Scholarly Writing & Styles

Issues in K-12 Education Case Study
Document 4

This is an authentic document from the United States Department of Education. It
introduces new guidelines for education reform that will prepare all public school
students for college or a career.

College- and Career-Ready

Reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

To help achieve President Obama’s stated goal for the country of ensuring that all
students are ready for college and careers when they graduate from high school, the
administration has designed a blueprint for a reenvisioned federal role in education
through the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
The new ESEA will call for

• Raising standards for all students in English language arts and mathematics;
• Developing better assessments aligned with college-and career-ready standards;

and
• Implementing a complete education through improved professional development

and evidence-based instructional models and supports.

In each of the sections below are set forth the expectations for the federal government,
states, districts, and schools to meet these benchmarks for the college and career
readiness of America’s students.

College- and Career-Ready Students

The administration’s proposal for reauthorizing ESEA will maintain formula grants to
high-poverty school districts while making significant changes to better support states,
districts, and schools, including middle and high schools, in improving achievement for
all groups of students, including low-income and minority students, English Learners,
and students with disabilities. This support will be focused on the following efforts.

Rigorous College- and Career-Ready Standards. Following the lead of the nation’s
governors and state education leaders, the administration is calling on all states to
adopt state-developed standards in English language arts and mathematics that build
toward college and career readiness by the time students graduate from high school,
and high-quality statewide assessments aligned with these standards. States may
choose to: either upgrade their existing standards, working with their four-year public
university system to certify that mastery of the standards ensures that a student will not
need to take remedial coursework upon admission to a postsecondary institution in the
system; or work with other states to create state-developed common standards that

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 1 of 6

build toward college and career readiness. To ensure that all students are learning what
they need to succeed, standards must be based on evidence regarding what students
must know and be able to do at each grade level to be on track to graduate from high
school college- and career-ready. Such standards will also give families and
communities the information they need to determine whether their students are on track
toward college and career readiness and to evaluate their schools’ effectiveness. States
will continue to implement statewide science standards and aligned assessments in
specific grade spans, and may include such assessments—as well as statewide
assessments in other subjects, such as history—in their accountability systems. Finally,
states will develop and adopt statewide English language proficiency standards for
English Learners, aligned so that they reflect the academic language necessary to
master state content standards.

Rigorous and Fair Accountability and Support at Every Level. Building on these
statewide standards and aligned assessments, every state will ensure that its statewide
system of accountability rewards schools and districts for progress and success,
requires rigorous interventions in the lowest-performing schools and districts, and allows
local flexibility to determine the appropriate improvement and support strategies for
most schools.

In all of our conversations with people from every state, we’ve heard a consistent
message that our schools aren’t expecting enough of students. We need to raise our
standards so that all students are graduating prepared to succeed in college and the
workplace. We’ve also heard that people aren’t looking to Washington for answers.
They don’t want us to provide a prescription for success. Our role should be to offer a
meaningful definition of success—one that shows teachers and students what they
should be striving for.

—U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Testimony Before the Senate Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the House Education and Labor
Committee on the Obama Administration’s Blueprint for Reauthorizing the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), March 17, 2010. To foster public accountability
for results and help focus improvement and support efforts, states must have data
systems in place to gather information that is critical to determining how schools and
districts are progressing in preparing students to graduate from high school college- and
career-ready. States and districts will collect and make public data relating to student
academic achievement and growth in English language arts and mathematics, student
academic achievement in science, and, if states choose, student academic
achievement and growth in other subjects, such as history. At the high school level, this
data will also include graduation rates, college enrollment rates, and rates of college
enrollment without need for remediation. All of these data must be disaggregated by
race, gender, ethnicity, disability status, English Learner status, and family income.

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 2 of 6

States and districts also will collect other key information about teaching and learning
conditions, including information on school climate, such as student, teacher and school
leader attendance, disciplinary incidents, or student, parent, and school staff surveys
about their school experience.

Measuring and Supporting Schools, Districts, and States. State accountability systems
will be expected to recognize progress and growth and reward success rather than only
identify failure. To ensure that accountability no longer falls solely at the doors of
schools, districts and states will be held accountable for providing their schools,
principals, and teachers with the support they need to succeed. States will be asked to
recognize and reward schools and districts making the most progress, to provide
flexibility for local improvement efforts, and to focus the most rigorous support and
interventions on the very lowest-performing schools and districts. The administration will
call on states, districts, and schools to aim for the ambitious goal—by 2020—of all
students graduating or on track to graduate from high school ready for college and a
career. Performance targets, based on whole-school and subgroup achievement and
growth, and graduation rates, will guide improvement toward that ambitious goal, and
those that are meeting all of their performance targets will be recognized and rewarded.
States, districts, and schools will look not just at absolute performance and proficiency
but also at individual student growth and school progress over time, and at the
additional data described above, to guide local improvement and support strategies for
schools.

Why Focus on College and Career Readiness?

Four of every 10 new college students, including half of those at two-year institutions,
take remedial courses, and many employers comment on the inadequate preparation of
high school graduates.

