[House Hearing, 112 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EDUCATION REGULATIONS:
BURYING SCHOOLS IN PAPERWORK
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD,
ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 15, 2011
__________
Serial No. 112-12
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/education/index.html
or
Committee address: http://edworkforce.house.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
65-010 PDF WASHINGTON : 2011
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC
area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC
20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin George Miller, California,
Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Senior Democratic Member
California Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Judy Biggert, Illinois Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Virginia
Duncan Hunter, California Lynn C. Woolsey, California
David P. Roe, Tennessee Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Tim Walberg, Michigan John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Scott DesJarlais, Tennessee Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Richard L. Hanna, New York David Wu, Oregon
Todd Rokita, Indiana Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Larry Bucshon, Indiana Susan A. Davis, California
Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania Timothy H. Bishop, New York
Kristi L. Noem, South Dakota David Loebsack, Iowa
Martha Roby, Alabama Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii
Joseph J. Heck, Nevada
Dennis A. Ross, Florida
Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania
[Vacant]
Barrett Karr, Staff Director
Jody Calemine, Minority Staff Director
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD,
ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
DUNCAN HUNTER, California, Chairman
John Kline, Minnesota Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin Ranking Minority Member
Judy Biggert, Illinois Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Virginia
Richard L. Hanna, New York Carolyn McCarthy, New York
Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Kristi L. Noem, South Dakota Susan A. Davis, California
Martha Roby, Alabama Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii
[Vacant] Lynn C. Woolsey, California
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on March 15, 2011................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Hunter, Hon. Duncan, Chairman, Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.............. 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Kildee, Hon. Dale E., ranking member, Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education............. 3
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
Statement of Witnesses:
Grable, Charles, assistant superintendent for instruction,
Huntington County Community School Corporation (HCCSC)..... 15
Prepared statement of.................................... 16
Additional submission: ``HCCSC Strategic Planning
Guidebook,'' Internet address to....................... 20
Grimesey, Robert P., Jr., Ed.D., superintendent, Orange
County Public Schools...................................... 6
Prepared statement of.................................... 8
Marshall, Jennifer A., director, domestic policy studies, the
Heritage Foundation........................................ 20
Prepared statement of.................................... 22
Willcox, James, chief executive officer, Aspire Public
Schools.................................................... 10
Prepared statement of.................................... 12
EDUCATION REGULATIONS:
BURYING SCHOOLS IN PAPERWORK
----------
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary and Secondary Education
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Washington, DC
----------
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in
room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Duncan Hunter
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Hunter, Kline, Petri, Biggert,
Platts, Foxx, Hanna, Barletta, Noem, Kelly, Kildee, Scott,
McCarthy, Hirono, and Woolsey.
Staff present: Katherine Bathgate, Press Assistant; James
Bergeron, Director of Education and Human Services Policy;
Colette Beyer, Press Secretary-Education; Kirk Boyle, General
Counsel; Casey Buboltz, Coalitions and Member Services
Coordinator; Heather Couri, Deputy Director of Education
Policy; Daniela Garcia, Professional Staff Member; Jimmy
Hopper, Legislative Assistant; Barrett Karr, Staff Director;
Mandy Schaumburg, Oversight Counsel; Linda Stevens, Chief
Clerk/Assistant to the General Counsel; Alissa Strawcutter,
Deputy Clerk; Tylease Alli, Minority Hearing Clerk; Jody
Calemine, Minority Staff Director; Jamie Fasteau, Minority
Deputy Director of Education Policy; Brian Levin, Minority New
Media Press Assistant; Kara Marchione, Minority Senior
Education Policy Advisor; Megan O'Reilly, Minority General
Counsel; Alexandria Ruiz, Minority Administrative Assistant to
Director of Education Policy; Melissa Salmanowitz, Minority
Press Secretary; and Laura Schifter, Minority Senior Education
and Disability Policy Advisor.
Chairman Hunter [presiding]. A quorum being present, the
Subcommittee will come to order. Good morning. Welcome to the
Subcommittee's first hearing of the 112th Congress. I would
like to thank our witnesses for being with us today. We look
forward to your testimony.
During today's hearing, we will examine the adverse impact
extensive federal regulations and reporting requirements have
on teachers, administrators and students in elementary and
secondary schools. Here is what we know. Too many schools and
school districts are overwhelmed by unnecessary paperwork
requirements. Currently, the paperwork burden imposed by the
Department of Education is larger than that of the Department
of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Housing
and Urban Development, the Department of Interior and the
Department of Justice.
From 2002 to 2009, the Department of Education's paperwork
burden increased by an estimated 65 percent, an astounding
number that continues to grow. States and local school
districts that accept federal funds are required to meet
federal reporting requirements. These regulations are usually
costly, intrusive and redundant and can create unnecessary
hurdles for K-12 schools. More often than not, compliance with
these mandates forces schools to redistribute scarce resources
that should be dedicated to fostering innovation in our
classrooms.
Recently, the Administration proposed a 10.7 percent
increase in the Department of Education's budget. As the
federal role in federal spending in education has grown, so has
the volume of regulations associated with education laws. It is
important to note that on average, only about 10 percent of a
school's budget comes from federal funds, which is
disproportionately small when compared to the amount--to the
cost of reporting requirements.
During a recent hearing in this committee, we learned from
school officials that the regulatory burden created by
receiving federal funds often outweighs any potential benefits.
The testimony of the superintendent of Lowden County Schools
pointed to multiple examples where compliance with federal
regulations diverts hundreds of hours from student support in
the classroom. These unmanageable mandates constitute a federal
over-reach into our schools.
Not only do they direct important funds and resources away
from the classroom, but they also limit an educator's ability
to react to the changing education needs of our students. We
need to allow our educators the flexibility to decide what is
best for their schools in their communities. It is shortsighted
to assume that the Federal Government knows more about
educating students than the teachers and administrators on the
ground.
It is time to seriously reexamine the regulatory and
paperwork burden that the government has imposed on schools. We
must review each regulation and ask ourselves what purpose does
this regulation serve, is it actually helping to achieve our
goal of improving student success. We have a responsibility to
ensure taxpayer dollars are spent effectively and efficiently.
And to some extent, regulation and reporting could be helpful
in achieving that goal.
But we must also make certain that the nation's classrooms
aren't overwhelmed by piles of costly and redundant paperwork
that ultimately harms the future success of our children. We
must work together to enact meaningful education reforms that
encourage, rather than stifle, innovation and local
flexibility. A quality education system is the key, as we all
know, to building a better, more prosperous future for America.
Again, I would like to thank our witnesses for joining us
today. We are interested to hear from you about the paperwork
burden facing your schools and getting your ideas on what must
be done here in Washington to streamline the regulatory load
and encourage success in the nation's schools.
I would now like to recognize the ranking member, Dale
Kildee, for his opening remarks.
[The statement of Mr. Hunter follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Duncan Hunter, Chairman,
Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education
Chairman Hunter: A quorum being present, the subcommittee will come
to order.
Good morning, welcome to the subcommittee's first hearing of the
112th Congress. I would like to thank our witnesses for being with us
today; we look forward to your testimony.
During today's hearing, we will examine the adverse impact
extensive federal regulations and reporting requirements have on
teachers, administrators, and students in elementary and secondary
schools.
Here's what we know: too many schools and school districts are
overwhelmed by unnecessary paperwork requirements. Currently, the
paperwork burden imposed by the Department of Education is larger than
that of the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the
Interior, and the Department of Justice. From 2002 to 2009, the
Department of Education's paperwork burden increased by an estimated 65
percent--an astounding number that continues to grow.
States and local school districts that accept federal funds are
required to meet federal reporting requirements. These regulations are
usually costly, intrusive, and redundant, and can create unnecessary
hurdles for K-12 schools. More often than not, compliance with these
mandates forces schools to redistribute scarce resources that should be
dedicated to fostering innovation in our classrooms.
Recently, the administration proposed a 10.7 percent increase in
the Department of Education's budget. As the federal role--and federal
spending--in education has grown, so has the volume of regulations
associated with education laws. It is important to note that, on
average, only about 10 percent of a school's budget comes from federal
funds, which is a disproportionately small amount when compared to the
total cost of reporting requirements.
During a recent hearing in this committee, we learned from school
officials that the regulatory burden created by receiving federal funds
often outweighs any potential benefits. The testimony of the
superintendent of Loudoun County Schools pointed to multiple examples
where compliance with federal regulations diverts hundreds of hours
from student support in the classroom.
These unmanageable mandates constitute a federal overreach into our
schools. Not only do they direct important funds and resources away
from the classrooms, but they also limit an educator's ability to react
to the changing education needs of our students. We need to allow our
educators the flexibility to decide what is best for schools in their
communities. It is shortsighted to assume the federal government knows
more about educating students than the teachers and administrators on
the ground.
It is time to seriously reexamine the regulatory and paperwork
burden the government has imposed on schools. We must review each
regulation and ask ourselves, what purpose does this regulation serve?
Is it actually helping to achieve our goal of improving student
success?
We have a responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent
effectively and efficiently, and to some extent, regulation and
reporting can be helpful in achieving that goal. But we must also make
certain the nation's classrooms aren't overwhelmed by piles of costly
and redundant paperwork that ultimately harms the future success of our
children. We must work together to enact meaningful education reforms
that encourage, rather than stifle, innovation and local flexibility. A
quality education system is the key to building a better, more
prosperous future for America.
Again, I'd like to thank our witnesses for joining us today. We are
interested to hear from folks on the ground about the paperwork burden
facing your schools and getting your ideas on what must be done in
Washington to streamline the regulatory load and encourage success in
the nation's schools. I would now like to recognize the Ranking Member,
Dale Kildee, for his opening remarks.
______
Mr. Kildee. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I
personally welcome you to your first hearing as chairman. And
that is an historical element for any person. I can recall 34
years ago when I did that.
Chairman Hunter. And that is how old I am, actually.
Mr. Kildee. Really?
Chairman Hunter. So it is good.
Mr. Kildee. Good time, then, right? [Laughter.]
That is very good. You know, he is a very strong chairman
and a very civil chairman, which is very important.
Your dad gave you a good background. And I appreciate that
very much. We have worked together. We have gone to the White
House together. And we like each other, which helps a lot in
this business down here. So I appreciate your--I would rather
be chairman myself. But since it can't be my side, I am glad
you are the chairman, Mr. Chairman.
You know, we talk about the complex reporting requirements
we have today. And I can recall when I taught school that all I
was responsible for was to give an A down to F, A, B, C, D, E,
F. And when it got very sophisticated, I recall very often I
would call a student in and say, ``You know, you are just
barely making it in Latin.'' I taught Latin. This was first
year Latin. ``But I tell you what, if you promise not to take
second year Latin, I will pass you.'' And that was the level of
sophistication we had in those days. We didn't do much more
than that.
So we do need information, but we don't need useless
information or redundant information. And I think that we would
agree on that very much.
So, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this Subcommittee
hearing.
I am pleased to welcome the witnesses to this hearing on
education regulations. Thank you all for taking the time out of
your busy schedules to provide us with the guidance on how we
can lessen the burden on schools while improving student
achievement.
The timing of this hearing is important as this Congress
continues the bipartisan, bicameral reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. When this bill was last
reauthorized, it was a very bipartisan bill. Mr. Boehner was my
chairman at that time. And now he has risen much higher in this
Congress.
But we enjoyed working with one another. We had our
differences, but we were able to report a bill to the
President. So I believe that this reauthorization is long
overdue and hope that we can send a bill to the President.
The role of the Federal Government in education has changed
over the years, but the mission remains the same: to ensure
equal access to a quality public education for all students
through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It is
really ESEA. We give it a new name every time we reauthorize.
And this time it is probably very important we give it a new
name because the name-No Child Left Behind--probably has not
looked that good with those that feel that it hasn't carried
out the title as we had wished it would.
And IDEA is a very important program here, too. And this is
where we have had bipartisan support. I see his favorite
lobbyist over here. But Bill Goodling was one of the great
advocates of IDEA. And it has always been a good bipartisan
program, too.
So I look forward to listening to you, particularly on the
issue that we are talking about today. And we may call upon you
again in other issues. And again, I welcome the chairman to his
new responsibilities.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The statement of Mr. Kildee follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Dale E. Kildee, Ranking Member, Subcommittee
on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
Thank you Mr. Chairman for calling this subcommittee hearing. I am
pleased to welcome the witnesses to this hearing on education
regulations. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to
provide us with guidance on how we can lessen the burden on schools
while improving student achievement.
