proven interventions to help all middle level students succeed
  • Ensure that states and districts invest in proven intervention strategies such as 1) providing professional development and coaching to enable school leaders, teachers, and other school personnel address the needs of diverse learners and use challenging and relevant research-based best practices and curriculum; 2) developing and implementing comprehensive, schoolwide improvement efforts in our nation's lowest-performing schools; 3) and implementing student supports, such as extended learning time, personal academic plans, and intensive reading and math instruction that enable all students to stay on the path to graduation
  • Authorize an additional $100 million for research to identify and implement effective practices that lead to student learning and success at the middle level.

The Success in the Middle Act has 24 House cosponsors (in addition to Rep. Grijalva) and 2 Senate cosponsors (in addition to Sen. Obama).

NASSP, along with other members of the Middle Grades Coalition on NCLB, has been actively lobbying members of Congress on the Success in the Middle Act. The following offices have been visited in 2008: Coburn (R-OK), Hirono (D-HI), Tim Bishop (D-NY), Roberts (R-KS), Isakson (R-GA), Shea-Porter (D-NH), Bingaman (D-NM), Sestak (D-PA), Sarbanes (D-MD), Tierney (D-MA), Murkowski (R-AK), Wu (D-OR), Payne (D-NJ), Kucinich (D-OH), and Pryor (D-AR). In addition, over 430 letters have been sent to Congress through PLAC.

FY 2008 Education Funding

After President Bush vetoed the FY 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill, Congress was forced to approve an omnibus appropriations bill just before the Christmas holiday. Funding for LHHSE programs were cut across-the-board by 1.7% to meet Bush’s budget demands. Here is how most programs fared:

Selected Education Programs (in millions) / FY 2007
Enacted / President's
FY 2008 Request / FY 2008 Enacted
Title I (Subtotal Grants to LEAs) / $12,838.00 / $13,909.90 / $14,027.86
Improving Teacher Quality State Grants / $2,887.40 / $2,787.49 / $2,960.32
Special Education - IDEA (total) / $11,802.90 / $11,485.15 / $12,088.44
Career-Technical Education State Grants / $1,181.55 / $600.00 / $1,174.73
Striving Readers: High and Middle school program / $31.87 / $100.00 / $35.37
School Improvement Grants / $125.00 / $500.00 / $491.26
Math Now, Middle School / - / $125.00 / -
Comprehensive School Reform / $2.35 / $0.00 / $1.60
Mathematics & Science Partnerships / $182.16 / $182.12 / $178.97
Javits Gifted and Talented Education / $7.59 / - / $7.46
Rural Education / $168.91 / $168.85 / $171.85
Teacher Incentive Fund / $200.00 / $199.00 / $97.27
School Leadership / $14.73 / - / $14.47
Advanced Placement Fees / $37.02 / $122.18 / $43.54
Dropout Prevention / - / - / -
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities, state grants / $346.50 / $100.00 / $294.75
Elementary and Secondary School Counseling / $34.65 / - / $48.62
Smaller Learning Communities / $93.53 / - / $80.10

FY 2009 Education Funding

On February 4, President Bush submitted his education budget for FY 2009 to Congress. The proposal increased funding for some programs while slashing or completely eliminating funding for others.

Program targeted for elimination include:

  • School Leadership
  • Smaller Learning Communities
  • Comprehensive School Reform
  • Elementary and Secondary School Counseling
  • Career and Technical Education State Grants (Perkins)

Slashed programs include:

  • Teacher Quality State Grants ($2.8 million; $100 million below FY 2008)
  • Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities, State Grants ($100 million; $194.8 million below FY 2008)

Flat-funded programs include:

  • School Improvement Grants ($491.3 billion)

Among those programs that received increases are:

  • Title I, Subgrants to LEAs ($14.3 billion; $406 million over FY 2008)
  • Striving Readers ($100 million; $64.6 million over FY 2008)
  • Special Education, State Grants ($11.3 billion; $337 million over FY 2008)
  • Advanced Placement ($70.0 million; $26.5 million over FY 2008)
  • Math Now ($95.0 million; this is a newly authorized program and was not funded in FY 2008)
  • Teacher Incentive Fund ($200 million; $102.7 million over FY 2008)

At a Department of Education budget briefing, Secretary Margaret Spellings quipped that when it comes to the budget, “the president proposes, and congress disposes,” intimating that with the Democratically controlled congress, President Bush’s budget is effectively dead on arrival.

While it has been rumored that Congress will pass a continuing resolution (CR) to maintain federal funding at FY 2008 levels until a new president is elected, we should remember that Congress was forced to submit to the president’s budget request last year.

March Update

In mid-March, the House and Senate passed their respective budget resolutions for FY 2009. The House resolution (H. Con. Res. 312) provides an increase of $7.1 billion over President Bush’s budget request for education and workforce training, as well as social services. Included in this increase is a deficit-neutral tax credit for school construction and renovation bonds. The Senate’s resolution (S. Con. Res. 70) provides a more modest increase of $5.4 billion above the president’s request for these programs.

Although nonbinding, the congressional budget resolution serves as a blueprint for the later appropriations process, as well as a policy statement of congressional majority priorities.

Prior to adoption of the Senate resolution, an NASSP-supported amendment was offered by Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Edward Kennedy (D-MA) that would create a deficit-neutral reserve fund targeting middle school completion, high school dropouts, and preparing high school students for postsecondary education and the workforce. NASSP is extremely pleased to see that the amendment was unanimously adopted. Read the coalition letter in support of the amendment:

The House and Senate resolutions both contain provisions to prevent or delay the implementation or administration of regulations or other administrative actions that would affect the Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), or other programs. Specifically, one of these regulations will eliminate approximately $700 million in Medicaid reimbursements to schools for transporting students with disabilities to and from school. Schools will also no longer be reimbursed for certain administrative activities performed by school employees or contractors, such as planning student immunizations and outreach efforts aimed at identifying students who are eligible for Medicaid.

