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In This Issue
ASCD’s first-ever Whole Child Symposium (WCS), themed "Choosing Your Tomorrow Today," offers educators a series of opportunities to discuss what we want for our children’s future and what is needed for their education today.
Building on the kickoff town hall discussion at ASCD’s annual conference, the symposium will continue with WCS Live in Washington, D.C., on May 8. WCS Live will feature conversations with ASCD’s CEO and executive director Dr. Gene R. Carter and a panel of education experts, including award-winning author and education researcher Andy Hargreaves and sociologist and CEO of the Forum for Youth Investment Karen Pittman. The panelists will explore what should be taught in schools today in order for children, societies, and economies to be successful tomorrow. WCS Live will stream online, letting you follow the conversation; you can also join in on Twitter using the hashtag #WCSymposium2014.
The following week, the WCS Virtual online event on May 14 and 15 will provide audiences with the opportunity to hear panels of school leaders, policy experts, teachers, and students address the questions, “What currently works in education, what will we need in the future to be successful, and how can this be accomplished?" An Education Policy panel—featuring Education International's deputy secretary general David Edwards, former teacher and current member of the Arkansas Senate Joyce Elliott, former Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville, and Finnish educator and scholar Pasi Sahlberg—will address global education policy now and in the future. Later panels will discuss whole child topics as they relate to schools, classroom strategies, and students’ current and future success. Register for the free WCS Virtual event today!
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The U.S. Department of Education will not renew Washington state’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waiver because the state failed to tie teacher evaluations to student performance within the previously determined timeframe. Washington is the first state to have its waiver revoked. As a result, the state will be expected to meet NCLB’s lofty 100 percent proficiency benchmark next school year; schools and districts that don’t meet that benchmark will be subject to a series of interventions. The state’s districts will also lose flexibility on how to use some of their federal funding, which will be allocated for NCLB-required interventions for low-performing schools, such as tutoring and school choice.
Conversely, Illinois has finally been granted its waiver after first applying for the flexibility in early 2012. The delay in approval was because of state legislation that required educator evaluations to be tied to student performance by the 2016–17 school year, one year more than was permitted by the waivers. The Department is now allowing Illinois to adhere to its original timeline, as other states have since been granted additional waivers that also extend their deadlines to the 2016–17 school year.
Schools that are implementing innovative and evidence-based approaches to improve learning for high-need students are now invited to apply for the Validation (PDF) and Scale-Up (PDF) awards of the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (i3) grant competition. The department plans to award between four and eight Validation grants at an average of $11.5 million each and up to two Scale-Up grants at an average of $19 million. Applications must address at least one of the competition’s priorities, which include improving the effectiveness of teachers or principals, implementing college- and career-ready standards, improving outcomes for students with disabilities, and serving rural communities. The deadline for notice of intent to apply is May 13, 2014, and applications are due June 24, 2014.
The Obama administration is taking steps to strengthen teacher preparation by holding teacher preparation programs accountable for how well they equip teachers to succeed in the classroom. The draft accountability rules, to be released this summer, will encourage states to identify high- and low-performing teacher preparation programs across all kinds of educational models, not just those based in colleges and universities; urge a transition from current input-based reporting requirements to a focus on more meaningful outcomes; and likely limit program eligibility for TEACH grants—which are available to students who are planning to become teachers in a high-need field in a low-income school—to only effective teacher preparation programs. Once the proposal is released, the department will seek input through a public comment period and hopes to publish a final rule within the next year.
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