The timing of this hearing is important as this congress continues
the bipartisan, bicameral reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act. I have participated in five reauthorizations
of ESEA during my time in Congress, and strongly believe this
reauthorization is long overdue.
The role of the federal government in education has changed over
the years but the mission remains the same: to ensure equal access to a
quality public education for all students. Through the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals With Disabilities
Act (IDEA) the federal government has advanced this important civil
rights goal.
The No Child Left Behind Act called for the disagregation of data
for low income students, minorities, students with disabilities and
English language learners and shed light on the inequalities in our
education system. Prior to the law acheivement among these students was
masked or hidden by the system. The call for information and
accountability was the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, the one-size fits all approach of current law did
not do enough to close the achievement gap. We need to give states the
support and flexibility they need, while still ensuring equal
opportunity for diverse student groups.
It is important to look at the requirements we are placing on
states and districts through federal law and regulations. If we can
streamline program administration and better align programs and data to
reduce burdens, we should do that as long as we are maintaining our
core goals.
However, there needs to be some level of direction from the federal
government to create coherence in the system, maintain accountability,
and increase student achievement.
I fundamentally believe that education is a local function, a state
responsibility, and finally a federal concern.
Through this process, I hope we never lose sight of the opportunity
we have before us. We must prepare to do what is right for all
students, even if it requires a lot of work and significant change.
I look forward to the testimony today and I am prepared to work
with Chairman Hunter and all the members of the committee as we work to
reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to better
prepare students to compete in a global economy.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
______
Chairman Hunter. Thank the gentleman from Michigan. Thanks
for the kind words. And if I mess this up, it is simply because
it is my first time.
Pursuant to committee rule 7-C, all subcommittee members
will be permitted to submit written statements to be included
in the permanent hearing record. And without objection, the
hearing record will remain open for 14 days to allow
statements, questions for the record and other extraneous
material referenced during the hearing to be submitted in the
official hearing record.
It is now my pleasure to introduce our distinguished panel
of witnesses. First, Dr. Bob Grimesey.
Did I say that right--has served as the superintendent of
Orange County Public Schools, but the one out here. I forget,
being from California, there is an Orange County on the East
Coast, too. It is close by--has served as the superintendent of
Orange County Public Schools since July 1, 2009. Prior to
coming to Orange County, Dr. Grimesey served as superintendent
of Allegheny County Public Schools from July 2001 through June
2009. In May 2007, he was named region six superintendent of
the year by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents.
Prior to his tenure in Allegheny County, Dr. Grimesey served
from 1987 to 2001 in Rockingham County Public Schools.
Mr. Grimesey, thank you for being here.
Next is Mr. James Willcox, who was named Aspire's second
chief executive officer in 2009. And prior to joining Aspire,
he was the founding chief operating officer for Education for
Change, a non-profit charter management organization founded to
restart under-performing district schools within the Oakland
unified School District. Mr. Willcox has also served as a
principal at New Schools Venture Fund, a philanthropic
organization focused on improving public schools nationwide.
Mr. Willcox has also served as a U.S. Army officer for over 7
years.
Thank you for your service, Mr. Willcox. My little brother
is in the Army. In fact, he just got back from Iraq in
September. So thank you for what you do.
Next Mr. Chuck Grable, who currently serves as the
assistant superintendent for instruction for the Huntington
County Community School Corporation in Huntington, Indiana. In
this capacity, he oversees K-12 instruction, curriculum
development assessment, professional development and student
teacher placements. Prior to this position, Mr. Grable served
as the principal at a K-8 school in Huntington County and as an
elementary school teacher.
Thank you for being here.
And last, Ms. Jennifer Marshall, who serves as the director
of domestic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation, where
she oversees research and education, marriage, family, religion
and civil society. She also directs the think tank's Richard
and Helen Devow's Center for Religion and Civil Society.
So prior to recognizing each one of you for your testimony,
let me just briefly explain the lighting system, if you haven't
testified here prior. You will have 5 minutes, and a little,
yellow light will turn on after four of those. It will say you
have 1 minute left. And when it turns red, try to wrap up, if
you could, please.
Thank you all for being here again. And I would like to now
recognize Dr. Grimesey to start off. You are recognized.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT GRIMESEY, JR., ED.D., SUPERINTENDENT,
ORANGE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Mr. Grimesey. Chairman Hunter and Ranking Member Kildee,
members of the Subcommittee, including Mr. Scott from my home
state, thank you for inviting me to testify today regarding the
impact of federal regulations and reporting from the
perspective of an administrator in a small, rural school
division. My name is Robert Grimesey, and I am superintendent
of Orange County Public Schools in Virginia. I also serve as
co-chairman of the Virginia Association of School
Superintendents' legislative committee.
Orange County is a small, rural school district of 5,050
students located just beyond the Southern boundary of the
greater Washington, D.C. area suburbs. I speak today from my 27
years as a public educator and 10 of those as a school
superintendent.
Orange County Public Schools takes seriously its
responsibility to comply with all regulations and reporting
requirements of our local school board, our state education
agency and all federal agencies. Unlike many large school
divisions, however, OCPS employs no individual data analysts or
program analysts. And we have no research office.
Our entire central office administrative staff includes a
total of 11 secretaries and 14 administrators, including the
superintendent. These 25 individuals fulfill all division-level
administrative duties, including all federal and state
compliance and reporting requirements. Yet, our division-level
administrative capacity is envied by most, if not all, of the
70 percent of America's school districts with enrollment at
2,500 or less.
At first glance, there may seem to be little that is new
about state and local complaints related to federal paper work
and its associated administrative burdens. Make no mistake, the
vast majority of rural school superintendents and school board
members understand and respect the need for reasonable
accountability and transparency as we receive and invest
federal dollars.
However we believe that there is much that is not
reasonable about the ever-expanding nature of many federal
obligations. We also see a need for streamlined collaboration
between USDOE and the SEAs in the articulation of data
reporting requirements.
Ultimately, many well-intended federal regulations are
creating a culture of compliance that leads to a local fear of
failure. Such a context makes federal compliance an end in
itself. For localities at the end of this regulatory food
chain, it becomes very difficult to maintain our focus on the
achievement and welfare of our students.
Allow me to offer an example. On January 28, 2011, the
Virginia Department of Education advised school superintendents
that it was required by federal regulations associated with the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to collect and report
the following by September 30 of this year: course-level data
by student and teacher for all students; descriptions of
teacher and principal evaluation systems; teacher and principal
evaluation outcomes; and information on charter schools that
fail.
Much of this information is currently not maintained
electronically. Existing electronic data sets are not
interconnected. Misalignment between the September federal
deadline and the annual calendar of other state reporting tasks
is going to result in duplication of effort on at least two
data-reporting procedures.
A new master schedule course collection process is being
developed to address the many non-existent and disconnected
data sets. The process is intended to tie each student's class
grades and standardized test scores to each of the student's
teachers, including standard classroom teachers as well as
special education or English-as-a-Second-Language teachers.
Having established a connection between each student and each
of his teachers, the process then ties the student's
performance to the evaluation outcomes and licensure statuses
of each of his or her teachers.
Orange County, like most rural school divisions, lacks the
manpower and expertise to project the time and monetary costs
associated with the development and maintenance of the new
master schedule course collection process. However it does not
require a lot of imagination to envision the work that will be
needed to collect dozens of outcomes from each of the paper
evaluations of our 350 teachers and principals and then to
integrate that information with the existing electronic
database for teacher licensure and then to integrate that data
base with a separate data base for student standardized test
performance and then to tie that back to the grades awarded to
an individual student by each teacher who serves that
particular student.
Let me be clear. Orange County respects the need for valid
and reliable evaluations for teachers, principals and its
superintendent. We also embrace the appropriate inclusion of
student performance data in the evaluation of instructional
staff. But we have developed and implemented an effective
evaluation process without federal assistance. New layers of
reporting requirements offer little benefit to what we already
have accomplished on our own.
The volumes of data to be generated as a result of the new
ARRA-related requirements may make for interesting reports. But
what will be the ultimate price tag? And will that new cost
really result in teachers and principals feeling more
accountable for student learning than they do already? And
ultimately, will all of this new information actually improve
the welfare and academic achievement of students? In other
words, is all of this really worthwhile?
From the perspective of under-staffed rural school
divisions, the answer may be irrelevant. We simply may not have
the personnel needed to deliver on the demands of this process.
The elaborate reporting requirements associated with ARRA
represent a classic example of overly-burdensome federal
regulations.
They provide little benefit to school divisions that
already have developed evaluation systems that can ensure
accountability. They promulgate a culture of compliance that
distracts from local focus away from student learning. And they
create a massive challenge for effective articulation between
USDOE and the SEAs.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The statement of Mr. Grimesey follows:]
Prepared Statement of Robert P. Grimesey, Jr., Ed.D.,
Superintendent, Orange County Public Schools
Chairman Hunter, Ranking Member Kildee, and Members of the Sub-
Committee: Thank you for inviting me to testify today regarding the
impact of federal regulations and reporting from the perspective of an
administrator in a small rural school division.
My name is Robert Grimesey and I am the Superintendent of Orange
County Public Schools in Virginia. I also serve as Co-Chairman of the
Virginia Association of School Superintendents' Legislative Committee.
Orange County is a small rural school district of 5,050 students
located just beyond the southern boundary of the greater Washington,
D.C.-area suburbs. I speak to you today from my 27 years as a public
educator, which includes 10 years as a school superintendent.
Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) takes seriously its
responsibility to comply with all regulations and reporting
requirements of our local school board, our state education agency
(SEA) and federal agencies. Unlike many large school divisions,
however, OCPS employs no individual data analysts or program analysts.
We have no research office. Our entire central office administrative
staff includes a total of 11 secretaries and 14 administrators,
including the superintendent. These 25 individuals fulfill all
division-level administrative duties, including all federal and state
compliance and reporting requirements. And yet, our division-level
administrative capacity is envied by most, if not all, of the 70% of
America's school districts with enrollment at 2,500 or less.
At first glance, there may seem to be little that is new about
state and local complaints related to federal paper work and its
associated administrative burdens. Make no mistake. The vast majority
of rural school superintendents and school board members understand and
respect the need for reasonable accountability and transparency as we
receive and invest federal dollars. However we believe that there is
much that is not reasonable about the ever-expanding nature of many
federal obligations. We also see a need for streamlined collaboration
between USDOE and the SEAs in the articulation of data reporting
requirements. Ultimately, many well-intended federal regulations are
creating a ``culture of compliance'' that leads to a local fear of
failure. Such a context makes federal compliance an end in itself. For
localities at the end of this regulatory food chain, it becomes very
difficult to maintain our focus on the achievement and welfare of our
children.
Allow me to offer an example. On January 28, 2011, the Virginia
Department of Education advised school superintendents that it was
required by federal regulations associated with the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to collect and report the following by
September 30 of this year:
Course-level data by student and teacher for all students;
Descriptions of teacher and principal evaluation systems;
Teacher and principal evaluation outcomes; and
Information on charter schools that close.
Much of this information currently is not maintained
electronically. Existing electronic data sets are not interconnected.
Misalignment between the September federal deadline and the annual
calendar of other state reporting tasks is going to result in
duplication of effort on at least two data-reporting procedures
A new ``master schedule course collection'' process is being
developed to address the many non-existent and disconnected data sets.
The process is intended to tie each student's class grades and
standardized test scores to each of the student's teachers, including
standard classroom teachers as well as special education or English-as-
a-Second-Language teachers. Having established a connection between
each student and each of his or her teachers, the process then ties the
student's performance to the evaluation outcomes and licensure statuses
of each of his or her teachers.
Orange County, like most rural school divisions, lacks the manpower
and expertise to project the time and monetary costs associated with
the development and maintenance of the new ``master schedule course
collection'' process. However it does not require a lot of imagination
to envision the work that will be needed to collect dozens of outcomes
from each of the paper evaluations of our 350 teachers and principals;
and then to integrate that information with the existing electronic
data base for teacher licensure; and then to integrate that data base
with a separate data base for student standardized test performance;
and then to tie that back to the grades awarded to an individual
student by each teacher who serves that student.
Let me be clear. Orange County respects the need for valid and
reliable evaluations for teachers, principals and its superintendent.
We also embrace the appropriate inclusion of student performance data
in the evaluation of instructional staff. But we have developed and
implemented an effective evaluation process without federal assistance.
New layers of reporting requirements offer little benefit to what we
already have accomplished on our own.
