ASBO International's Economic Recovery Blog

Must Be Present to Win

When schools take attendance this year, it’s not just the students who will be counted. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan "has made teacher attendance one of the measures to determine which low-achieving schools receive federal improvement funds."

"Every 10 absences lowers mathematics achievement by the same amount as having a teacher with one year to two years of experience instead of a teacher with three years to five years of experience," Center for American Progress associate director for education research Raegen T. Miller pointed out. Furthermore, public schools pay "as much as $4 billion a year according to the National Center for Education Statistics...to hire substitutes to fill in for absent staff."

School Districts Get More Flexibility

Feel that stretch? You might not be able to touch your nose to your knee, but your district will be feeling more flexible. Education Week (requires subscription) reported "final rules for the $4 billion Race to the Top competition give states and districts" more flexibility "in how they intervene in chronically underperforming schools."

The change, however, "raises new questions about whether the push to turn around struggling campuses will succeed in rehabilitating large numbers of schools." According to Education Week, the US Department of Education guidelines released this month permitted "states and districts using the federal grant money" to "opt, as a first resort, to use a turnaround approach that many educators favor: providing professional development and coaching for a school's current staff, and making changes to curriculum and instruction."

Originally, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan "had sought to make that 'transformation' model a last resort for school turnarounds if three other, more aggressive methods -- replacing the principal and at least half its teachers; reopening the school under a charter operator or other outside manager; or shutting the school down-were not feasible."

Invitation to Department of Education Webinar — ASBO Exclusive

As school business officials, we are on the front lines of reporting on the use of our district’s stimulus funds.

Are you worried about how you will account for the reform with this money when you have had to use it to fill funding gaps? Or are you up at night thinking about how to make next year’s budget? ASBO and the Department of Education are teaming up to bring you these answers and more.

You’re invited to participate in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Compliance for School Districts Webinar. Exclusively for ASBO members and invited guests, this webinar will be held on Wednesday, December 2, 2009, at 2:00-3:30 p.m. (Eastern Time).

You do not need to pre-register. But test your system requirements now, and add the appointment to your Outlook.

The Tradeoff Between Teacher Wages and Layoffs to Meet Budget Cuts

Tune in for the latest episode of ASBO Radio for a discussion about the tough choices we are making to survive the fiscal crisis. Marguerite Roza, Ph.D., research associate professor at the University of Washington's College of Education, offers some creative solutions.

The Race Begins

On your mark, get ready, get set, go! The Department of Education announced the final criteria for Race to the Top.

The Department also summarized the potential funding ranges for each state:

CATEGORY 1 – $350-700 million  
California, Texas, New York, Florida

CATEGORY 2 – $200-400 million  
Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey  

CATEGORY 3 – $150-250 million   
Virginia, Arizona, Indiana, Washington, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Missouri, Maryland, Wisconsin 

CATEGORY 4 – $60-175 million   
Minnesota, Colorado, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Oregon, Connecticut, Utah, Mississippi, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Nevada  

CATEGORY 5 – $20-75 million  
New Mexico, Nebraska, Idaho, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, District of Columbia 

Most Likely to Succeed: Colorado?

"If the competition for a slice of $4 billion in federal Race to the Top Fund money were a school class, Colorado would be one of the kids sitting up front, furiously taking notes, and leaping up to answer every one of the teacher's questions," said Alyson Klein in an article in Education Week (subscription required).

Since the Race to the Top program was created in February, "officials have been crisscrossing the state, letting district officials know how they will benefit if Colorado gets a grant."

Do you have information to share about your state? Are you "sitting in the front row" with Colorado to compete for the funds?

Duncan’s Dear Governor Letters Not Enough

Seven months after U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote to governors explaining that the ARRA funds would be sent to governors to disperse to schools, according to the Honolulu Advertiser,  the Department of Education is criticizing several states “for using stimulus money to close budget gaps while reducing state spending on education."

Recent reports from the ED inspector general call out Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania for misusing the funds. And although not mentioned, Hawaii, will not be bestowed with leis. That state has done the same thing—which might keep it from qualifying for the Race to the Top funds.