Inside the Beltway
What’s going on in Washington?
On September 13, the NASSP State Principals of the Year went to Capitol Hill to advocate for increased funding for Title II and Title IV of the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) as well as loan forgiveness for school leaders and increased professional development opportunities for teachers and principals when implementing career and technical education programs.
Why Should Principals Care?
As we learned from No Child Left Behind, Congress doesn’t always reauthorize legislation when they are supposed to. That is why it is imperative that when NASSP activates action alerts on the Principals Legislative Action Center, you send messages to your legislators early and often. Additionally, we encourage you to offer yourself as a resource to your elected officials and invite them to shadow your school during National Principals Month.
In the Press
On September 12, the White House announced several new resources aimed at boosting its three-year Next Generation High School Effort.
On September 13, the House of Representatives passed the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (HR 5587), which would reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act. NASSP issued the following press release, which calls on the Senate to make a small tweak to the House version and bring it to the floor as soon as possible. We have heard rumors that the Senate will mark up its own Perkins reauthorization bill next week.
ESSA Toolkit for Principals, The Alliance for Excellent Education
The Alliance for Excellent Education releases toolkits for school leaders on opportunities within ESSA to transform high schools.
ESSA Title II-A, Chiefs for Change
A new report from Chiefs for Change takes a look at how states and districts can take advantage of more than $2 billion in federal funds to improve teacher preparation under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
America Unprepared, Council For A Strong America
“Seventy-one percent of young adults in the U.S. would not qualify for military service due to problems with obesity, education, drug abuse, or crime,” a new report from Council for a Strong America found.
7 Tenets for Sustainable School Turnaround, Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress and Education Resource Strategies are out with seven “tenets” for the always-challenging issue of school turnaround. The recommendations come after both groups brought together federal, state, and school district leaders for a discussion on how states can best seize new flexibility under the Every Student Succeeds Act. States will also be able to funnel more Title I funding into school turnaround than in previous years.
A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S., A Learning Policy Institute
Widespread media reports of local teacher shortages have become a hot topic in education since the summer of 2015. After years of teacher layoffs, districts began hiring again as the economy recovered from the Great Recession. Many were surprised to find they had serious difficulty finding qualified teachers for their positions, especially in fields like mathematics, science, special education, and bilingual education/English language development. A number of states greatly expanded emergency permits to allow hiring of untrained teachers to meet these demands—which is the classic definition of shortage. To date, however, there has not yet been a detailed national analysis of the sources and extent of these shortages and the prognosis for the future.