“Congress, Keep the Backbone of ESEA Strong!”

WASHINGTON (February 2, 2015) – Today, a coalition of leaders from the business, education, civil rights, and disability communities issued a joint letter calling on Congress to ensure that a reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) includes:

• Annual, statewide assessments of all students grades three to eight, and at least once in high school;
• Public reporting of assessment results in a transparent and accessible way; and
• Accountability systems that expect faster improvement for the groups of children who have been traditionally underserved, and prompt action when any group of students underperforms.

The organizations represent a diverse set of perspectives and, they say, “We may disagree on many things. But we come together at this critical moment—as many of us did back in 2001—because of our common conviction that America cannot afford to keep squandering the potential of so many of her children.” They also released joint principles for keeping the essential backbone of a new Elementary and Secondary Education Act strong: “Assessment, Transparency, and Accountability: Three Critical Elements of a Bipartisan Approach to Advancing Excellence and Equity.”

“This law is as relevant today as when it was first enacted at the height of the civil rights movement,” said Wade Henderson, CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “Ensuring all students learn reading and math is a nonpartisan issue with profound moral and economic ramifications. The principles we agree on are a reasonable set of standards that must be central to the ESEA reauthorization to help ensure students of color, students learning English, and students with disabilities have a fair shot at a high-quality education.”

“This is a critical moment for our organizations to advocate for policies that will ensure children are progressing in the classroom and reaching their full potential,” said Business Roundtable president John Engler. “Our country’s success depends on educated students who can compete with students across the world. Congress must do its part and put into place laws that set up students for success.”

The coalition includes the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Education Trust, National Council of La Raza, Business Roundtable, National Center for Learning Disabilities, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Democrats for Education Reform, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Its members will work together, and with other organizations that agree with the same principles, to make sure that any new law advances the achievement of all children, especially the nation’s most vulnerable.

Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust, noted, “These core ideas of accountability, public reporting and annual assessments helped usher in the fastest improvements in the achievement of low-income children and children of color since 1980. School leaders and teachers were able to see where improvements were needed and target resources; parents had the necessary data needed to make informed decisions about their children’s education; and taxpayers knew that in exchange for the billions of dollars invested, schools were accountable for results. Sure, there are many things to improve about the original law, but that core idea of accountability for all children isn’t one of them.”

“Only a few decades ago, students with disabilities were excluded from school or relegated to separate classrooms, isolated from all other students,” said James H. Wendorf, executive director of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. He added, “Today the majority of students with disabilities spend most of their day learning alongside their classmates without disabilities, a key factor in increasing academic achievement of our students. Inclusion drives opportunity for our students. The National Center for Learning Disabilities is proud to join other civil rights organizations that share our vision for building an inclusive education system that provides opportunity for all students. The Equity and Excellence Principles ensure that states and schools will focus on the most critical issues facing students with disabilities: closing achievement gaps and increasing graduation rates.”

The full text of the groups’ letter and its Equity and Excellence Principles is below.

COALITION LETTER

Dear Senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Representatives on the House Education and the Workforce Committee:

The undersigned organizations disagree on many things. But we come together at this critical moment — as many of us did back in 2001 — because of our common conviction that America cannot afford to keep squandering the potential of so many of her children. Whether we think about our country’s future economic competitiveness or about social mobility and social cohesion, nothing is more important than an educational system that educates all of its children, rather than just some, to high standards. The American Dream is imperiled by the uneven quality and grossly disparate results of our educational system, and none of us can afford to sit by quietly and watch.

Over the course of the next few weeks and months, each of our organizations will work with Members of Congress on many of the issues you face as you work to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Some of us will focus on getting adequate resources in the law, especially for schools serving concentrations of low-income children, students of color, and English Learners. Some will focus on shoring up Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs, so our children are prepared for careers in the new economy. Some will concentrate on provisions affecting teacher quality, including much-needed supports for teachers as they implement new standards, while others focus on equitable access to the general curriculum and high expectations for children with disabilities.