The volumes of data to be generated as a result of the new ARRA-
related requirements may make for interesting reports. But what will be
the ultimate price tag? And will that new cost really result in
teachers and principals feeling more accountable for student learning
than they do already? And ultimately, will all of this new information
actually improve the welfare and academic achievement of students? In
other words, is all of this really worthwhile? From the perspective of
under-staffed rural school divisions, the answer may be irrelevant. We
simply may not have the personnel needed to deliver on the demands of
this process.
The elaborate reporting requirements associated with ARRA represent
a classic example of overly burdensome federal regulations. They
provide little benefit to school divisions that already have developed
evaluation systems that can ensure accountability. They promulgate a
culture of compliance that distracts local focus away from student
learning. And they create a massive challenge for effective
articulation between USDOE and the SEAs.
______
Chairman Hunter. Thank you, Dr. Grimesey, for your
testimony.
I would now like to recognize Mr. Willcox for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF JAMES WILLCOX, CEO,
ASPIRE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Mr. Willcox. Good morning, Chairman Hunter, Representative
Kildee and members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me
here today. My names is James Willcox. I am the chief executive
officer of Aspire Public Schools.
We are the largest public charter management organization
in California. And today we operate 30 public charter schools
in low-income communities across the state serving nearly
10,000 students. I am here today to affirm two things. The
first is to agree with my colleague. It is of the utmost
importance that we as operators of public schools serve as
responsible custodians of the public's funds. Secondly, I am
here to testify that at times, oversight and compliance can
make it more difficult for federal funds to serve its intended
purpose and to educate our students.
As a public charter school organization, flexibility is
critical to our success. Flexibility allows us to devote more
resources to the classroom because we are unburdened by many of
the regulations of state and federal categorical programs.
At Aspire, we are very clear on what happens in our
schools. We call it college for certain. We are focused on
preparing our students, not only to graduate from high school,
but to also be prepared to attend and succeed in college and in
life.
Across our 30 schools, we are doing exactly that. Last
year, 100 percent of our graduates went on to be accepted at 4-
year colleges and universities. In 5 years, we will graduate at
least 500 college-bound students every year.
Preparing our students for college success is critically
important and even more so when you consider that most of our
students are the first in their family to attend college. On
the 2010 academic performance index, which measures all the
academic performance of California schools, Aspire schools
earned an overall score of 824 out of a possible 1,000 points,
making us the highest performing public school system serving
low-income students in California.
An important part of our success today is the support of
federal funding. At Aspire, federal funding accounts for 12
percent of our total public revenue, approximately $10 million
of restricted funding each year. An already difficult fiscal
environment in California is made even more challenging because
many federal funding streams come with a cost, which includes
staff time and paperwork.
At any time, this cost matters because as many resources as
possible should flow to our classrooms, where the frontline
work of educating our children is happening every day. Today,
it matters even more. I want to share two examples where
oversight of federal funds moved beyond what we believe is
necessary to provide proper stewardship of the taxpayers' money
and enters into a realm where it becomes overly-burdensome for
teachers, for administrators and for our schools.
First is Title 1. We serve more than 70 percent low-income
students and rely on Title 1 for 3 percent of our total
operational funding. As you know, this program provides
financial assistance for schools with high numbers of low-
income children.
To qualify for or renew Title 1 funding requires copious
amounts of paperwork. For each educator funded with Title 1
monies, we must fill out personnel activity sheets each month.
We must then outline their salary for that month and describe
how much of that salary comes from Title 1 funding. Each staff
member and his or her principal needs to sign these forms
monthly.
Across our 30 schools, teachers, principals and
administrative staff spend approximately 3 hours per school per
month filling out compliance paperwork. In addition to these
monthly reports, we also submit two 30-page reports each year
outlining our adherence to Title 1 under No Child Left Behind.
Beyond these reports, we also go through a rigorous
auditing process. These audits require us to use what is known
as level of effort calculations showing that we are using Title
1 funds to supplement our regular education program, not simply
as unrestricted funds to be used at the school's discretion in
the service of students. In order to do this, we pull hundreds
of receipts and invoices from our files each year. This process
involves five full-time staff members, as you can imagine, a
ton of paperwork.
The second example is the national school lunch program.
The national school lunch program is critical to Aspire
families. Currently, more than 6,800 of our students receive
free or reduced-price meals from this invaluable program. In
order to receive these meals each year, parents must fill out
an application, which is submitted to our program director, who
manually enters this data into a computer system to determine
whether or not the family qualifies for the program and then
communicates these results back to the school and back to the
families.
This is a very time-consuming process for both staff and
administrators during the first few weeks of school, which is
one of the busiest and most critical times of the year.
Monitoring and implementing this program requires daily
tracking of food, students and the program itself. There is
also a large amount of paperwork involved in observations,
health inspections and food distribution.
When federal funding streams become available, we at Aspire
must determine if the compliance costs will outweigh the
benefit of the funding. In the past, we have chosen not to
apply for some federal funds because the compliance
requirements of some of these funds do not justify the amount
of resources it would take to apply for and manage them.
In order to continue providing a high-quality education to
our students, we need your support. Only through streamlining
federal grant and reporting processes will we be able to access
the funding that will ensure that we can do everything we can
for our students.
I hope we can shift our collective mindsets to focus on
maximizing dollars in classrooms and the student outcomes that
we seek. We surely appreciate the intent to ensure that federal
funding is used to achieve the purposes for which it was
intended. I hope the new process can be implemented is less
concerned with the detailed accountability for inputs and
focused more on the clear outcome or objective of each program
and one grounded in our collective responsibility to
effectively educate all of our students.
On behalf of the nearly 10,000 students we serve in
California, I thank you for inviting us here today. The
opportunity to speak with you is an inspiration to our families
and the communities that we serve. They know you are eager to
listen and to learn about the challenges we face. And it is
important you do as much as you can to support our students'
journey to college.
I am constantly reminded of our incredible work and the
heroism of our teachers and our staff every day when I visit
our schools. I would like to take this chance to extend an open
invitation to all of you whenever in California to come visit
an Aspire school so you can see what happens every day when
federal dollars go where they are most needed, which is to our
students.
[The statement of Mr. Willcox follows:]
Prepared Statement of James Willcox, Chief Executive Officer,
Aspire Public Schools
Good morning Chairman Hunter, Representative Kildee and members of
the Committee. Thank you for having me here today.
My name is James Willcox and I am the Chief Executive Officer of
Aspire Public Schools. We are the largest public charter school
management organization in California. Today we operate 30 public
charter schools in low-income communities across the state and serve
nearly 10,000 students.
I'm here today to do two things. First, I want to affirm the fact
that it is of the upmost importance that we, as an operator of public
schools, serve as responsible custodians of public funds. Proper and
adequate oversight over all public dollars is integral to the success
of our educational system. We must do this in order to maintain the
public's confidence that our tax dollars are used wisely and
responsibly. Secondly, I am also here to testify to the fact that, at
times, oversight and compliance can make it more difficult for federal
funds to flow where they are most needed and to serve the purpose for
which they are intended--to support our students.
As a charter school organization, flexibility is a key ingredient
to our success. It is this flexibility that allows us to devote more
resources to the classroom because we are unburdened by many of the
regulations of state and federal categorical programs.
This is unfortunately not the case for most of our colleagues in
traditional public schools. We believe that traditional public schools
would and should benefit from the same type of flexibility that we
enjoy as charter schools. For us, one of the most powerful
opportunities that charter schools have created is the opportunity to
demonstrate what might be possible with a shift from a compliance-
driven system to one that is focused on outcomes with student
achievement as its first priority. Of course, it's our view that a more
flexible, outcomes-focused approach should also demand higher levels of
accountability. We believe that this is a powerful marriage of
concepts--concepts that are at the heart of the promise of public
charter schools.
But even with the higher levels of flexibility that we enjoy, our
schools still cannot access federal funding that we are qualified to
receive. With limited resources and staff time, we routinely make
decisions to forgo federal funding that is available to our students.
Why? Simply put, our teachers, administrators and staff members do not
have the time or resources necessary to apply for and manage the
compliance and reporting for many federal grants programs--programs
that are desperately needed by students that are served by charter
management organizations just like ours.
In this time of budget constraints, all of us know that every
dollar counts. As a non-traditional system of free, open-enrollment
public schools, we depend primarily on federal and state funding to
fulfill our commitment to our students and families--a mission to
provide small, personalized high-quality public schools to students and
families who want and need more high-quality public school choices. At
Aspire, we are also very clear on what happens in our schools we call
it ``College for Certain.'' We are focused on preparing our students
not only to graduate from high school, but to graduate prepared to
attend and succeed in college and in life.
Across our 30 schools, we are succeeding. Last year, one hundred
percent of Aspire's graduating seniors were accepted to four-year
colleges or universities. In five years, we will be graduating at least
500 college bound students each and every year. Preparing our students
for college success is critically important, even more so when you
consider that most of our students are the first in their family to
attend college. Only half of low-income students who graduate from high
school move on to institutions of higher learning. Sadly, many don't
graduate at all. Our teachers, parents and administrators are working
tirelessly to reverse this trend and the results they are achieving are
truly remarkable.
On the 2010 Academic Performance Index, which measures the academic
performance of California schools, Aspire schools earned an overall
score of 824 out of a possible 1,000, making us the highest-performing
public school system serving low-income students in the state of
California. In addition, we were recently recognized as one of the
world's 20 most improved school systems by the management consulting
firm McKinsey & Company. These results and recognition are a testament
to our team and the determination of our students and families to
change the odds that are too often stacked against them. As an
organization, we believe this is more than a reason to be hopeful--it
is a reason to demand more of ourselves to deliver on the promise of
public education in every community across the country. It is a reason
to focus more on outcomes for all of our students and a reasonable,
less burdensome set of compliance requirements for all of our schools.
In California, more and more families are demanding high-quality
public schools for their children. Even in these incredibly tough
economic times, Aspire is trying to help. We intend to continue
bringing our high-performing educational model to even more low-income
families across California. Our ability, however, to fulfill our
intentions to continue opening new schools and serving more students is
in large part driven by the flexibility we have to direct the majority
of our funding to where it matters most--our students. Today, federal
funding accounts for 12 percent of our total public revenue and amounts
to approximately 10 million dollars of restricted funding.
At any given time, having the flexibility to allocate your budget
to meet the most pressing needs of your students is powerful. In this
difficult financial environment, flexibility in school budgets is
critical to protect our students from the tough times around them.
Traditional public school districts across California and the country
have far less flexibility when it comes to the very tough tradeoffs
schools are being forced to make.
That said, an already difficult fiscal climate in California is
made even more difficult for our organization because many of our
funding streams come with a cost, and that is time and paperwork. At
any time, this matters because resources should flow to classrooms
where the front line work of educating our children is happening every
day. In a time like this, it matters even more.
I would like to give you two examples where oversight of federal
funds moves beyond what we believe is necessary to ensure proper
stewardship of taxpayer money and enters into the realm where it
becomes overly burdensome.
Title I Funding
As a public school system that serves more than 70 percent low-
income students, we rely on Title I for three percent of our total
operational funding. As you know, this program provides financial
assistance to schools with high numbers of low-income children to
ensure that our schools have the resources they need to ensure that all
of our students are achieving academically.
To qualify for or renew Title I funding requires copious amount of
paperwork. For each employee funded with Title I monies, we must fill
out a personnel activity sheet each month. We must then outline their
salary for that month and describe how much of that salary is from
Title I funding. Each staff member and his/her principal have to sign
these forms on a monthly basis. Across our 30 schools, teachers,
principals and administrative staff spend approximately three hours per
month filling out compliance paperwork. These are hours taken from
supporting our teachers, assisting our families or preparing our
students for success in college.
In addition to these monthly reports, we must submit two 30-page
reports each year outlining our adherence to Title I under No Child
Left Behind. We work to compile these lengthy and cumbersome reports
for each school.
Beyond these monthly and periodic reports, we also go through a
rigorous annual auditing process. For our audits, we are required to
use what is known as ``level of effort'' calculations, showing that we
are using Title I funds to supplement our regular education program,
not simply as unrestricted funds for our operating expenses. In order
to do this, we pull hundreds of receipts and invoices from our files.
This process involves five staff members and, as you can imagine, a ton
of paperwork.
We understand and appreciate the intent to ensure that funding for
low-income students is used appropriately, and I hope we can work
together to ensure that oversight and compliance does not excessively
dilute our effort to focus on what matters most the achievement of the
students we are trying to serve. In short, I hope a new process can be
implemented that is less concerned with detailed accountability for
inputs and focused more and more on our collective responsibility to
deliver high-performing students for some of our most underserved
communities.