A congressional moratorium on the implementation of this new rule expires June 30, 2008, meaning that if Congress does not pass legislation extending the moratorium, the rule will go into effect, even if policymakers alter funding levels for affected programs. NASSP and several other education and health care organizations strongly oppose the new Medicaid regulation, and are pleased that Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) recently introduced a bill (H.R. 5613) that would halt the implementation of this and several other Medicaid rules until April 1, 2009.

The House and Senate are expected to meet in conference to work out the differences between their respective budget resolutions, with April 15 as the target date for completing work on the FY 2009 budget resolution.

Higher Education Act (HEA) Reauthorization

On February 7, the House approved, 354-58, a bill (H.R. 4137) to amend and reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA), whose current authorization expires on March 31, 2008. During consideration of the bill, an amendment was unanimously to provide federal student loan relief to principals and other school administrators who serve five consecutive years in a low-income school or district.

“Like teachers, qualified school administrators and principals are crucial to creating an effective learning environment,” said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), the amendment’s sponsor. “But unlike teachers, school administrators and principals are not given access to the same loan forgiveness programs for their service in low-income schools.”

In a letter of support to Rep. Stupak, NASSP Executive Director Gerald N. Tirozzi said, “Congress must be creative in providing new incentives to attract effective principals and school administrators to enter and then remain in the profession, and your amendment is an opportunity to do just that. While new programs are being developed to attract teachers to low-income schools, principals are not given the same access to these loan forgiveness programs. In fact, under current law, if a teacher is eligible for loan forgiveness but is promoted to an assistant principal or principal position in the same school, the newly promoted teacher loses his or her eligibility.”

NASSP is also pleased that H.R. 4137 contains a strong focus on principal preparation and development. In addition to principal loan relief, the bill would provide funding to assist principals in understanding the teaching of reading, guiding instruction, and fostering school improvement. Funds could also be used for developing and implementing a program to strengthen the content knowledge of secondary school literacy coaches; developing or redesigning rigorous evidence-based curricula that are aligned with challenging state content standards; and providing opportunities for teachers to plan and assess instruction with other teachers, school leaders, and faculty at institutions of higher education.
The Senate passed its own version of a bill to reauthorize HEA in July 2007. In the coming weeks the House and Senate will conference to work out differences between their respective bills before sending a compromise bill to the president for his signature. A final conference report is expected to be completed in April.

SCHIP Reauthorization

In late January, Congress attempted to override the president’s veto of legislation to reauthorize SCHIP. However despite strong bipartisan support, lawmakers fell 15 votes short (260 – 152) of the two-thirds majority required to overcome the veto.

This bill, which was supported by NASSP, would have streamlined eligibility determinations and expanded outreach initiatives for SCHIP to cover an additional 3.2 million uninsured children by 2012, providing them with essential health services, and increasing their chances for high academic success.

NASSP had sent out an action alert to all NASSP members asking them to contact their members of Congress and urge them to override the president’s veto. Over 270 letters were sent to Congress through PLAC.

News from the Department of Education

In response to continued criticism and calls for reform of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and its one-size-fits-all approach to school improvement, U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced a new “differentiated accountability” pilot program at a on March 18.

According to information available on the Department of Education’s (ED) Web site ( “differentiated accountability will allow states to vary the intensity and type of interventions to match the academic reasons that lead to a school’s identification.”

The pilot program is limited to 10 state slots, with preference given to states with at least 20% of their Title I schools identified for improvement, and which “combine innovation with a rigorous approach to reform, and…propose to take the most significant and comprehensive interventions for the lowest-performing schools earlier in the improvement timeline.” Preference will also be given to those states whose standards and assessment system have been fully approved by ED, have an approved highly qualified teacher plan, and that provide timely and transparent information on adequate yearly progress (AYP) to the public. According to ED, “states that have had more than one non-approved occurrence of late AYP in the past two years are not eligible.”

States have until May 2, 2008, to submit their proposals for participation in the pilot program, with approval notices coming possibly before the start of the 2008-09 school year.

NASSP Position Statements

In February, the NASSP Board of Directors stated its intent to adopt the following positions statements:

  • National Academic Standards in K-12 Education:
  • Professional Compensation for Principals:

NASSP members are invited to comment on the position statements through April 30, 2008, and the board will give its final approval at the May meeting.

Federal Grassroots Network

NASSP is creating a Federal Grassroots Network made up of individuals who have or are willing to foster close relationships with their members of Congress to inform them of how policies they create in Washington impact education in their districts and states.

Network members will be asked to meet with their members of Congress at least once yearly (including attendance at the National Leaders Conference) and participate in quarterly Web or telephone-based conferences during which: 1) Network members will share information on notable state and local education initiatives and legislative developments that have the potential to affect federal policy efforts; 2) NASSP will provide updates to Network members on federal legislative activity; 3) Network members will brainstorm with NASSP staff regarding new strategies for targeting key members of Congress and moving federal legislation forward. From these quarterly conversations, the NASSP Executive Office and Office of Government and Public Relations will devise and disseminate to Network members updated strategies for advancing federal initiatives.

The first letter of invitation to join the Federal Grassroots Network will be sent to all NLC attendees (middle level and high schools only) in early-April.