SAVING AND CREATING JOBS AND REFORMING EDUCATION

National Association of Elementary School Principals

April 5, 2009 New Orleans, LA.

Marshall S. SmithU.S. Department of Education

The American Reinvestment and

Recovery Act:

Saving and Creating Jobs and Reforming Education

“In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity - it is a pre-requisite. The countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.” - President Barack Obama, 2/24/09

Overview

ARRA: Funds for K-12 Education: What are they? How Much? When are they released? Allowable uses.

Guiding Principles for ARRA.ARRA and Education reform. A vision and

Race to the Top. What can District Leadership and Elementary

School Principals do with ARRA monies to improve teaching and learning?

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ARRA for K-12 education.

One-time Investment: Over $100 billion education investment:

Approx $70 billion for K-12 education. Historic opportunity to stimulate economy,

stabilize the educational system, and improve education quality.

Success depends on leadership, judgment, coordination, and communication

K-12 Education

Four buckets of funds and programs: Stabilization formula program: Approximately $33 billion to K-

12: 2/3rds released April 1, remainder within 4 months. Federal large formula funds:

Title I Part A: $10 billion: ½ released April 1, remainder by 10-09 IDEA Part B&C: $13 billion: ½ on 4/1, remainder by 10/09

Smaller formula grants and competitive grants: $4-5 billion, released or awarded by 11/09: Major examples: Title I School Improvement ($3 billion); Technology ($650 million); Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) ($200 million)

Federal competitions: Race to the Top ($4.35 billion) to states: Innovation ($635 billion) to districts. (Awarded FY2010)

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How may ARRA funds be used? Detailed Guidance at www.ed.gov. New material

including waiver guidance to be posted by 4/15.In Brief:

Stabilization funds: Pay salaries for any school person (e.g. pick up pink slips), professional development, school modernization, curriculum, etc. Use Impact Aid rules for general support.

Title I Part A: Follow rules as usual except see guidance for flexibility.

IDEA Part B: Follow rules as usual except see guidance for flexibility.

Other programs: Follow general program rules.

Guiding Principles

Balance Speed and Effectiveness

States should award funds to LEAs as quickly as is prudent. LEAs and schools should use funds quickly to stimulate economy

but sensibly and imaginatively for improvements and reforms. Funds obligation timelines:

State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF): must be OBLIGATED by September 30, 2011

Title I, Part A: in absence of a waiver, 85% by Sept 30, 2010; any remaining by Sept 30, 2011

IDEA, Part B: majority during school years 2008/09 and 2009/10 and remainder by September 30, 2011

Actual USE of funds is different from obligation: Districts may enter into contracts prior to 9/30/2011 that obligate funds and the funds may be used beyond 9/30/2011.

Accountability and Transparency

All ARRA funds must be tracked separately Quarterly reports on both financial information and

how funds are being used Estimated number of jobs created Subcontracts and sub-grants required to comply with

the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act

Reporting template being developed for use by States to capture required information

Transparency allows opportunity to quantify/define goals and mobilize support for improving results for all students

A Vision for Reform

Continuous ImprovementInnovation

Transparency Scale

Formula Competitive

SFSF Incentive Fund: “Race to Top” and “Invest in What Works and Innovation”

“Race to the Top”- $4.35 billion competitive grants to States making most progress toward the vision: standards; data; teacher quality; improving failing schools; preschools, school-college pathways.

“Investing in What Works and Innovation” - $650 million competitive grants to Districts and non-profits that have made significant gains in closing achievement gaps to be models of best practices.

2010 grant awards will be made in two rounds - late Fall 2009, Summer 2010

Key questions about uses of ARRA Funds to Drive

Long-Term Educational Reform and Improvement

Will the proposed use of ARRA funds:

Drive results for students? Increase capacity? Accelerate reform? Be sustainable beyond ARRA. Improve efficiency? Foster continuous improvement?

Significant Impact on High Needs Schools’ Budgets

 

Additional funds available through ARRA over 2 years

Title I School Improvement Grants

$3 billion to improve lowest performing schools – almost six-fold increase in funding

Will be made available by Fall 2009States will give priority to LEAs that:

Serve the lowest-achieving schools Demonstrate the greatest need for such funds Demonstrate the strongest commitment to

ensuring that such funds are used to enable the lowest-achieving schools to meet the progress goals in school improvement plans

Potential Uses by districts and schools of ARRA Funds to Drive

Long-tem Education Reform and Improvement (1)

District and school examples for improving teacher quality and equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers

Redesign the district’s or school’s professional development system to ensure that training addresses all students’, and especially ELL students, instructional needs and academic gaps. Provide extensive training for all teachers over two years – send a few teachers/school to extra training to be able to serve as teacher trainers in the future.

