ARRA/Economic Stimulus Plan for Education

ATTAIN builds upon the successful education technology programs that began with No Child Left Behind and focuses more on systemic school redesign through the innovative use of technolog

A stand-alone workshop has less than a 5% chance of actually changing teacher practice in the classroom. However, if you add on-going and embedded professional development, provide professional learning communities where teachers interact with their colleagues, and ensure on-going support from coaches and administrative staff, the chance of really affecting teaching and learning increases dramatically -- to nearly 90%

y using online resource hubs and other tools for collaboration, i.e. blogs and discussion boards, and including virtual or in-school coaching and mentoring, schools, districts, and states are beginning to see gains in teaching quality and student achievement. The greatest successes are seen with professional development that includes high-quality content, is tailored to the needs of students, takes advantage of the assets of technology, and is embedded in professional learning communities to enable teachers to actively participate.

In addition to the direct spending increases, several tax portions of the bill can benefit public charter schools, including a newly-authorized $22 billion school construction bond program, $10 billion to the New Markets Tax Credit Program, $25 billion in recovery zone bonds, and $1.4 billion in new funding to the Qualified Zone Academy Bonds - all tools charters will be able to tap to finance facilities. Additionally, several reform-oriented programs received new funding in this bill, including $200 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund and $250 million for the development of State Wide Longitudinal Data Systems. The Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program unfortunately did not receive any new funding and will rely on its FY09 appropriations until a new appropriation is made in FY10.

Whatever the administration decides to do, it needs the approval of Congress, which passed the law with broad bipartisan support in 2001 but deadlocked over a rewrite in 2007.

Yet Duncan has many criticisms of No Child Left Behind, and he has plenty of company. Opponents insist the law's annual reading and math tests have squeezed subjects like music and art out of the classroom and that schools were promised billions of dollars they never received.Critics also say the law is too punitive: More than a third of schools failed to meet yearly progress goals last year, according to the Education Week newspaper.That means millions of children are a long way from reaching the law's ambitious goals. The law pushes schools to improve test scores each year, so that every student can read and do math on grade level by the year 2014.

"What No Child Left Behind did is, they were absolutely loose on the goals," Duncan told the Education Writers Association meeting in Washington. "But they were very tight, very prescriptive on how you get there."I think that was fundamentally backwards," he said.Duncan said the federal government should be "tight" on the goals, insisting on more rigorous academic standards that are uniform across the states. And he said it should be "much looser" in terms of how states meet the goals.

Establishing a system for identifying and training highly effective teachers to serve as instructional leaders in Title I school wide programs and modifying the school schedule to allow for collaboration among the instructional staff. Providing new opportunities for Title I school-wide programs for secondary school students to use high-quality, online coursework as supplemental learning materials for meeting mathematics and science requirements. Developing and expanding longitudinal data systems to drive continuous improvement efforts focused on increased achievement in Title I schools. Districts are also encouraged to consider using these funds to support and improve preschool and early childhood development programs which are an existing allowable use for Title I.

Obtain state-of-the art assistive technology devices and provide training in their use to enhance access to the general curriculum for students with disabilities, including online professional development, online student courses and learning opportunities, and electronic records management for student progress monitoring and data-based decisions for instruction/intervention. Provide intensive district-wide professional development for special education and regular education teachers that focuses on scaling-up, through replication, proven and innovative evidence-based school-wide strategies in reading, math, writing and science, and positive behavioral supports to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Develop or expand the capacity to collect and use data to improve teaching and learning. Expand the availability and range of inclusive placement options for preschoolers with disabilities by developing the capacity of public and private preschool programs to serve these children. Hire transition coordinators to work with employers in the community to develop job placements for youths with disabilities.

. The ARRA SFSF funds provide an opportunity to jump start school reform and improvement efforts while also saving and creating jobs and stimulating the economy. California received $2.56 billion in SFSF for K-12 LEAs.