National School Nutrition Funding
The National School Nutrition program is critical to Aspire
families. Currently, more than 6,800 of our students receive free or
reduced priced lunch from this invaluable resource.
In order to receive free or reduced priced breakfast and lunch,
each year parents must fill out an application, which is then submitted
to the program director. Our program director manually enters this data
in the computer system to determine whether or not the family qualifies
for the program and then communicates the results back to the
individual schools to relay to our families. This is a very time
consuming process for both staff and administrators during the first
few weeks of school, which is one of the busiest times of the school
year. Monitoring and implementing this program requires daily tracking
of food, students and intake. There is also a large amount of paperwork
involved in observations, health inspections and food distribution.
The National School Nutrition Program is one example of a program
that is a vital service for our families. It is, however, also a
program that is managed by a dedicated staff member and generates more
than one and a half hours of daily paperwork at each school site. While
ensuring oversight of taxpayer monies is important, it takes time and
resources from our classrooms. The costs we incur to staff the various
elements of the compliance program come from our schools' operational
budgets, lessening our ability to support our students in the
classroom. By reducing paperwork in small amounts throughout the food
service process, our teachers and staff will be able to redirect that
time to their students. One specific example might be multi-year
eligibility for our students, or simply establishing eligibility when a
child enters school.
Title I and the National School Nutrition Program are two federal
programs that support our students, teachers, administrators and school
sites in accomplishing our goal of ``College for Certain.'' When
funding streams come available, Aspire is forced to determine if the
compliance costs outweigh the benefit of the money. In the past, we
have chosen to refrain from receiving federal funds because the
compliance requirements of many federal grants do not justify the
amount of resources that it would take to apply for and manage these
funds.
Conclusion
In order for our schools to continue to grow and provide a high-
quality education to students who need it the most, we need your
support. Only through streamlining federal grant and reporting
processes will Aspire be able to access funding that will ensure that
California's low-income population can send their child to the public
school of their choice. It is my hope that we can shift our collective
mindset to focus on dollars in classrooms and outcomes achieved.
I believe that we should assume a posture that recognizes that
compliance and regulations takes resources away from our students. I
also believe that the burden of proof should be on rule-making, not on
schools, to prove that the costs of oversight don't overly burden our
schools and most importantly, overly dilute the purpose for which the
funds were intended. We should focus additionally on lightening the
burden of compliance around inputs (what we do) and focus more on what
we want schools to achieve with federal funding. Simultaneously, we
should implement rewards and recognition for schools and organizations
that achieve positive student outcomes potentially lightening the load
when schools have proven that they are able to achieve the intended
outcome or objective of federal programs. On the flip side, I also
believe that we should consider greater accountability for those
schools that fail to serve our students well.
On behalf of nearly 10,000 students we serve in California, I would
like to end my comments by thanking you for having me here today. The
opportunity to speak with you about the challenges that we face,
knowing that you are listening, knowing that you are eager to help and
always asking the question ``How can we better support our students and
our schools?'' is inspiring for our families and the communities we
serve. I am constantly reminded of our incredible work and the heroism
of our teachers and team when I visit our schools and I would like to
extend an open invitation to visit an Aspire school to find out what
happens when your federal dollars go where they are needed the most our
students. Thank you very much. I would be happy to answer your
questions.
______
Chairman Hunter. Thank you, Mr. Willcox, for your
testimony.
Mr. Grable?
STATEMENT OF CHUCK GRABLE, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT FOR
INSTRUCTION, HUNTINGTON COUNTY COMMUNITY SCHOOL
Mr. Grable. Chairman Hunter, Ranking Member Kildee and
members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify before you today. The Huntington County Community
School Corporation is a rural, county-wide Pre-K-12 school
district with about 6,000 students and 11 schools. We are an
extremely socio-economically diverse district.
Our individual schools free and reduced lunch percentages
range from a low of 27 percent to a high of 80 percent. Our
mission is to create world-class learning results for all
students. We have aligned and adjusted the federal
accountability requirements, developed a strategic plan focused
on goals, data and results, held administrators and teachers
more accountable for implementation and have made our data
transparent for parents.
Due to these efforts, we have made AYP two of the past 3
years. We have also successfully pulled two elementary schools
out of corrective action and are about to pull the third and
final elementary out of corrective action.
Some would argue that the federal accountability and
reporting requirements are overly-burdensome. I would argue
that certain federal data requirements are important to driving
change and improving student achievement. However, certain
requirements could be streamlined to remove redundancies. The
current federal requirements are sufficient, and we must use
this data in more efficient and effective ways to guide
improvement in daily instructional decisions.
Data collection and analysis supports best practice,
creates efficiencies and ensure students' civil rights are met.
Data is also used to monitor and evaluate results and to
provide transparent information to parents and community.
We are a firm believer in what gets measured gets done and
have successfully organized our school improvement efforts
around this philosophy. As Congress looks to improve federal
education law, any federal requirements for reporting should be
carefully analyzed to reflect what will benefit students. The
focus should be on student outcomes instead of compliance.
Because federal law has demanded we look more closely at
which students are achieving and which are struggling, we have
been vigilant in data collection, analysis and transparency in
the following ways: We created a strategic plan that includes
key indicators, which we monitor, and action steps that guide
our improvement. We use an elementary literacy walls to monitor
the performance of every student.
We conduct ongoing data meetings among and between all
areas of school leadership, parents and the public. We teach
students to track their own performance. We invested in a data
warehouse and a response to intervention documentation program
to create efficiencies in pulling data for district, state and
federal reporting and to improve daily instruction.
We give parents real-time access to all student data and
relevant information. This allows us to truly partner with
parents to provide the best possible education to all students,
including those with an IEP or English language learners.
In all of our work, student privacy is fully protected. And
only parents and educational personnel have access to this
information. We routinely go beyond the federal collection
requirements to maximize improvement and identify groups or
individual students that need more support or further academic
challenge. With our tools, principals and teachers can filter
and disaggregate data to view overall trends or identify
instructional needs such as which students are struggling to
master standard sub-skills or concepts.
This allows us to identify the students most in need and
target interventions for those students and provide
professional development for our teachers. Our success in using
data to drive instruction and target support at all grade
levels speaks for itself. I have several recommendations I
would like to offer. And they are:
One, carefully examine requirements and any new regulations
through the lens of what drives reform and directly benefits
students.
Two, work to streamline the reporting process and remove
redundancies. We are often required to report the same
information several different times to several entities, for
example, IDEA, Title 1 and our own state divisions.
Three, provide support for states and districts to use data
warehouses that reduce collection and reporting burdens while
using data to improve teaching and student performance.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. And I would
be pleased to take any questions.
[The statement of Mr. Grable follows:]
Prepared Statement of Charles Grable, Assistant Superintendent for
Instruction, Huntington County Community School Corporation (HCCSC)
Chairman Hunter, Ranking Member Kildee, and members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you this
morning on the role of the federal government in education and its
impact on states, districts, and schools; especially when examining the
need for data collection and reporting.
The Huntington County Community School Corporation (HCCSC) is a
rural, county-wide preK-12 school district consisting of 5,986 students
in 11 schools. We are an extremely socio-economically diverse district.
Our individual schools' free/reduced lunch percentage ranges from a low
of 27% to a high of 80%. The mission of HCCSC is to create world-class
learning results by focusing on literacy, academic standards, a safe
learning environment, stakeholder satisfaction, and career and life
readiness. Our school district has been in corrective action for the
past seven years. Through a process of aligning and adjusting to
federal accountability requirements; developing a strategic plan
focused on SMART goals, data, and results; holding administrators and
teachers more accountable for implementation of key strategies; and
partnering with and making our data transparent to the community and
parents; HCCSC has made Adequate Yearly Progress two out of the past
three years. HCCSC has also successfully pulled two elementary schools
out of corrective action by targeting instruction on the special
education subgroup, and is about to pull the third and final elementary
out of corrective action for improving results in the special education
and free/reduced lunch subgroups.
Sadly, there are many school districts, educators, and stakeholders
that would argue that federal accountability and reporting
requirements, including the use of data, are overly burdensome. While I
would argue that many of the reporting processes should be streamlined
to remove redundancies to be more efficient, the Federal requirements
in this area are extremely important to driving student achievement.
States, districts, and schools need to use existing data more
efficiently and effectively to drive the school improvement process and
to inform daily instruction. HCCSC is a firm believer in ``what gets
measured gets done'' (Peters, 1987), and has successfully organized its
school improvement efforts around this philosophy. As Congress looks to
improve Federal education law, any federal requirements for reporting
or data collection, should be carefully analyzed to reflect first and
foremost what will benefit the students. The focus should be on outcome
or performance data instead of overly burdensome compliance
regulations.
Author Jim Collins states that, ``Organizations only improve where
the truth is told and the brutal facts confronted.'' Federal education
policy has forced this concept to the forefront, and refocused school
districts on valuable student data and emphasized results. This focus
ensures that all students' civil rights are met. The data collection
and analysis helps educators retool and reallocate valuable, and often
diminishing, resources and services to those most in need; thus
ensuring that all students are provided a high quality, free, and
appropriate education.
Educational reformist, Mike Schmoker (1999), states, ``Data are to
goals what signposts are to travelers; data are not end points, but are
essential to reaching them--the signposts on the road to school
improvement. Thus, data and feedback are interchangeable and should be
an essential feature of how schools do business.'' I cannot stress
enough the importance of using data to drive improvement efforts, to
support best practices, to create efficiencies, to monitor and evaluate
results, and to provide information to parents and community
stakeholders. Because federal law has demanded that we look more
closely at which students are achieving and which are struggling, HCCSC
has been vigilant in its data collection, analysis, and transparency in
the following ways:
Created a strategic plan with the School Board that
includes key indicators we want to monitor and action steps to help us
move forward. See attached HCCSC Strategic Plan.
Use Elementary Literacy Data Walls to monitor the
performance of every student during the fall, winter, and spring
assessments. See photo on page 6.
Conduct ongoing data meetings among and between all areas
of school leadership and the public.
Teach students to track their own performance (e.g.
attendance, reading levels, NWEA scores, etc.) in Student Data Folders.
Invested in a data warehouse and Response to Intervention
(RTI) documentation program with Pearson Inform to create efficiencies,
improve daily instruction, and minimize the burden for school,
district, state, and federal data reporting. It has allowed HCCSC to
work smarter rather than harder.
Give parents ``real time'' access to their child's grades,
assessment data, RTI academic or behavioral goals, and RTI
interventions. This access to their child's grades, scores, and goals
allows us to truly partner with parents to provide the best possible
education to all students, including those with an IEP or English
Language Learners.
In all of our work, the privacy of the student is fully protected
and only parents and educational personnel can access this information.
Just as we believe in the importance of data informing and driving
instruction, we also ensure it remains secure and individual student
privacy is not compromised.
State and federal data collection requirements are not the final
destination in the improvement process. We routinely go above and
beyond the federal collection requirements in order to maximize
improvement efforts and identify those groups or individual students
that need more support or further academic challenge. With the use of
tools like the data warehouse, we are able to filter and disaggregate
data to view overall trends or understand granular instructional
information such as which state standard sub-skills or concepts an IDEA
eligible or Title I student is struggling to master. Also, through the
collection and analysis of our ongoing formative assessment data,
administrators and teachers can identify those students most in need of
support and successfully target interventions for students and
professional development needs for teachers. Our data show the success
we're having in all grades.
Therefore, as stated earlier, the current federal reporting
requirements are sufficient and we must use the current data in more
efficient and effective ways to guide school improvement and daily
instructional decisions. I do have several recommendations I'd like to
offer. They are:
1. Carefully examine existing requirements and any new regulations
through the lens of what best benefits students and drives reform
within the school.
2. Work to streamline and fine tune the reporting process while
removing redundancies. We are often required to report the same
information several different times to several entities (i.e. IDEA,
Title I, and our own state divisions). The data should be able to be
managed more efficiently with technology through the use of Student
Testing Numbers (STN) collected and managed by the state. Therefore,
through the STN, the information should be able to be transferred
through the state DOE to the federal educational agencies more
efficiently without requiring local districts to duplicate its efforts.
3. Provide support for states and districts to utilize data
warehouses that reduce collection and reporting burdens.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I have submitted
our academic outcome data for the record. I would be pleased to take
any questions.
Additional Information:
1. HCCSC's performance on ISTEP+ (Indiana's state accountability
test) in English/Language Arts and math. As you can see in the charts,
HCCSC has improved its performance in the past several years by
focusing on our data and implementing best practice instructional
strategies. This data includes students with disabilities and English
Language Learners.
