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September 15, 2009
Education Secretary to Conduct Live Town Hall
Meeting This Tuesday
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will discuss
education issues with parents, educators, and
students across the country in a televised town hall
on this Tuesday, September 15, 2009, from 8 p.m. to
9 p.m. Eastern Time. Individuals are invited to
participate by watching the broadcast and asking
questions by phone and email during the show and
posting comments to Duncan’s blog on the USDE
website.
The town hall meeting is the first broadcast of the
new season for the U.S. Department of Education’s
monthly TV show, “Education News Parents Can Use.”
It is also part of the “Listening and Learning
Tour,” which has taken Secretary Duncan across the
country to engage Americans in a conversation about
education and federal policy. Tuesday’s broadcast
will include a discussion about the reauthorization
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. For
more information, including how to view the
broadcast, visit:
http://www.edgovblogs.org/duncan/2009/09/town-hall-meeting-with-secretary-arne-duncan-join-the-conversation/.
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August 31, 2009
Obama to Deliver Back-to-School Speech
President Obama will deliver a speech about the
importance of persisting and succeeding in school on
Tuesday, September 8, 2009. The U.S. Department of
Education is encouraging students, parents, and
educators to use this opportunity to help students get
focused and begin the school year strongly.
The speech will be broadcast live, on
http://www.whitehouse.gov/, at 1 p.m.
Eastern Time. USDE has also asked a group of its
Teaching Ambassador Fellows to develop some suggested
classroom activities around the speech to help engage
students and stimulate discussion on the importance of
education. The suggested activities will be posted on
http://www.ed.gov/.
Education News Show Will Feature ‘Town Hall’ Meeting
With Duncan
The next edition of “Education News Parents Can Use,”
the U.S. Department of Education’s monthly television
news program, will air from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern
Time on Tuesday, September 15, 2009. The program will
feature Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a special
town hall meeting, subtitled “America Goes Back to
School.”
Since May, Duncan has been traveling throughout the
country on a “Listening and Learning” tour to engage a
broad group of stakeholders in an open and honest
conversation about federal education policy in
anticipation of the reauthorization of the No Child Left
Behind Act. For his latest tour stop, Duncan will
engage in a live, interactive discussion via telephone,
email, and video. To contribute to the discussion:
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call the show during the live broadcast on
Tuesday, September 15, 2009, at
1-888-493-9382, between 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Eastern Time;
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email your comments, to
Education.TV@ed.gov, by 5:00 p.m.
Eastern Time on Wednesday, September 9, 2009; or
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submit original video comments, to
http://www.dropio.com/ENPCU/, by
Wednesday, September 2, 2009.
For more information, visit
www.ed.gov/edtv/.
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July 20, 2009
REMINDER
School
Choice Parent Notifications Due August 10, 2009
All identified 2009-2010
School Improvement Program (SIP) campuses are required
to disseminate the required School Choice options on or
before August 10,
2009,
to parents and TEA.
Any campus not served with Title I funds is eligible to
be offered for school choice, regardless of the state
accountability rating or AYP status.
Title I campuses in School Improvement status which had
met AYP in 2008 and would potentially exit School
Improvement status were not required to send the parent
notification until after the 2009 Preliminary AYP
release. If the campus did not exit and progressed to
the next stage in School Improvement, the notification
must be sent to parents and TEA by
August 10, 2009.
Parent notification letters may either be mailed, sent
via electronic mail (campus must have a viable email
address), sent home with the student, or distributed by
other verifiable means. If the LEA selects any method
other than mailing the letters to parents, the LEA must
receive a signature of receipt which must be maintained
locally for documentation purposes. TEA may conduct a
validation of the signatures of receipt.