The schools, districts, and states that are successful in reaching performance targets,
significantly increasing student performance for all students, closing achievement gaps,
or turning around the lowest-performing schools (at the district and state levels) will be
recognized as “Reward” schools, districts, and states. States will receive funds to
design innovative programs to reward high-poverty Reward schools and Reward
districts. Rewards may include financial rewards for the staff and students and for
development of and participation in communities of practice to share best practices and
replicate successful strategies to assist lower-performing schools and districts. Rewards
may also include flexibility in the use of ESEA funds and, as appropriate, competitive
preference for Reward states, high-need Reward districts, and high-need Reward
schools in some federal grant competitions. Reward districts will also be given flexibility
in implementing interventions in their lowest-performing schools, described further
below.

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 3 of 6

At the other end of the spectrum will be “Challenge” states, districts, and schools. States
will identify Challenge schools that are in need of specific assistance. The first category
of Challenge schools will be the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in each state,
based on student academic achievement, student growth, and graduation rates, that are
not making progress to improve. In these schools, states and districts will be required to
implement one of four school turnaround models, to support better outcomes for
students. Reward districts will receive flexibility to implement a different research-based
intervention model beyond the scope of the four school turnaround models. The next 5
percent of low-performing schools will be identified in a warning category, and states
and districts will implement research-based, locally determined strategies to help them
improve.

Schools that are not closing significant, persistent achievement gaps will constitute
another category of Challenge schools. In these schools, districts will be required to
implement data-driven interventions to support those students who are furthest behind
and close the achievement gap. For all Challenge schools, districts may implement
strategies, such as expanded learning time, supplemental educational services, public
school choice, or others, to help students succeed. Challenge districts whose schools,
principals, and teachers are not receiving the support they need to succeed may also
face significant governance or staffing changes, including replacement of the
superintendent. Both Challenge districts and states will face additional restrictions on
the use of ESEA funds and may be required to work with an outside organization to
improve student academic achievement.

Building Capacity for Support at Every Level. As the administration asks more of each
level of the system, it will also build state and district capacity to support schools, school
leaders, teachers, and students. The administration’s proposal will allow states and
districts to reserve funds to carry out such activities as (1) supporting and
complementing the adoption of rigorous standards and high-quality assessments, and
supporting teachers in teaching to those standards; (2) supporting the more effective
use of data to identify local needs and improve student outcomes; (3) improving
capacity at the state and district levels to support the effective use of technology to
improve instruction; (4) coordinating with early learning programs to improve school
readiness; or (5) carrying out effective family engagement strategies.

Districts will be required to set aside a portion of funds under this program to improve
student performance in high-need schools by implementing effective school
improvement strategies and carrying out strategies to ensure the equitable distribution
of effective teachers and school leaders. Reward districts will be allowed flexibility
around this set-aside.

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 4 of 6

Fostering Comparability and Equity. To give every student a fair chance to succeed and
to give principals and teachers the resources to support student success, the
administration will encourage increased resource equity at every level of the system.
Over time, districts will be required to ensure that their high-poverty schools receive
state and local funding levels (for personnel and relevant nonpersonnel expenditures)
comparable to those received by their low-poverty schools. In addition, districts that use
their resources to provide strong support to disadvantaged students will be given
additional flexibility to provide such support. States will be asked to measure and report
on resource disparities and develop a plan to tackle them.

Assessing Achievement

The administration’s proposal also will maintain support for state efforts to improve the
quality of their assessment systems, and to develop and implement the upgraded
standards and assessments required by the College- and Career-Ready Students
program (the $14.5 billion request for the reauthorized Title I, Part A, currently the Title I
Grants to Local Educational Agencies). Improved assessments can be used to:
accurately measure student growth; better measure how states, districts, schools,
principals, and teachers are educating students; help teachers adjust and focus their
teaching; and provide better information to students and their families.

States will receive formula grants to develop and implement high-quality assessments
aligned with college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and
mathematics that accurately measure student academic achievement and growth,
provide feedback to support and improve teaching, and measure school success and
progress. States may also use funds to develop or implement high-quality, rigorous
statewide assessments in other academic or career and technical subjects, high school
course assessments, English language proficiency assessments, and interim or
formative assessments. Beginning in 2015, formula funds will be available only to states
that are implementing assessments based on college- and career-ready standards that
are common to a significant number of states. The program also will support competitive
grants to consortia of states and to other entities working in partnership with states for
research on, or development and improvement of, additional high-quality assessments
to be used by multiple states in such areas as science, history, or foreign languages;
high school course assessments in academic and career and technical subjects;
universally designed assessments; and assessments for English Learners and students
with disabilities.

This publication is in the public domain and may be reproduced in whole or in part. It
comprises excerpts from A Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act, U.S. Department of Education, March 2010. To read the
full text, visit www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint.

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 5 of 6

For more information, visit www.ed.gov or call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

May 2010

Reference

United States Department of Education. (2014). College and career ready standards
and assessments. Retrieved from
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/index.html

© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 6 of 6

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/index.html

http:www.ed.gov

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