Provide bonuses to highly effective teachers who transfer to low-performing schools. Use two year opportunity to put in place practices that establish supportive culture in low-performing schools to retain teachers.

Potential Uses by districts and schools of ARRA Funds to Drive

Long-tem Education Reform and Improvement (2)

District and school examples for improving teacher quality and equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers

Provide an intensive, two year training program for all teachers and principal in a school –wide Title I school in corrective action status to use a new reading curriculum that focuses on improving students oral language competence and academic vocabulary to improve comprehension and address the fourth grade reading drop-off.

Strengthen and expand early childhood education by providing resources to align a district-wide Title I pre-K program with State early learning standards and State content standards for grades K–3 and, if there is a plan for sustainability beyond 2010–11, expanding high-quality Title I pre-K programs to larger numbers of young children.

Potential Uses by districts and schools of ARRA Funds to Drive

Long-tem Education Reform and Improvement (3)

District and school examples for improving teacher quality and equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers

Create new opportunities for teachers in Title I school-wide programs be trained to use electronic whiteboards. Train some teachers to be trainers. Buy whiteboards for all classrooms. Buy insurance policy for repairs and replacement, if necessary.

Establish a system for identifying and training highly effective teachers to serve as instructional leaders in Title I school-wide programs and modify the school schedule to allow for collaboration among the instructional staff.

Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive Long-Term Educational Reform and

Improvement (4)

Establishing data systems and using data for improvement

Train principals, teachers, guidance counselors and other staff to use data to identify the specific help students need to succeed, use formative assessment strategies to adjust classroom instruction to better address student strengths and weaknesses, and target professional development on teacher needs. (Create a school-wide learning environment.)

Purchase handheld formative assessment technology that enables teachers to record and analyze student performance and obtain a real-time picture of which students need help, where they need it, and how the teachers can help best. Train teachers aggressively – create teacher trainers of a few teachers. Buy insurance policy.

Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive Long-Term Educational Reform and

Improvement (5)

Establishing data systems and using data for improvement

Work with trainers and others to train district and school leaders and teachers to develop a learning community of the entire district. Use the data to insure that resources are allocated to support teaching and learning, that all business processes are as effective as possible, and that experimentation and improvement can thrive within the district. This requires carefully constructed and used data systems and, in the long-run creates a continuous improvement systems in all schools and throughout a district. Two - three years are required.

Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive Long-Term Educational Reform and

Improvement(4)

Turning around low-performing schools: Use School Improvement funds among other ARRA funds.

Create intensive summer institutes and on-going support for teams of principals and teachers from low-performing schools to analyze data and develop a specific action plans for improving instruction and school performance.

Acquire new instructional materials, aggressive professional development and interactive technology to help English language learners meet state standards and become proficient in English.

Potential Uses of ARRA Funds to Drive Long-Term Educational Reform and

Improvement(5)

Turning around low-performing schools: Use School Improvement funds among other ARRA funds.

In a big district or county system select the bottom 1-2% of schools in terms of achievement level and growth. Commit to a dramatic restructuring of the schools, upgrading of all capacity (curriculum, staff, data systems, leadership, professional development, coaches, support staff), lengthen school day, and engage the neighborhood and parents to provide support and out-of-school opportunities. Use a combination of Part A funds and School Improvement funds (up to $750,000 – 1 million/year).

Saving and Creating Jobs and Reforming Education

“In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity - it is a pre-requisite. The countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.” - President Barack Obama, 2/24/09

More Information www.ed.gov and www.recovery.gov

– FAQs, Hot Topics, etc Preliminary information about each State’s IDEA allocation:

http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/Statetables/recovery.html

Preliminary estimates of Title I, Part A recovery allocations to each State and LEA are available at: http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/news.html#ARRA

SFSF Questions: State.fiscal.fund@ed.gov IDEA Questions: IDEArecoverycomments@ed.gov Title I Questions: oese@ed.gov Inspector General Questions: rich.rasa@ed.gov Independent Living and Vocational Rehabilitation Questions:

RSARecoverActComments@ed.gov