2. HCCSC has one large comprehensive high school, Huntington North
High School (HNHS). HNHS has dramatically increased its graduation rate
over the past few years by using data to identify and focus on the
students most at risk for dropping out of high school. By focusing on
this data and implementing best practice strategies in classrooms, a
credit recovery program, and an alternative high school setting, HNHS
has achieved positive results. The state of Indiana has not yet
released its graduation rate for the 2009-2010 school-year. This data
includes students with disabilities and English Language Learners.
3. By using the data to identify those students most in need of
support and then implementing effective targeted interventions, like
Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI), students are closing the
achievement gap. The chart below shows that a majority of the student
in LLI during the 2009-2010 school-year made 1, 1.5 or 2 years growth
in one year.
4. The photo below shows an elementary principal conducting a data
team meeting with his 3rd grade teachers in front of their Literacy
Data Wall. The data shows what students are meeting grade level reading
expectations based on the fall, winter, or spring assessments, and
which students need further support. Through these discussions, the
principal can determine if key strategies are being implemented with
fidelity.
______
[Mr. Grable's additional submission, ``HCCSC Strategic
Planning Guidebook,'' may be accessed at the following Internet
address:]
http://as.hccsc.k12.in.us/modules/locker/files/
get_group_file.phtml?fid=8786884&gid=1577165&sessionid=b5a5cdff10c351bea
25da502bda8ce67
______
Chairman Hunter. Thank you.
Ms. Marshall?
STATEMENT OF JENNIFER MARSHALL, DIRECTOR,
DOMESTIC POLICY STUDIES, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Ms. Marshall. Thank you, Chairman Hunter and members of the
Subcommittee. My name is Jennifer Marshall. And I am the
director of domestic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation.
And the views I express in this testimony are my own and should
not be construed as representing any official position of the
Heritage Foundation.
A half-century of always expanding an ever-shifting federal
intervention into local schools has failed to improve academic
achievement. But it has caused an enormous compliance burden.
The damage isn't just wasted dollars and human capital that
could have been more effectively deployed to achieve
educational excellence. It has also undermined direct
accountability to parents and taxpayers while encouraging
bureaucratic expansion and empowering special interests.
Specifically, we should count the major--the costs of three
major areas of compliance with federal policy. First, the
proliferation of federal programs and increased federal
prescription have created a confusing policy maze. Even the GAO
has a hard time counting up all the education programs.
Using a narrow definition, GAO determined in 2010 that
there were 151 K-12 and early childhood education programs in
20 federal agencies totaling $55.6 billion in spending
annually. No Child Left Behind is the most significant,
including more than 50 programs under 10 titles running more
than 600 pages. NCLB is the A-3 authorization of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which at that time
included just five titles and 32 pages.
In 2006, the Office of Management and Budget found that No
Child Left Behind cost states an additional 7 million hours in
paperwork at a cost of $141 million. A 2008 Heritage Foundation
report found that Title 1 funding is so complex now that no
more than a handful of experts in the country clearly
understand the process from beginning to end. That complexity
means many dollars never make it to the classroom to reach
students.
For example, in 2004, about 8.4 million children were
eligible for Title 1, Part A. With $13 billion in funding
available that year, each child should have been eligible for
something like $1,500. Yet in a State like Florida, funding
amounted to, on average, just $554 per student.
The Obama administration's Race to the Top initiative shows
the compliance burden that results each time a new strategy
emerges from Washington. Forty-one states exerted enormous
energy to apply for the $4.35 billion in federal funding. But
just 11 states ultimately won Race to the Top awards.
Louisiana's application, for example, was 260 pages long
with a 417-page appendix. That took time and money that will
not be recouped by taxpayers.
Hundreds of pages in the code of federal regulations
specify the operation of elementary and secondary education
programs with 65 pages of regulations from Title 1 alone. As an
example of the complexity, regulations for paraprofessionals
dictate that they can have seven specific duties and may not
perform duties other than those listed, nor may they perform
prescribed duties unless under the direct supervision, as
defined in the regulations, of a teacher who meets the several
requirements of a highly-qualified teacher, also outlined by
the regulations.
In addition to complex regulations like these, the
Education Department has issued guidance on elementary and
secondary education on 100 occasions just since the passage of
No Child Left Behind. Second, administrative set-asides and red
tape diminish education dollars as they pass through multiple
layers of bureaucracy.
A 1999 GAO study of 10 federal programs found that by the
time a taxpayer dollar reached a school district, between 1 and
17 percent of the funding had been drained on administration.
As an example at the district level, Fairfax County, Virginia,
had to set aside a day to train personnel on NCLB requirements.
The cost of a single day's training for their roughly 14,000
teachers, 1,000 paraprofessionals and 1,000 administrators was
the equivalent of hiring 86 instructional personnel year-round.
Third, the growth of state bureaucracies to comply with
federal programs has led to a client mentality, undermining
accountability to parents and other taxpayers. Federal
intervention has fueled state bureaucracy.
After the passage of ESEA in 1965, state education agencies
doubled in size within 5 years. Today, No Child Left Behind
prescribes in great detail how to measure student progress on a
specified testing regimen. Each state must complete a
consolidated state application accountability workbook. Most
states' completed accountability workbooks run about 50 pages
long, though some are much longer. For example, Georgia's is 95
pages, and Florida's is 128 pages.
Accountability is certainly important. But accountability
to whom and for what? The status quo focuses on fine-tuned
aggregate calculations that are most useful for bureaucrats to
chart the progress of a school, district or state so they can
apply federal carrots and sticks. Calculations like these are
not the kinds of information that empower parents. On the other
hand, this kind of information and detail does absorb countless
hours of compliance calculations by schools, districts and
states.
I commend this Subcommittee for renewing attention to a
pressing problem in education today. Serious investigation like
this into the scope and effects of the federal intervention has
not taken place for more than a decade, despite massive growth
in the federal role in education. This information is essential
to inform policy choices that will restore dollars and decision
making to those closest to the student.
Washington's role currently stands in the way of that
objective. And the first order of business is to take stock of
where we stand.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Marshall follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jennifer A. Marshall, Director,
Domestic Policy Studies, the Heritage Foundation
My name is Jennifer A. Marshall. I am Director of Domestic Policy
at The Heritage Foundation. The views I express in this testimony are
my own, and should not be construed as representing any official
position of The Heritage Foundation.
Introduction
Major federal intervention into local schools began with the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). Since then, a
half-century of continually expanding, ever-shifting federal
intervention into local schools has failed to improve American academic
achievement.
But it has caused an enormous compliance burden, dissipating
dollars and human capital that could have been more effectively
directed to achieve educational excellence. The damage should be
calculated not only in terms of decades of wasted fiscal and human
resources and on-going opportunity costs. We must also take stock of
how federal intervention has created a dysfunctional governance system
that undermines direct accountability to parents and taxpayers, while
at the same time encouraging bureaucratic expansion and empowers
special interests.
Specifically, we should count the following costs of compliance
with federal policy:
1. The proliferation of federal programs and increased federal
prescription to leverage ``systemic reform'' have created a confusing
policy maze that only a limited set of experts can navigate.
2. The growth of state bureaucracies to administer and comply with
federal programs has given rise to a ``client mentality'' that
undermines effective educational governance and accountability that
ought to be directed toward parents and other taxpayers.
3. The administrative set-asides and red tape associated with
federal programs diminishes education dollars as they pass through
multiple layers of bureaucracy.
I commend this subcommittee and the larger committee for renewing
attention to a pressing problem in education policy today. Serious
investigation like this into the scope and effects of federal
intervention has not taken place for more than a decade, despite
massive growth in the federal role in education. Policymakers need much
more information than any of us here today will be able to present.
Studies by the Government Accountability Office and others are needed
to get a full and updated accounting of the extent and impact of the
federal role in schools today. This information is essential to inform
policy choices that will restore dollars and decision-making to those
closest to the student. Washington's role currently stands in the way
of that objective, and the first order of business is to take stock of
that obstacle.
1. The proliferation of federal programs and increased federal
prescription to leverage ``systemic reform'' have created a confusing
policy maze.
Proliferation of Federal Programs
Washington's role in education has grown to the point where it is
difficult to keep track of all the odds and ends of federal
intervention into this or that aspect of education. Programs include
things like Women's Educational Equity, the Native Hawaiian Education
Program, the Carol M. White Physical Education Program, and the
Challenge newsletter to spread the word about how to fight drugs and
violence in schools.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ See Guide to U.S. Department of Education Programs, Fiscal Year
2010, at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/gtep/gtep.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has had a hard time
counting up all the education programs, or even defining what a federal
program is. Using a narrow definition that excludes programs that don't
``enhance student learning through school activities and curricula''
(which leaves out, for example, food and nutrition programs
administered through schools), GAO determined in 2010 that there were
151 K-12 and early childhood education programs housed in 20 executive
branch and independent federal agencies, totaling $55.6 billion in
average annual expenditures. According to GAO, 91 percent of these
programs are federal grant programs, distributed primarily to state and
local school districts. States were eligible for 65 of the grant
programs; local districts for 57 programs.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ U.S. Government Accountability Office, ``Federal Education
Funding: Overview of K-12 and Early Childhood Education Programs,''
GAO-10-51, January 2010, at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d1051.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This multiplication of programs means multiple applications,
monitoring of program notices, and program reporting. This increases
administrative overhead and erodes coherent, school-level strategic
leadership based on the needs of individual students.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is the most significant of the federal
laws affecting K-12 education. Programs funded under NCLB constituted
$25 billion in 2010. NCLB includes more than 50 programs under 10
titles, running more than 600 pages. NCLB is the eighth reauthorization
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The
original ESEA included just five titles and 32 pages.
In 2006, the Office of Management and Budget found that No Child
Left Behind cost states an additional 7 million hours in paperwork at a
cost of $141 million.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Federal Register, Vol. 71, No. 202 (October 19, 2006), p.
61,730.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal Prescription Increased through ``Systemic Reform''
Between 1965 and the mid-1990s, the federal role in education
focused on compensatory and categorical aid, aiming to supplement
resources for specific student populations (e.g., low-income or English
language learners) or categorical purposes. In the mid-1990s, the
federal role expanded beyond these specific interventions to leveraging
system-wide education reform from Washington. This systemic or
comprehensive reform seeks to influence all aspects of the public
school system to produce change in all public schools by working top-
down from Washington, D.C. No area of education policy is off limits
from federal oversight and federal regulation in this model, opening
the door to ever-deeper encroachments into and ever-wider compliance
demands on local schools.
For example, No Child Left Behind prescribes in great detail the
measurement of student progress on a specified testing regimen for all
schools and all students. Each state must complete a ``Consolidated
State Application Accountability Workbook'' to explain in great detail
how it will meet the law's prescriptive requirements for judging
student progress.\4\ Most states' completed ``accountability
workbooks'' run around 50 pages long, though some are much longer. For
example, Georgia's is 95 pages and Florida's is 128 pages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ See, for example, Florida's at http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/
account/stateplans03/flcsa.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accountability is important, but we also need to ask,
accountability to whom and for what? The accountability prescribed by
No Child Left Behind focuses on fine-tuned aggregate calculations that
are most useful for bureaucrats to chart school-wide, district-wide, or
state-wide progress--information that is useful for the application of
federal carrots and sticks. Calculations like ``safe harbor'' to
account for differences in progress among groups are not the kinds of
information that empower parents. On the other hand, that kind of
detail does absorb countless hours of bureaucratic explanation and
compliance calculations on the part of schools, districts, and states.
That's characteristic of federal intervention as whole: it is
distracting because of the many compliance burdens it puts on states
and localities, but it is also detracts from proper accountability to
those who have the most at stake in education, parents and other
taxpayers.
Case Study in Complexity and Prescription: Title I
Title I of NCLB is particularly complex and prescriptive, leading
to many hidden costs associated with program administration and
compliance with program stipulations.
A Heritage Foundation report by researcher Susan Aud describes the
complexity of Title I funding, noting that, due to the increasing
complexity of the funding structure, ``it is likely that no more than a
handful of experts in the country clearly understand the process from
beginning to end or could project a particular district's allocation
based on information about its low-income students.'' \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Susan L. Aud, ``A Closer Look at Title I: Making Education for
the Disadvantaged More Student-Centered,'' Heritage Foundation Special
Report No. 15, June 28, 2007, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/
Reports/2007/06/A-Closer-Look-at-Title-I-Making-Education-for-the-
Disadvantaged-More-Student-Centered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because of the complexity in Title I, many dollars are soaked up in
administrative costs and never make it to the classrooms. For example,
the report estimates that in FY 2004, there were approximately 8.4
million children in the United States eligible for Title I, Part A.
