June 19, 2012

• Education Funding Moves Slowly Forward
• Comprehensive Education > Reading, Math, and Science
• WANTED: Peer Reviewers for i3 Grant Competition Applications
• Summer Learning Opportunities for Teachers
• What Would Your Students Serve at a White House Dinner?

Education Funding Moves Slowly Forward

The education community is breathing a small sigh of relief as the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a funding bill that increases overall federal support for education, albeit by a relatively small amount. Two of the largest federal programs, Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), both received $100 million increases, (a 0.7 percent increase for Title I to $14.6 billion, and a 0.9 percent increase for IDEA to $11.7 billion). Many smaller programs received at least the same funding as last time around. Given the extremely tight budget under which congressional funders must allocate money, even level funding is seen as a victory these days.

For programs under the college, career, and citizenship umbrella, only those that were funded in FY12 received money in the committee's bill, including Elementary and Secondary School Counseling ($52 million), Carol M. White Physical Education Program ($78 million), and Arts in Education (funded under a different line item, but scheduled to receive $26.5 million). Unfortunately, programs that were defunded in FY12 did not have their funds restored by the Senate committee for FY13. These include the Teaching American History and Foreign Language Assistance programs, as well as two smaller programs that support civics. See below for more information about ASCD's activities supporting college, career, and citizenship education.

Overall, the Senate bill proposes allocating a total of $68.5 billion to help states and districts meet their education demands in the 2013–14 school year, an increase of about $400 million, or 0.6 percent, over the current year. See the chart below for specific program funding.

The House Appropriations Committee is expected to meet after the July 4 recess to craft its version of an education funding bill, which is expected to provide far fewer funds than the Senate committee's bill. No matter what the final numbers are, funds to education are still at risk as the 8.4 percent across-the-board cuts (sequestration) are scheduled for January 2013.

Stay tuned for next week's issue of Capitol Connection for more details on some interesting new programs in the Senate bill and an update on the House version.

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Comprehensive Education > Reading, Math, and Science

ASCD and more than 25 other major education organizations, representing a wide array of subject areas, are promoting consensus recommendations for how federal education policy can better support subject disciplines beyond reading, math, and science. The recommendations are a response to proposals that could threaten schools' and districts' ability to provide students with a comprehensive education that prepares them to graduate from high school ready for success in college, careers, and citizenship, and that narrows the definition of such readiness to only the Common Core State Standards.

The Obama administration has suggested collapsing programs that support arts, history, civics, foreign languages, geography, and economics into one initiative, requiring these subjects to compete against one another for resources. The administration has also proposed a similar consolidation that would pit programs for school counseling, physical education, and safe and drug-free schools against one another; while recent congressional decisions have aimed to reduce or defund many of these important programs.

To ensure that each student is prepared with the knowledge and skills required for success after high school graduation, ASCD and its partner organizations call on Congress to include all elements of a comprehensive education in any definition of college, career, and citizenship readiness. The groups also call on lawmakers to maintain discrete and significant funding for disciplines beyond reading, math, and science and to promote grant competitions within the disciplines, not between them.

Read the complete consensus recommendations and find out how your organization can endorse the statement at www.ascd.org/cccr.

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WANTED: Peer Reviewers for i3 Grant Competition Applications

The Department of Education is seeking individuals from diverse backgrounds and professions—including preK–12 and postsecondary educators, educational evaluators, social entrepreneurs, strategy consultants, and grant makers—to serve as peer reviewers for its 2012 Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant Competition. Those interested in reviewing applications for the competitive grant program should register online as soon as possible, according to the department's call for peer reviewers.

This year’s i3 competition will provide $140 million for districts, groups of schools, and nonprofit organizations to improve student results through innovative practices. Interested reviewers must have specific expertise in either educational evaluation or at least one of the competition's six priority areas: parent and family engagement (new this year); teacher and principal effectiveness; science, technology, engineering, and math education; low-performing schools; improving rural achievement; and high standards and high-quality assessments. Other desired reviewer qualifications include prior experience designing and implementing innovative education programs; senior-level administration experience in a school district, charter management organization, state education department, or nonprofit; and experience growing and scaling a project, program, or organization.

To participate, reviewers must be available on a part-time basis during a four-week period specified by the Department of Education for reading applications, partaking in panel discussions with other reviewers, and submitting comments and scores. For more information about applying to serve as a peer reviewer and instructions for completing the online registration process, visit the department’s i3 website.

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Summer Learning Opportunities for Teachers

The Department of Education has announced the return of its free summer seminar series, which features sessions on current education topics that teachers can attend online or in-person at the department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The following event descriptions are from the recent issue of Teaching Matters, the department's e-newsletter:

• Civil Rights in the Classroom (Tuesday, June 26, 6:00–7:30 p.m. eastern time)
  This seminar offers an overview of the Civil Rights Data Collection and practical advice from current teachers, a guidance counselor, and a parent about how to protect students' civil rights in the classroom. Presenters will explore strategies to prevent bullying, engage all students, present culturally relevant lessons, and work with parents to ensure the rights of students with disabilities. Register for this seminar.

• What Teachers Need to Know about Personalized Learning (Tuesday, July 10, 6:00–7:30 p.m. eastern time)
  This seminar presents perspectives on an emerging topic for educators: creating adaptive instruction for every student in the class. Presenters from the Department of Education will provide insights about the meaning, purpose, and future of personalized learning. Teachers will discuss how they use real-time data to individualize instruction and to engage students with varied abilities. Register for this seminar.

To receive information about future seminars as well as other updates on the teaching profession, sign up for Teaching Matters.

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What Would Your Students Serve at a White House Dinner?

This summer, more than 50 young chefs will be invited to the White House for a "State Dinner," featuring a menu made up of winning recipes from First Lady Michelle Obama's Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. For the contest, Obama's Let's Move! campaign has teamed up with Epicurious and the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture to inspire young people ages 8–12 to create healthy, affordable, and delicious lunches that meet the now one-year-old "My Plate" nutritional guidelines, which replaced the food pyramid last summer.

The distinguished guest list for the lunchtime event will include the chefs, along with their parents or legal guardians, who come up with the best recipe from each of the 50 states, plus Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and the U.S. territories. Winners will be notified by the middle of July, and the dinner will be held in August, when a selection of dishes from the recipes will be served. Although the deadline for submissions has passed, you may want to challenge your own student chefs to create healthy recipes this summer that include fruit, vegetables, whole grains, protein, and dairy. To inspire their creations, check out some ideas from last year's HealthierUS School Challenge (PDF) and these recipes for healthy kids.

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