A copy of the parent notification letter and/or packets
is required to be mailed to TEA at the time they are
disseminated from the LEA to the parents. Failure to
meet this parent notification deadline or failure to
disseminate accurate information in the letter may cause
the LEA's 2010 Initial Compliance Review (ICR) score in
the 2010 NCLB desk audit process and subsequent
Performance Based Monitoring (PBM) interventions to be
elevated. Please mail a copy of the parent notification
letter at the time it is disseminated to parents to:
Anita
Villarreal, Director of Title I School Improvement
Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, Texas 78701
NEW
Q&A SIP School Choice Parent Notifications
Q&A School
Improvement Program (SIP) School Choice Parent (SC)
Notifications
Existing SIP campuses that disseminated SC Parent
Notifications (PNL) on June 1, 2009, need to follow this
guidance after the Preliminary 2009 AYP release on
August 6.
Does
the LEA need to disseminate another PNL if the only
change for my campus is a change in SIP Stage and/or
Indicator(s)?
The
LEA needs to disseminate a follow-up notice that could
be in the form of a memo, a flyer, or some other form of
auditable documentation to inform the parents of the
change. The LEA must disseminate this notice to parents
by August 10, 2009, and mail a copy to:
Anita Villarreal
TEA/NCLB/SIP
1701 North
Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78701
Does
the LEA need to disseminate another PNL if the school
choice options have changed from since the June 1st
letter was disseminated?
Yes,
if the school choice options have changed, the LEA must
disseminate another parent notification letter found on
our website at
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/titleia/sip/2009-2010/sip-campus.html.
The
LEA must disseminate this notice to parents by August
10, 2009, and mail a copy to:
Anita
Villarreal
TEA/NCLB/SIP
1701 North
Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78701
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REMINDER
School Improvement Program Summer Planning Academy
If you have not
yet attended the required Summer Planning Academy (SPA)
training in Austin for
new
SIP Academy campuses, please register today. This is
the last Summer Planning Academy (SPA) training that
will be offered this summer!
Summer Planning Academy (SPA) Training for Campus
Facilitators for CYCLE II and Stage 1 campuses, July 30
- August 1, 2009 (SU0916837), at the Hilton Austin
Airport Hotel.
July
30, 2009: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
July 31, 2009:
8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
August 1, 2009:
8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
To
register, log into the E-Campus system at
www.esc13.net
and enter the workshop number provided above. Each
campus can bring up to three people. If you have any
questions, please contact Allison Ivey at 512-919-5202
or
allison.ivey@esc13.txed.net.
March 23, 2009
Obama Emphasizes Student, Parental Involvement
in First Major Education Speech
In the first major education speech of his
administration on March 10, 2009, President
Barack Obama emphasized the role that students
and parents must play in improving the nation’s
schools, saying the government cannot do it
alone.
In a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce, Obama unveiled what will be the five
pillars of his administration’s education reform
efforts: investing in early childhood
initiatives; encouraging better standards and
assessments; recruiting, preparing, and
rewarding outstanding teachers; promoting
innovation and excellence in America's schools;
and providing every American with a quality
higher education.
But Obama also called on students and parents to
shoulder some of the responsibility of improving
education. He told the audience “no government
policy will make any difference unless we also
hold ourselves more accountable as parents,” and
that “America cannot succeed unless our students
take responsibility for their own education.”
To read the complete transcript of Obama’s
speech, visit
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/03/10/Taking-on-Education/.
March 9, 2009
New Practice Guide on Supplemental Education
Services Available
The Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII),
a national content center funded through the U.
S. Department of Education’s Comprehensive
Centers Program, has published a practice guide
titled “Improving SES Quality: State Approval,
Monitoring, and Evaluation of SES Providers.”
The purpose of the guide is to provide state
Supplemental Education Services (SES) directors
and other interested stakeholders with current,
useful information to improve their knowledge
and practice in three areas of SES: approving,
monitoring, and evaluating providers. A
separate chapter is devoted to each category,
and includes promising practices for many of the
topics covered. The document also draws on the
results of a national CII survey of SEAs
regarding their experiences with SES providers.