With $13 billion in funding available in 2007, each child should have
been eligible for $1,500. Yet, in Florida, for example, Title I, Part A
funding amounted on average to just $554 per student.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title I is a good example of the increasing complexity in federal
education funding. Title I, Part A originally comprised just one
program, the Basic Grant Program. Today it consists of four grant
programs: Basic, Concentration Grants, Targeted Grants, and Education
Finance Incentive Grants (EFIG).
There are rules to determine the total grant amount awarded to each
state for each of the four programs, using calculations based on the
number of eligible children in each state's local education agencies
(LEAs). However, the rules for determining eligibility are not uniform
across the four programs of Title I, Part A.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Another criticism is that ``a uniform number for an entire
state'' is calculated, instead of ``taking into account urban, rural,
[and] cost of living'' differences. The grant program also contains
``hold-harmless provisions,'' guaranteeing districts with a certain
level of poverty funding the next year, regardless of whether poverty
levels decrease year to year. Also, because due to the way funding
amounts are calculated, ``small states. . .receive a much larger amount
per child than larger states, regardless of socioeconomic status.''
Aud, ``A Closer Look at Title I,'' p. 3.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Concentration grants are supplemental to the Basic Grant. In order
to be eligible for the Concentration Grant, ``an LEA must have at least
6,500 eligible students, or else 15 percent of the total number of
students must be eligible.''
The Targeted and EFIG grants are more complex. A complicated system
of weights is applied to determine eligibility. For the Targeted grant,
the weights are determined by four thresholds, with five weighting
categories for each of the four types of thresholds, as well as
``different weights for the percent calculations versus the number-of-
children calculations.'' \8\ Additionally, the rationale for the
weights is not completely clear in the legislation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Determining eligibility for the EFIG is even more complex--
including 60 weighting categories--and incorporates not only weights
but an ``equity factor'' for each state.
The kind of complexity we see in just NCLB, Title I, Part A
illustrates the overall problem we have today with education resources
lost on deciphering, applying, and reporting on federal program
specifics.
Case Study: Race to the Top
The Obama Administration's Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive grant
program offers a recent example of the compliance burdens that result
each time a new strategy emerges from Washington, D.C. Although 41
states exerted enormous energy to apply for $4.35 billion in federal
funding (a ``small'' program compared to Title I at $15 billion), just
11 states ultimately won RTTT awards. Many states' grant applications
totaled hundreds of pages; some states even sent representatives to
Washington to give presentations on why their state deserved the
additional funding. Florida's Race to the Top application, for example,
totaled 327 pages and included a 606-page appendix. Illinois'
application was 187 pages plus a 644-page appendix, and California
submitted an application totaling 131 pages in length with a 475-page
appendix. Some states submitted lengthy applications without receiving
awards. Louisiana, for example, submitted an application totaling 260
pages with a 417-page appendix. The significant amount of time and
money expended on the state's thorough grant application will not be
recouped by taxpayers.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ U.S. Department of Education, Race to the Top Fund, States'
Applications, Scores and Comments for Phase I, at http://www2.ed.gov/
programs/racetothetop/phase1-applications/index.html (March 10, 2011).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not Just Legislation: Regulations and Guidance
Education regulations can be found in Title 34 of the Code of
Federal Regulations. Hundreds of pages are dedicated to specifying the
operation of the Department of Education's elementary and secondary
education programs. The Title I program has 65 pages of regulations to
accompany it, prescribing everything from setting and measuring
progress on academic standards, to outreach to parents, to identifying
``highly qualified teachers.'' \10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34, pp. 455-520, at http://
www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_10/34cfr200_10.html (March 9,
2011).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The complexity of these regulations is illustrated by the section
that describes the duties of a paraprofessional. The regulations
dictate that a paraprofessional can have seven specific duties and may
not perform duties other than those listed. Furthermore, the
paraprofessional may not perform his or her duties unless under the
direct supervision of a teacher who meets the several requirements of a
``highly qualified teacher,'' as outlined by the regulations. The
regulations also provide three components of what ``direct
supervision'' means.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\11\ Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34, p. 503, at http://
edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2010/julqtr/pdf/34cfr200.59.pdf (March 9,
2011).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
More than 60 pages dictate the operation of federal Impact Aid,
defining each step from the application process to the distribution of
funds. The regulations include how the Secretary determines the
``timely filing'' of an application and how local education agencies
are to ``count the membership of. . .federally connected children.''
\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\12\ Code of Federal Regulations, Title 34, pp. 524-586, at http://
www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_10/34cfr222_10.html (March 9,
2011).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to regulations, the Education Department has issued
guidance on elementary and secondary education on 100 occasions since
the passage of No Child Left Behind.\13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\13\ ``Significant Guidance Documents,'' at http://www2.ed.gov/
policy/gen/guid/significant-guidance.doc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. The growth of state bureaucracies to administer and comply with
federal programs has given rise to a ``client mentality'' that
undermines effective educational governance and accountability that
ought to be directed toward parents and other taxpayers.
Federal intervention beginning in the mid-1960s has shifted state
education systems' orientation toward this new funding source and led
to increased state education bureaucracy.
Before the 1965 passage of ESEA, the role of state departments of
education varied according to each state's need. ESEA converted them
into a network of state education agencies (SEAs) charged with
disseminating federal grants to local districts and implementing
federal education policy. A massive growth in state education
bureaucracy followed: between 1966 and 1970, Congress appropriated $128
million for SEAs, and their staff doubled during that period.\14\
Growth in the last half-century has been dramatic: in the early 1960s,
just 10 state education agencies had more than 100 employees. By 2002,
five state education agencies had more than 1,000 employees.\15\
Federal funding significantly underwrites state-level education
bureaucracy. In fiscal year 1993, 41 percent of SEA funding came from
the federal government.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of
Education, ``State Departments of Education and Federal Programs:
Annual Report Fiscal Year 1970,'' pp. 1, 4.
\15\ Fred C. Lunenburg and Allan C. Ornstein, Educational
Administration: Concepts and Practices, Fifth Edition (Belmont, CA:
Thompson/Wadsworth, 2008).
\16\ U.S. General Accounting Office, ``Education Finance: Extent of
Federal Funding in State Education Agencies,'' GAO/HEHS-95-3, October
1994, p. 2.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administrative bloat resulting from federal regulations does not
stop at the SEA level; it trickles down to the school level. Trends
since the 1950s indicate that the number of teachers as a percentage of
school staff has declined significantly. In 1950, more than 70 percent
of elementary and secondary instructional staff was composed of
teachers; by 2006, teachers made up just slightly more than 51 percent
of public school staff. Administrative support staff increased from
23.8 percent to 29.9 percent during that same time period.\17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education
Statistics, ``Digest of Education Statistics, 2008,'' at http://
www.nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_080.asp?referrer=list
(March 10, 2011).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another problem with this bureaucratic bloat is the fact that the
proliferation of federal programs seems to be reflected in a lack of
integration within the program-oriented divisions of state education
agencies. Similarly, local administrative staff seem to operate in
silos when it comes to federal programs. As a 2010 GAO report noted,
``Of the district staff who had administrative responsibilities, two-
thirds reported administrative responsibilities for only 1 [program];
few staff had responsibility for more than 3 programs.'' \18\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\18\ U.S. General Accounting Office, ``Federal Education Funding:
Allocation to State and Local Agencies for 10 Programs,'' GAO/HEHS-99-
180, September 1999,, p. 25, at http://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/
he99180.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this way, federal programs detract from integrated, strategic
education leadership at the state, local and building level.
3. The administrative set-asides and red tape associated with
federal programs diminishes education dollars as they pass through
multiple layers of bureaucracy.
The federal Department of Education has spent the past three
decades taxing states, running that money through the Washington
bureaucracy, and sending it back to states and school districts. But
for 30 years, this spending cycle has failed to improve education.
A dollar gleaned from state taxpayers and sent to the federal
Department of Education is then sent, through complex funding formulas
or grant programs (see the Title I discussion above), back to state
education agencies. SEAs in turn send that money to local education
agencies, which in turn send that money to individual schools. Each
step along the way diminishes the funds available to local schools as a
result of administrative set-asides and other spending. By one 1998
estimate, between just 65 to 70 cents of every dollar makes its way to
the classroom.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\19\ Education at a Crossroads: What Works and What's Wasted in
Education Today. Subcommittee Report. Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. U.S.
House of Representatives. One Hundred Fifth Congress, Second Session
(July 17, 1998), at http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED431238.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A 1999 GAO study of 10 specific federal programs found that by the
time a ``federal'' dollar reached a local school district, between 1 to
17 percent of the funding had been drained on administration. GAO found
that ``Overall, 94 percent of the federal education funds received by
the states for these 10 programs [studied] was distributed to local
agencies such as school districts. If the $7.3 billion appropriation
for the Title I program is excluded, the overall percentage of funds
states allocated to local agencies drops to 86 percent.'' \20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\20\ Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The same 1999 GAO report found that ``too much federal funding may
be spent on administration and that school personnel are incurring
`hidden' administrative costs as they spend time fulfilling
administrative requirements related to applying for, monitoring, and
reporting on federal funds.'' \21\ The report noted the difficulty in
determining what constitutes administrative activities because ``what
is considered administration varies from program to program.'' \22\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\21\ U.S. General Accounting Office, ``Federal Education Funding:
Allocation to State and Local Agencies for 10 Programs.''
\22\ Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even the federal funds that reach school districts are not immune
from the administrative compliance burden. Reports from school
districts provide real-life examples of the administrative burden felt
from heavy-handed federal regulations. A Fairfax County, Virginia,
school district, for example, noted:
``The school division lengthened the standard teacher contract from
194 days to 195 just to allow for extra [NCLB] training time. The cost
of setting aside a single day to train the roughly 14,000 teachers in
the division on the law's complex requirements is equivalent to the
cost of hiring 72 additional teachers. The law also affects
paraprofessionals: an extra day's training equates to the cost of
hiring about ten additional instructional assistants. There are roughly
1,000 administrators who require training as well. A day's training
represents the cost for four additional assistant principals. Thus,
each day out of the year that is set aside to explain the law results
in a missed opportunity to assign 86 instructional personnel year-round
to interface directly with the community's children and work directly
to address their academic needs.'' \23\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\23\ ``The Cost of Fulfilling the Requirements of The No Child Left
Behind Act for School Divisions in Virginia and Report to the Governor
and General Assembly on the Costs of the Federal No Child Left Behind
Act to the Virginia Department of Education,'' Virginia Department of
Education, September 2005, at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/
federal_programs/esea/reports/
appendices_cost_fulfilling_requirements.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The administrative compliance burden siphons resources that should
be directed to students. Moreover, it is unclear whether the reports
required of states are always used in a meaningful way by the U.S.
Department of Education. During a lecture delivered in April, 2007 at
the Heritage Foundation, then Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) recalled his
visits to the U.S. Department of Education as chairman of a House
subcommittee on oversight and investigations:
``We'd knock on doors, asking, `Do any of you read the reports? Who
reads these reports and this paperwork that comes back from the states,
and who issues these rules and regulations? Have you ever been to
Colorado? Is there anybody here from Michigan?'--you'd have to go
through the building for a while before you'd find somebody--`And is
anybody here from the Second Congressional District of Michigan?' No,
but they're putting together all these mandates and requirements
without knowing the parents, kids, school boards, or the economic
conditions of the people that they're writing all these rules and
regulations for.''
Conclusion
The federal role in education has created an enormous compliance
burden for states and local schools. Some of this can be quantified in
terms of paperwork, time, and resources. But the cost of compliance
should also be calculated in terms of the erosion of good governance in
education. The proliferation of federal programs and the ever-
increasing prescription of federally driven systemic reform distract
school-level personnel and local and state leaders from serving their
primary customers: students, parents, and taxpayers. The status quo
engenders a client mentality as officials at the state and local level
are consumed with calibrating the public education system to
Washington's wishes. To succeed, education reform must be more
accountable directly to parents and taxpayers.
______
Chairman Hunter. Thank you, Ms. Marshall.
Thank you all for your testimony.
I am going to start out by talking about--I guess, Mr.
Grimesey, you mentioned one concrete example of how paperwork
makes you more inefficient--I mean, less efficient and takes
time and resources from what you really need to be doing, which
is making our kids successes. What are some more examples,
concrete, no-joke examples of paperwork requirements that are
redundant and duplicative and time-consuming and, in your
opinion, may not be needed?
