by Richard Long

The Senate education committee chairman, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) has posted his proposal to rewrite No Child Left Behind on the committee website.

The measure is called: Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013. The 1,150-page proposal is scheduled to be revised in committee on June 11. It has all of the committee Democrats as original sponsors and no Republicans. This point will be made more significant later in this brief discussion.

Proposed Changes to No Child Left Behind

The proposal is a comprehensive bill to make many changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 of which No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was the last rewrite. It incorporates many of the ideas from NCLB that emphasize collecting information on subgroups within a school and district as well as the need for an accountability system that is based on the individual state’s standards. (In this proposal the standards are “career- and college-ready standards” in reading/language arts and mathematics. A state may chose science if the state wishes to include that subject as well.)

The scope of Title I is changed to much more explicitly include early childhood and working with programs such as Head Start. Requirements for spending on high schools is also changed with a district having to give additional emphasis to high schools with children living in areas of high poverty (so that these schools are no longer being excluded from the program due to the need to serve the district’s schools with the highest percentage of poverty first).

Integrating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

In addition, there are more requirements to integrate requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and programs serving children whose first language is not English. These two groups also have requirements for when their members must take part in the accountability requirements as well.

NCLB Waivers, Race to the Top, and i3

Also, the measure integrates ideas and requirements that 35 states have agreed to as part of being granted a waiver from some of the requirements of NCLB. These requirements include using student performance data as part of the annual evaluations of teachers and principals. Plus, there are reporting requirements to members of the community concerning teachers who are teaching without a credential or outside their field. Other Obama Administration initiatives are also in the proposal. These include Race to the Top, school improvement, and Investment in Innovation (i3).

Professional Development and the LEARN Act

Of significant interest to IRA members is section 4101, the Improving Literacy Instruction and Student Achievement Act. This is section provides funds to high need school districts to support professional development in literacy for teachers working with children age 0 – 5 and Kindergarten through the 12th grade. It is similar to the LEARN Act (in fact, it is its replacement) and the Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy program.

Proposal Review Scheduled for June 11

The entire measure is scheduled to reviewed and revised by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) on Tuesday, June 11, 2013. It is expected that the Republicans will have a substitute amendment. Senator Alexander (R-TN) is crafting this substitute amendment. If the two political parties do not come to an agreement the Harkin version will be voted out of committee but will not go to the floor unless it has some Republican support.

Richard Long is the director of government relations at the International Reading Association, rlong@reading.org. Find more legislation and advocacy resources in his Hot Topics blog.

by Richard Long

Susana Martinez


Phil Bryant


Jack Markell

Reading on Grade Level by the Third Grade is a movement being supported and lead by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Their public kickoff was in 2011, and it is enjoying a wide range of support. This support was symbolized yesterday (June 4, 2013) by Republican and Democratic governors and chief state school officers talking about the issue at a morning seminar hosted by the Washington Post.

The states that are supporting this initiative are being called “Stake in the Ground States.” Most presenters talked about the need to focus on the teaching and instruction needed to make children grade-level readers by the third grade. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez (R) called for greater use of retention to help the kids that need assistance to become readers. She cited that not reading on grade level by the third grade to be one of the most significant predictors of failing to graduate from high school, while Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R) said that learning to read on grade level by the third grade was the “tipping point” between being successful or not in schools. In addition, Delaware Governor Jack Markell (D) cited the need to support data-driven decision-making as critical for success, as well as providing teachers the time to meet as teams to determine what the data meant and how to apply it.

More controversial was the opinion of the Mississippi governor that women working outside the home was a contributing issue to the decline in reading, while the governor of New Mexico cited that schools were many times being run to serve adults and not the children and this needed to be change. The governor of Delaware said we needed to increase attention on a wide range of issues, including mental health issues.

All the governors and the chief state school offices talked about the value of coaches helping teachers to meet the unique needs of all children.

Richard Long is the director of government relations at the International Reading Association, rlong@reading.org. Find more legislation and advocacy resources in his Hot Topics blog.

by Richard Long

“We applaud President Obama’s leadership in declaring that early childhood education should be open to all students. Expanding and improving early childhood education is a critical effort for enhancing educational opportunities for all of our students but especially the most vulnerable children in our society,” according to International Reading Association (IRA) President Carrice Cummins. She continued, young children clearly benefit from expanding their vocabularies, their knowledge of words, understanding of sounds and other literacy related experiences. However, she stressed that effective early childhood learning is not simply about learning a few skills; it is linking those skills to developing an understanding of how they can be used and how they make meaning.

Carrice Cummins


Richard Long

The key to expanding and improving early childhood education will be in making sure that the program has the tools to be successful. These tools will include teachers who have a strong background in literacy and child development. To ensure that we have the teachers we need we recommend that the Congress work with the states to support the number of early childhood teacher education programs for teachers in four-year institutions and for paraprofessionals in community colleges and that these programs have early literacy teacher education components. In addition, we suggest that the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development increase their attention to early childhood learning and instruction.

“Improving early childhood education will result in long-term and significant improvements in how a child functions in elementary school; we should not lose this opportunity to make this difference,” Cummins concluded. IRA will be offering new resources to expand what teachers know about teaching in early childhood programs with books, webinars, and conference sessions that will emphasize what we know works and makes a difference in the lives of our youngest learners.

Richard Long is the director of government relations at the International Reading Association, rlong@reading.org.

by Elizabeth Bleacher

Research has found that teachers are the most important contributors to students’ academic success. Since there is evidence that teachers play a critical role in the accomplishments of their students, government programs should be reworked to facilitate teacher growth. The International Reading Association’s newly developed Universal Principles: The Essential Role of the Teacher in Classrooms, School, and Society is meant to enable that process. These principles were developed by a group of teachers working at all levels of education.

The Universal Principles are meant to serve as a comprehensive framework for teacher education and support. A complete version of Universal Principles: The Essential Role of the Teacher in Classrooms, School, and Society can be found at the IRA website. Additionally, IRA is seeking reader suggestions regarding the Universal Principles until November 1. All comments and recommendations can be e-mailed to the IRA.

Capable and dedicated teachers ensure that their students experience academic success at the classroom level, but they also ensure that their students will become literate, well-adjusted members of society. The Universal Principles are broken into three separate sections that effectively outline the role of teachers and the support they need. The three sections are: teachers are dedicated professionals, teachers need adequate support and access to sufficient resources, and teachers are intensely committed to student success.

IRA endorses these proposed principles as essential for every teacher worldwide. In order to create schools where students can thrive, government programs need to consider teachers and their role in students’ lives. Highly qualified and effective teachers are critical to classroom success and the academic development of students.

Elizabeth Bleacher is the strategic communications intern at the International Reading Association.

Stark differences in education policy emerged Monday evening during a debate between education advisers to President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney at Teachers College, Columbia University. Obama Advisor Jon Schnur and Romney Advisor Phil Handy spoke in depth on topics ranging from Common Core State Standards and No Child Left Behind to student assessment, teacher development and evaluation, vouchers, and early childhood education.

The event was hosted by Teachers College and Education Week, with live webcast sponsored by the International Reading Association. Visit the Education Week website to access the webcast archive.

Schnur, co-founder of America Achieves, previously served as senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and co-chairman of the Obama for America Education Policy Committee. Handy, higher education co-chair of the Ed-Policy Advisory Group, is CEO of Strategic Industries. He formerly served as chairman of the Florida State Board of Education, and was twice appointed by President George W. Bush as vice chairman to the National Board for Education Sciences.