But we have come together in the belief that none of those investments will make a sufficient difference unless the essential backbone of the law — assessment, public reporting and accountability for student outcomes — is strong. That means:

• All students must be assessed by the states in reading and math on a statewide assessment annually in grades 3-8, as well as at least once in high school, so they and their parents know where they are on state standards;
• The results of those assessments must be reported publicly, both overall and for all groups of students, so parents and taxpayers have honest, consistent information on how their schools are performing;
• States must establish accountability systems that expect faster improvement for the groups of children who have lagged behind, and prompt action when any group of students underperforms, so parents can have confidence that their children matter and that schools will partner with them in getting them to state standards and graduating with a regular diploma.

These ideas, of course, were the underpinnings of the 2002 law — a law that, we want to remind you, helped usher in the fastest improvements in the achievement of low-income children and children of color on the longest-standing national assessment (NAEP Long Term Trends Exam) that we have seen since 1980. There were also real gains in both inclusion and performance for students with disabilities and those still learning English. But we should be clear that we are not asking for the same rigid approach, where both goals and consequences were dictated from Washington. Rather, we urge that — in return for the billions it invests, mostly in supports for the very groups of children who are now lagging behind — Congress ask the states that accept these dollars to design their own assessment, public reporting and accountability systems in accordance with the set of common sense principles appended to this letter.

The Chairman’s discussion draft of the Every Child Ready for College or Career Act contains elements of these principles, but falls short in several key areas. We are especially worried about the sections on assessment and accountability. Without much-needed changes, parents across America will not be able to be confident that the information they get from their child’s school is accurate and honest or that their child’s school will actively partner with them in getting their child to state standards and graduation regardless of background or disability. It seems to us that parents deserve to be confident both that their school will provide transparent, reliable information and that it will be accountable for results, and that taxpayers more generally deserve a return on their substantial federal investment.

We look forward to working with you and with Members of the relevant committees in both Chambers to embed these principles in the law.

Sincerely,

John Engler, President, Business Roundtable

Denise Marshall, Executive Director, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA)

Wade Henderson, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Kati Haycock, President, The Education Trust

Joe Williams, Executive Director, Democrats for Education Reform

James H. Hendorf, Executive Director, National Center for Learning Disabilities

Janet Murguía, President and CEO, National Council of La Raza

R. Bruce Josten, Executive Vice President, Government Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Equity and Excellence Principles

Assessment, Transparency, and Accountability: Three Critical Elements of a Bipartisan Approach to Advancing Both Excellence and Equity

1. Assessments:

Continue current law, requiring annual, statewide assessment of all students in grades 3-8, and at least once in high school, in both reading and math. All students also must be assessed in science at least once, each, during elementary, middle and high school. All means all students taking the same test. Only students with the most significant cognitive disabilities should be assessed on alternate assessments on alternate achievement standards with strict limits.

2. Public Reporting:

Transparent, accessible reporting at the state, district, and school level of:

• a. The percent of students at each achievement level on the statewide assessment; accurate high school graduation rates, and all other indicators in the accountability system, overall, and for low-income, major racial/ethnic groups, students with disabilities, English Learners, gender, and cross-tabbed by gender and disability.
• b. Accountability ratings

3. Accountability:

Statewide accountability systems that expect and support all students to graduate from high school ready for college and career.

• a. Indicators:

   i. Assessments (growth and reading, math, and science proficiency), accurate high school graduation rates, and other measures of college/career readiness must be predominant;
  ii. Other indicators (attendance, student surveys, school safety, parent satisfaction, working conditions, etc.) may be included, but must play secondary role.
  iii. Evidence of English proficiency and time in program should be taken into account for English learners.

• b. States must set public statewide improvement and gap-closing goals on at least assessments and graduation rates to improve student outcomes.
• c. Those goals must be translated into improvement targets for districts and schools for students overall and for all subgroups, with greater progress expected for groups that have been behind.
• d. Performance against those targets must be the predominant factor in statewide school accountability systems, with other indicators making up the rest. Performance against targets must also be a significant factor in district accountability systems, though these appropriately also include measures of support for schools, success with school turnaround, equity in distribution of key resources like dollars and teachers, and the like.
• e. States must specify how schools that exceed targets will be rewarded, and what the consequences—interventions, supports, ratings–will be for schools that don’t meet their targets, including how students in persistently underperforming schools will get the supports they need to meet state standards.
• f. Where plans call for districts to be first responders, states must specify how they will monitor district performance and intervene for non-performance.