Mr. Grimesey. The most recent example--and when our staff
was invited late last week to pull this together, we had to
think of the most immediate examples, Mr. Chairman. The
expanded civil rights data collection process that was
implemented in the past year required over 100 man-hours to
collect information, which, you know, given the desired
outcome, was certainly worth our while.
Our problem was that it was information that had already
been reported to our SEA and simply had to be repackaged. This
would be a classic example of duplication where every moment
that we put into that was information that we had, just in a
different form. It had to be repackaged, collected in a
different way and sent back. That would have been a good
example of USDOE and SEA articulation that could have resulted
in less impact at the local level.
The other one that we are currently working through is
some--a new interpretation of data that needs to be collected
on our efforts to help special needs students transition into
adult life following their departure from school. We are now
trying to sort out how we are going to go about expanding
personal contacts with all graduates beyond graduation. That
includes those that left us in 2010 as well as 2011.
Our success is being evaluated based on the total number of
completed surveys we get from these students, needing to track
them down, needing to document that we made at least four
attempts to find them. Again, there is no quibble with the
outcome. There is no quibble with what we are trying to
accomplish. We just don't have enough people to do these
things. We don't have people to just spend time trying to track
these individuals down. I will stop there, Mr. Chairman. So if
you would like me to----
Chairman Hunter. Let me ask you this because you probably
have a central office. And you have all of your schools. What
is the impact on your individual schools compared to the impact
on your clearinghouse office, if you will?
Mr. Grimesey. In the case of--let us just follow-up with
the transition program, which we support in theory. I asked our
director of special education--you know, with the help of Title
6(B) money and our local match, we employed last year a
transition specialist. So we added a staff member to make sure
that we could comply.
Again, since the aim was good, we don't mind having a
transition specialist. But I asked her point blank on Friday
afternoon as I was preparing--and she was describing some of
the requirements that come with this position. I said, ``What
percentage of this individual's time is devoted to the service
of the students for which this individual was hired? And what
percentage of this time does this individual devote to making
sure we comply with all the requirements associated with that
money?'' And the breakdown was 15 percent in service to
students and 85 percent in service to regulatory compliance.
Chairman Hunter. That pretty much states it well.
Mr. Willcox, kind of same question to you, as the last
question to Dr. Grimesey, is where do you feel that burdensome
regulatory pinch the most. Is it in your main office? Do your
teachers feel it more? Do your individual schools? How would
you place it?
Mr. Willcox. I would say it is pretty evenly shared. Our
home office, our centralized office, if you will--we call it
the home office--bears the brunt of this. But for the example I
mentioned before around Title 1, these are things that must be
done at the school site. The principal and the teachers and the
coaches are the folks that know where time is being spent and
therefore, are the ones that need to report out against how
that time is being spent to meet the requirements of reporting.
So I would say it is an equally shared burden.
The only other example that I would share with the
Committee is we recently were honored to be selected to
participate in the charter school expansion program, a federal
grant program that is going to help us open more schools across
California in the neediest communities. And part of our grant
application for that program we budgeted for a full-time person
just to maintain the reporting requirements that are associated
with that program because we know that the team that we have
today won't be able to keep up with the requirements. And it is
important for us to be able to access those funds to open new
schools.
Chairman Hunter. Thank you both. And you happened to end
perfectly on time, which is good, I think, for me.
Mr. Kildee?
Mr. Kildee. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Grable, prior to NCLB, states and districts reported
the student achievement data based upon the average across the
board. I think Jack Jennings and I, prior to 1994, played
around with the word, ``disaggregate.'' It was being used by
other professionals at the time. But NCLB really insisted upon
that.
The process prior to that of just going across the board
for the whole student body hid the actual data on student
performance and achievement gaps and allowed the under-
performance of groups of students to go unnoticed. Do you agree
that this disaggregation of data required by NCLB led to more
accountability in the system and allowed your district to
better target resources for the students who are most in need?
Mr. Grable. Absolutely. Jim Collins states that,
organizations only improve where the truth is told and the
brutal facts confronted. Those brutal facts come from
disaggregating data. And we were able by disaggregating our
data to meet federal requirements to better identify the
students that really needed the support and then target the
support to those students.
Mr. Kildee. So you think it has--and we have various
subgroups, and those subgroups have, very often, devised some
means to break through some of those learning problems or some
of the deficiencies they may have, economically, belonging to a
minority group, maybe some of the biases that have led to a
certain status in their performance. Do you feel that that
separation and making sure that subgroup is given some special
attention, maybe special methods of reaching them, has been
helpful?
Mr. Grable. Absolutely. You have to look at every group.
And that is part of disaggregation. Look at all of your data.
Look at your sub-groups. And you even go above and beyond the
subgroups. You know, we are looking at gender. We are looking
at the subgroups in even smaller, fine-grained pieces. That is
the heart of RTI. It is early identification and early
intervention for those students. So the schools we brought out
of corrective action--one was for special education students,
and one was for free and reduced lunch students.
So by disaggregating that data and targeting the resources
to meet the needs of those students, we were able to pull them
out of corrective action. But again, it goes back to having the
data available and disaggregating it to find out which students
needed what supports.
Mr. Kildee. You find that within those subgroups that all,
most of the students remain in that subgroup throughout, or are
some able to move up from that subgroup, maybe to a different
subgroup, because of some of the special methods we use in
reaching them?
Mr. Grable. Free and reduced lunch is based off of the
parents' income. So, I mean, a lot of times their student
achievement, obviously, increases. But their subgroup may not
change. Special education--it depends on the identification of
the student. We have had a limited number of students that have
transitioned out of special education because they have made
enough gains. But typically, they are always going to have that
disability. They just find ways to work around the disability
and ways to perform. That is our job, to help them, give them
strategies and meet their needs, to meet their disability. And
that is part of the process.
Mr. Kildee. So then your disaggregation data really pushes
you to find the best way to reach that student to help that
student grow? You talk about growth models. Do you see some
growth within those subgroups?
Mr. Grable. You have to know where they are to know where
to take them next.
Mr. Kildee. Ms. Marshall, I appreciated your testimony
because all are worried about asking and asking and asking for
things that aren't really going to be used sometimes. Right?
But yet we know knowledge is power. Could you comment on how we
can balance this to make sure those subgroups are reached
without imposing just questions for needless, unused data?
Ms. Marshall. So I suppose it all goes back to our
philosophy of what kind of accountability we are looking for
here, asking the basic questions, accountability to whom and
for what. What is the most powerful kind of accountability in
education? And we believe that it is accountability directly to
parents and taxpayers. To the degree that the federal role in
education intervenes in a way that disrupts that direct
accountability, it hinders the most powerful force for
educational accountability.
So the ultimate kind of disaggregation of data would, of
course, be individualized data sent right to parents and
taxpayers. And I was glad to hear Mr. Grable talking about many
of the ways that they have real-time access by parents to the
data for their students. That is probably the most important
thing that his school and school system do, is directly inform
parents. How can we take off the layers of federal and state
bureaucracy so they can focus on doing that, specialize in
getting them the information they need so those closest to the
child can make the decisions necessary for that particular
child's needs?
Mr. Kildee. Thank you very much. I appreciate both your
answers. And they differ a bit, but they complement one another
also. Thank you very much.
Chairman Hunter. The chair thanks the ranking member.
And I would now like to recognize the chairman of the full
Education and Workforce Committee, Mr. Kline.
Mr. Kline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks to the witnesses. A great panel.
We are looking at the reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act in some form or another. We are
probably going to break that down into pieces.
And clearly, one of the things we have got to understand,
Ms. Marshall, as you said, is what is the scope of the
challenge out there in some of these areas. And we have heard
now on a couple of occasions that the paperwork burden, just
compliance, to use the word that a couple of you have, is
pretty daunting.
In fact, Dr. Grimesey, you said that some of these programs
you don't even bother with because the benefit isn't worth it.
You don't have enough staff. It is just not enough return on
the investment of time and your other resources.
What do you want us to do about that? What would you like
to see Congress do?
Mr. Grimesey. Thank you, Chairman Kline. And I do
appreciate the opportunity to clarify to you that I do know the
difference between you and Chairman Hunter. [Laughter.]
I meant that as a compliment earlier.
Mr. Kline. I am the old guy. That is the difference.
Mr. Grimesey. After I met him, I knew I had complimented
you. We just recently, just about two weeks ago, I had received
a letter and then a phone call from a representative from the
Western Educational Lab on behalf of--contracted with USDOE to
request a random sample of school divisions to participate in
an extra layer of data reporting related to ERA-funded
programs. The key word in the letter I received was optional.
And I was courteous when I received the phone call, but I
surprised the caller by indicating that I was exercising our
right to opt out of the program.
And that really hurt me as a professional because it is in
our DNA to want to provide information to help others learn to
help us. And I have just been real impressed with Mr. Grable's
remarks today because I couldn't concur more. I couldn't say
the same things any better than he has.
We have seen distinct benefits from a number of the
accountability initiatives that the Federal Government has
promoted. But at the same time, I am not talking about that. I
am talking about what comes down the pike.
We have chosen not to participate in one element of the
teacher innovation grant program. We have chosen not to
participate in that as we have developed our own evaluation
process that does build a closer tie-in between student
achievement and teacher evaluation because it had certain
elements to it that that were frightening from the standpoint
of sustaining our regulatory compliance. I don't know if I am
answering your question.
Mr. Kline. Well, not quite. If I could--I mean, if we are
going to take some legislative action here, we are going to
write a new law, what would you like to see us do to address
this problem that you don't have the resources, you have got
programs out there? What do you think we ought to do about
that?
Mr. Grimesey. I don't know. It is complicated.
Mr. Kline. Sure enough.
Mr. Grimesey. If there was a message I could leave you with
today--is that I believe the Federal Government has probably
reached the limit of what it can do to promote the kinds of
benefits that we have heard from Indiana today and which, if I
had prepared differently, I could have given a similar
presentation on. What causes us the greatest amount of fear is
where are we going to go from here, how much more are we going
to expand this.
My most immediate need right now is that the U.S.
Department of Education declined Virginia's request to level
the arbitrary pass rates for the next 2 years as Virginia
attempts to increase the rigor or its curriculum. And our
intent in Virginia was to improve student learning by making
the curriculum more rigorous, not through arbitrary pass rates.
So if you will permit us, right now in Virginia, our major
concern is the arbitrary pass rates. And we need immediate
regulatory relief from those.
Our hope is that while Congress debates grand reforms, that
we would rather see us tweak the current system, not to take
away the benefits that Mr. Grable has described, but to not
make this--not let this thing get worse than what it is right
now. So forgive me for dodging the question.
Mr. Kline. Kind of a ``do no harm.'' You are ready for this
side of the--thank you. Thank you very much for that.
Mr. Grimesey. No threat.
Mr. Kline. I am going to stop. I am going to run out of
time.
But, Mr. Willcox, you are here representing some highly
successful charter schools, very successful graduation rates
and so forth. And you say that one of the strengths is the
flexibility that you have got. And yet, as I understand it, you
are not opposed to greater accountability. And I am trying to
understand how your support of greater accountability and the
burdensome paperwork we have been talking about here and the
flexibility that makes you successful--how does that all match
up? What kind of accountability are you talking about?
Mr. Willcox. Thank you. For us, the two are linked hand-in-
hand. As I focused in my comments on the inputs, on how we do
our work and how we approach our work, where decision making
happens in our school system in exchange for higher levels of
accountability. For most states and for California, in
particular, where we do our work, we sign up for a greater
level of flexibility and an outcome. So the accountability is
focused on outcome for students over a period of time. For us,
it is typically over 5 years.
That outcome is to deliver high levels of student
achievement. In exchange, we get more decision making for our
administrators, for our teachers, for our schools on the how,
on the inputs and what happens inside of our schools. That is
what I was referring to.
Mr. Kline. My time has indeed expired.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Chairman Hunter. I thank you for the opportunity for
letting me gavel down my own chairman. [Laughter.]
Ms. Hirono?
Ms. Hirono. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I note with great interest our witness, Mr. Grable, saying
that what gets measured gets done. And I thought that was a
really positive way to look at how we can use the information
and the data that we collect.
Mr. Willcox said in his testimony that he would assume a
posture that recognizes that compliance to regulation takes
resources away from students. That seems to set up an either/or
kind of a dichotomy.
And, Mr. Willcox, I am sure that you are not saying that
data collection is not important and that it--that data should
be used to inform decisions on what is best to enable a student
to learn. So I hope that I am not taking, what you are saying
in a way that you didn't intend.