All 50 states plus Puerto Rico and the District
of Columbia responded to the survey, and the
report’s authors also conducted site visits in
several states.
The SES practice guide is available for free
downloading at
www.centerii.org.
See “Download CII Publications,” and complete
the short survey to download the guide.
REMINDER:
NCLB Report Card
Requirements
Section 1111(h)(2) of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
requires each local education agency (LEA) that
receives Title I, Part A funding to disseminate
specific LEA and campus level data to 1) all LEA
campuses, 2) parents of all enrolled students, and
3) to make the information widely available through
public means such as posting on the internet,
distribution to the media, or distribution through
public agencies.
The following data for the 2007-2008 school year
must be disseminated for the LEA and each campus no
later than March
30, 2009.
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Assessment results for the LEA and campuses in
the aggregate and disaggregated by
race/ethnicity, gender, disability status,
migrant status, English proficiency, and
economically disadvantaged showing two-year
(2006-2007 and 2007-2008) trend data for each
subject and grade tested.
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by performance level,
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with a comparison between annual objectives
and actual performance for each student
group, and
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including the percentage of each group of
students not tested.
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Graduation rates for secondary school students.
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Performance of school district and campuses on
adequate yearly progress (AYP) measures.
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Number and names of Title I schools identified
as in need of improvement, including the stage
of improvement and AYP indicator missed for any
schools identified for improvement.
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Professional qualifications of teachers in the
LEA and campuses, including the percentage of
teachers teaching with emergency or provisional
credentials and the percentage of classes in the
LEA and campuses that are not taught by highly
qualified teachers, including a comparison
between high- and low-poverty campuses within
the LEA.
The Division of NCLB Program Coordination will
conduct a random validation to ensure the report
card data are disseminated as required by statute.
The State NCLB Report Card for 2007-2008 is
available as a PDF document through the following
link:
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/PDF/2007-08StRepCrd.pdf.
In order to obtain the LEA- and campus-level data
needed to comply with the 2007-2008 NCLB report card
requirements, the LEA should access the existing
Student Assessment reports, the AYP Reports, and the
Highly Qualified Teacher Reports developed by TEA.
However, the LEA must ensure that all the data
required are disseminated to parents. Please note
that neither the Academic Excellence Indicator
System (AEIS) report by itself nor the School Report
Card referenced in the December 11, 2008, letter to
the Administrator Addressed meets the NCLB report
card requirements.
To disseminate the required information, the LEA may
use the parent notification template available at:
http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/PDF/2007-08SampleParNotifLet.doc,
in conjunction with appropriate web
site postings and by making hard copies available
for review upon request. The LEA and its campuses
should also consider providing opportunities for
parents to meet with school officials to discuss the
data and ask any questions they may have.
If you need additional information regarding the
NCLB Report Card, please contact your regional
Education Service Center NCLB or Title I staff. For
questions or other information, contact the Division
of NCLB Program Coordination at (512) 463-9374.
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March 2, 2009
Education News Program Will Cover Stimulus Bill
The next edition of “Education News Parents Can
Use,” the U.S. Department of Education’s monthly
television news program, will provide details of
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The broadcast will air
Tuesday, March 17, 2009, at 8 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time. For more information,
including viewing options, visit
http://www.ed.gov/edtv/.
What Works Clearinghouse Offers New Practice
Guide on Reading
The What Works Clearinghouse, part of the
U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of
Education Sciences, has issued a new
practice guide on helping struggling
readers.
Titled
"Assisting Students with Reading: Response
to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tier
Intervention in the Primary Grades," the
guide offers five specific recommendations
to help educators identify struggling
readers and implement evidence-based
strategies to promote their reading
achievement.
Teachers and other specialists can utilize
these strategies to implement RtI and
multi-tier intervention frameworks and
methods at the classroom or school level.
The suggestions cover how to screen students
for reading problems, design a multi-tier
intervention program, adjust instruction to
help struggling readers, and
monitor student progress.
For more
information, visit
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/#rti_reading_pg.
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December 1, 2008
Clear
and Timely Notice to Parents (SES):
Notify
parents of school choice option a minimum of 14 days before
start of
school
Clear
and concise notice of Supplemental Educational Services that
is clearly
distinguishable from other school-related information
provided to parents
o
Can’t
be in student handbook or newsletter – must be “clearly”
identifiable.
Use
of 20% Reservation (SES):
Before reallocating unused funds;
o Partner
with outside organizations /groups to help inform parents
and students of SES
o Ensure
genuine opportunity to participate
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Timely and accurate notice to parents
(concerning availability to Supplemental Educational
Services)
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Forms
widely available and distributed to all eligible
students and their parents
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Minimum of two enrollment periods of sufficient length (sufficient
is a minimum of 30 days)
o Ensure
providers are given access to school facilities
Maintain documentation and notify state
Inform state of amount of funds remaining from 20%
reservation
State ensures that district meets requirements
State reviews, by beginning of next school year, activities
of any district not
using a significant amount of 20% for SES or if multiple complaints filed
Cost
of Parent Outreach (SES):
District
may count costs of parent outreach and
assistance for up to 0.2% of 20% reservation amount
State
Monitoring of SES Provider Effectiveness:
Before
state renews or removes a provider, the state must examine
evidence that the provider’s instructional program-
o Consistent
with district program
o Addresses
individual student needs as in SLP
o Contributed
to increasing proficiency
o Aligned
to TEKS and TAKS
Consider
parent recommendations
For
additional information, see TEA/NCLB’s website at
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/
or go to SIRC’s website at
http://www5.esc13.net/sirc/.
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November 24, 2008
USDE to Spend $6.5 Billion to Ensure College Loans
The
U.S. Department of Education will spend up to $6.5
billion to purchase federally guaranteed educational
loans in order to ensure that college students have
access to the loans during the credit crisis, Secretary
of Education Margaret Spellings announced last week.
Spellings said USDE will spend up to $500 million a week
through February 2009 to purchase Federal Family
Educational Loan (FFELP) Program loans. The purchases
are designed to be a temporary mechanism to minimize any
disruption in the student lending marketplace. After
that, the government begins a “conduit loan program,”
under which it will purchase FFELP loans in an effort to
provide long-term stability to the student loan
marketplace.
For more information,
visit
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2008/11/11202008.html.
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October 13, 2008
USDE Brochure Series Offers Parents Advice for
Helping Children Learn
The U.S. Department
of Education has produced a series of new brochures
titled “Helping Your Child Learn.” The brochures
provide advice to parents for helping their school-age
children with different subject areas, including
reading, math, science, history, homework, and
citizenship. Each brochure also contains helpful tips
for parents, learning activities that families can do
together, and resources for additional insight. For
more information, visit
http://www.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/hyc.html.
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September 24, 2008
2008 Status of Highly Qualified Teacher Requirements
Letter
A letter detailing the current status of the NCLB Highly
Qualified Teacher requirements was posted to the TEA web
site today at
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/taa/specprog092208.html. |
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September 22,
2008
Parent Notification of Non-Highly Qualified Teacher Assignment
As the 2008-2009
school year is underway, school districts should be mindful of the
parent notification requirements in NCLB that relate to core
academic subject areas that are taught by non-highly qualified
teachers. NCLB requires that any campus that receives Title I, Part
A funds must provide to each individual parent timely notice in the
event that the parent’s child has been assigned, or has been taught
for four or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who is not highly
qualified, including a long-term substitute. The notice provided to
parents must be in an understandable and uniform format, and, to the
extent practicable, provided in a language that the parents can
understand.
For more information on the
highly qualified requirements as they apply to substitute teachers,
see Question 13 on page 16 of the Highly Qualified Teacher Guidance Document at
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/nclb/PDF/hq_guidance_stateversion_v5.032508.pdf. |
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