Mr. Willcox. And definitely not. We are data junkies, if
you will, at Aspire. We collect data on everything that we
possibly can so that we can make better decisions. The point I
was trying to make and I hope is clear is that we are
definitely supportive of and would never argue against data
collection around what it is we are trying to achieve. The data
collection around the how and the inputs of how we are
achieving it is the data collection that I am referring to. And
sometimes that is critically important.
I think the message that I hope everyone would leave from
our organization's perspective is that the posture on data
collection around the how should be--the posture should be, is
this going to take away from the what, is this going to take
away from what we are trying to achieve. And if it is, let us
figure out a way that we can moderate that cost, not around
the--not around the outcomes at all.
Ms. Hirono. Yes, thank you. I think we are in agreement
that data collection is very important, not just for the sake
of data collection, but, as I said, to really inform how best
to enable our students to learn.
Mr. Grable, you described your district as a Pre-K-12
district. And I find that really important because there are
many of us, including myself, who are champions of quality
early education. And in checking your Website, I note that you
place a special emphasis on making sure that there is access to
quality early education in some of your--some of the schools
with your low-income schools where presumably the need is
great. So can you tell me a little bit about how you, make
these priority decisions in terms of access to quality Pre-K?
Mr. Grable. We currently have Pre-K programs in three of
our buildings. And they are three of our four highest socio-
economic need buildings. They are a combination of special
education pre-school and like peers. So the decision is where
is the need and how can we service the most of our students.
Ms. Hirono. I take it that you have concluded that when you
provide resources for quality early education, that you
certainly set the stage for school success for these children
moving forward.
Mr. Grable. Absolutely. We see a huge difference in
students that participate, especially participate in literacy-
based pre-schools. We see a huge difference in those students
as they enter kindergarten. And we also offer full-day
kindergarten for all of our students. We also think that early
childhood piece makes a huge difference, then, as the kids
transition into elementary school.
Ms. Hirono. The president's budget includes $350 million
for early learning, what he calls early learning challenge
funds. I take it that you would support that kind of a federal
incentive to enable school districts and states to move ahead
with their quality early learning programs.
Mr. Grable. Absolutely. Kids need that foundation to be
successful, then, later in school.
Ms. Hirono. We had a hearing a couple of weeks ago where
the witness--he was a Republican witness--said that the most
important thing we could do to really turn around our education
system in terms of dollars put in and the returns that we get
is pre-k, pre-k, pre-k, which I was very gratified to hear. I
am wondering whether the other two educators sitting to the
right of you also agree that emphasis on quality early
education and support for that are really foundational.
Briefly.
Mr. Grimesey. Can't argue with that, Congresswoman.
Ms. Hirono. Great. Thank you.
Mr. Willcox. Would not argue with it at all.
Ms. Hirono. Okay.
Ms. Marshall, you talked in your testimony about the
problems surrounding, as an example, Title 1 funds. And you
note that in Florida, each child should have received $1,500,
but only received $544, by your reckoning. And a 2009 report
from the Department of Education indicates that districts spent
an average of about 10 percent of Title 1 funds on
administration. And your testimony indicates that that is not
what happened in Florida.
And so, you said that Title 1 dollars never make it to the
classrooms, and yet 90 percent of Title 1 dollars really do go
to the classrooms. So could you submit for the record your
methodology for determining the numbers that you provided in
your testimony?
Ms. Marshall. We will be happy to submit that paper for the
record.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you.
Is my time up?
Chairman Hunter. Yes, it is.
Ms. Hirono. Yield back. Thank you.
Chairman Hunter. The gentlelady's time is expired.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Hunter. Thank you, Ms. Hirono.
Mrs. Biggert?
Mrs. Biggert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am sitting here
with all the things that I think I need today: paper--and if
that is not enough, I have got an iPad. If that is not enough,
I have got a BlackBerry. And last of all, I have got a phone,
just so I can get further information. And I think that is what
you are going through, too.
And so, my question is, first of all, how can the states
and the feds work together to ensure that there is not the
duplication. And if there had been any--if we are going to ask
for something, that it can be incorporated with state or do the
same thing, rather than duplicate burden that we are putting on
you, and, for example, with the growth model.
And I think that, you know, we are really looking at that
and how we can get that information to the parents and get that
information, you know, to the community. And yet, we can tell
that we will know that there is that link in each student's
performance, which is probably the most important, will also go
into a data, which we can collect.
And then, my other question is with the paperwork. What
about privacy? And how can we, so that there--does there have
to be duplication because of certain privacy things that the
state has that local school board has and what we are
requesting? And then, how could we do away with the paper? And
the last question is do you read it.
Dr. Grimesey?
Mr. Grimesey. Congressmember Biggert, at my level, I have
been really excited about the growth model for a number of
years, been looking for this. And then, just like the dog who
chases the truck, be careful what you wish for, now that you
have got the rear bumper in your mouth. Fido, what do you do
with it?
Let me just share what our concern is. And I haven't quite
figured out your--an answer for you yet. As we get closer to
applying a growth model with some sort of coefficient that
demonstrates growth and we drill that down to a student's
growth in a given year and the growth of a teacher's classroom,
we share that same concern that you have about confidentiality,
but even more so, perception.
If we create an arbitrary line and say, 25 percent above
gets some rating and the others below get another rating, then,
obviously, those that are just below the line get stigmatized.
And I can only ask the committee to please take seriously the
words of superintendents in your own local districts about what
that does to the local culture in those organizations.
I am very fearful of what would happen if 50 percent or 75
percent of my teachers were all high-performing teachers and,
depending upon the array of those coefficients, how they would
be aligned. I don't have the answer. Orange County isn't in a
position to offer that to you. I can only share with you what
we are worried about now, even though we are proponents of a
growth model.
And I don't know where that goes once the newspapers start
listing teachers and indicating who goes where and creating
perceptions of how effective those teachers are or aren't as
opposed to what we are seeing in the classroom with them. So
forgive me for not fully answering it. But I appreciate----
Mrs. Biggert. Thank you. But that is helpful.
Mr. Grimesey. Yes, ma'am.
Mrs. Biggert. Anyone else?
Mr. Grable. If I may address the paper issue and the
redundancies. And, you know, we are living in the 21st century.
We need to work smarter, not harder, and utilize technology for
a lot of that. An example would be with our IEPs, we use an
electronic IEP process in our state. So all IEPs are done
electronically and managed electronically. So it limits the
paperwork that needs to be done and housing that.
As far as reporting upwards, we report most of our data
through the state through STN numbers, the student testing
numbers. And then those are linked with the SPN numbers, which
are the teacher identifying numbers. Well, to me, that ought to
be able totransition up to the federal level through the same
process so it eliminates the redundancies. We are reporting the
same information to our states and then turning right around
and reporting the same information to the Federal Government.
If it flows through the SPN and STN numbers, you ought to be
able to do it one time. And again, it is electronically.
Ms. Marshall. If I might answer as well. In terms of the
federal, states' coordination and so on, I think that the
Federal Government has to admit that it is ineffective at
systemic education reform. That is the business of states. They
are much more effective and efficient at the systemic reform.
We see great results coming out of Florida closing the
achievement gap there.
In 1965, the Federal Government intervened to--for the
purpose of supplying extra resources to those children in need,
compensatory education. That role grew in the 1990s to be--to
make an effort at systemic reform. Let us try to reform the
entire American public education system through this small 10
percent lever. That hasn't happened. We need to return that
role to the states.
Mrs. Biggert. Thank you.
Yield back.
Chairman Hunter. Thank the gentlelady.
Mr. Scott?
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
You know, I think everybody agrees that we need this
information. There is no way that you can do any kind of
assessment of students without the data. If it is not
disaggregated, the principal wouldn't know which teachers were
good or consistently good or consistently bad with certain
subgroups. If we don't disaggregate by class, if a school
fails, you don't know, where the problem is within the school.
So and then civil rights--there is no way you can do any
civil rights enforcement unless you have the data.
Mr. Grimesey, you are a small school division. And you have
got to do all this data collection. Do you get any technical
assistance on what computer to buy or what software to buy? Or
do 15,000 school districts kind of home-bake their own system?
Mr. Grimesey. We get guidance from the Virginia Department
of Education. We do have a director of technology. And we have
a director of testing, assessment and accountability among our
small group of people.
Mr. Scott. Do all the counties in Virginia have the same
computer system and software that is compatible with each
other?
Mr. Grimesey. Most do. All don't. Some of our larger school
divisions have gone their own way. And some of our connecting
issues relate to that.
Mr. Scott. Well, once you have--some of this data is just
statistical. That is you put it in once, and it is there. And
if you have to send it out to one group and then have to send
the same information to another group, it shouldn't be that
hard because a couple of keystrokes, you reformat it and send
it, if it is compatible and if the person asking for it has the
same computer system the last person asked for. Does the
Department of Education make any effort to insist that the
information they are asking for can be obtained in a way that
is compatible with the last person that asked for some
information?
Mr. Grimesey. That is currently a matter of vigorous
discussion at the meetings at the Department of Education--
State Department of Education--is conducting with people in the
field in these recent weeks since the January 28th memorandum.
Mr. Scott. So Virginia is trying to do it within Virginia.
Is there any federal effort to--when we ask for information
from several different departments? Is there any effort to make
sure that the information can be obtained in the same format?
Mr. Grimesey. I can't comment on that, Congressman. I can't
give you anything specific on that.
Mr. Scott. Would it be helpful if in reauthorizing No Child
Left Behind that we insisted that the Department of Education
technology department recommend one format for people to send
their information in so if some other program gets invented,
the information can be obtained through a couple of
keystrokes----
Mr. Grimesey. Certainly, in my----
Mr. Scott [continuing]. Without having to reinvent the
wheel every time you ask for information?
Mr. Grimesey. Certainly, in my comments about collaboration
between the USDOE and the SEAs, I had that in mind. And
assuming that it is funded properly, our department of
education would be delighted.
Mr. Scott. So if somebody needs some information, they can
just send it to you--or you can download a program if you have
got it. If the information is there with a couple of
keystrokes, they can get all of your information. That would be
simpler than having you hire a technician to reformat the
information and go through all that.
Mr. Grimesey. Certainly would help, assuming that it is
still okay that we are uploading individual student grades and
teacher evaluations, which I have some----
Mr. Scott. Well, whatever they have----
Mr. Grimesey [continuing]. Philosophical questions about.
Mr. Scott. Well, whatever they have asked for, if you are
providing it, you ought to. Now, that is for the statistical
information.
Mr. Grimesey. Yes, sir.
Mr. Scott. Now, if you have got to write a monthly essay
about what is going on, that is a little different. How do you
deal with those?
Mr. Grimesey. The closest example that I could cite from
one of our elementary schools that has been on school
improvement and has met AYP would be my own observations of
teachers and principals spending time in school improvement
meetings where about 30 or 40 percent of the conversation has
to do with how we fill out the form and what are they looking
for when we put that anecdotal information in there. They have
the conversation about how to improve the children, but then
they spend extra time trying to think about how to translate
that so that the state and Federal Government be satisfied with
the way that they filled out the form and that they expressed
what they think they want.
Mr. Scott. Well, if you can help us write regulations to
simplify that--and, Ms. Marshall, I think, too, that would be
helpful.
Mr. Grimesey. Our message today is just keep the
regulations as few as possible.
Mr. Scott. Thank you.
Chairman Hunter. Thank you.
Mr. Barletta?
Mr. Barletta. Thank you.
Mr. Grimesey, over the past month, this committee has heard
from a number of witnesses concerning the burdens of federal,
state and local regulations on our nation's public schools. As
a superintendent since 2001, you can attest of how these
regulations have grown over the past decade. I am specifically
interested and hope you can shed light on how paperwork
requirements have grown since 2001 and if these requirements
have impacted in any way what is being taught in your schools.
Mr. Grimesey. That is a good way to frame the question,
Congressman. Thank you. I would have to agree with Mr. Grable
in terms of what the intent has been all along. I believe that
we are having richer conversations about student learning. I
believe that we are doing a better job of drilling down and
finding individual student needs.
I think that we have come to a place, though, when we start
nearing a 100 percent pass rate that there is a misalignment
between what we are expecting in terms of what is measurable
and what can be published and what people will like to hear as
opposed to what children are really doing in classrooms. I
would invite the discussion about are we teaching to the test
or do we have the ethical question of should we ever teach a
child--should we ever test a child on something we didn't
teach.
I deviate just a little bit because it is not about so much
the physical manifestation of paper as we think about it
traditionally. Obviously, we can find computers and have found
computers--I don't want to make it sound like Virginia is
totally deficient compared to Indiana. We still are addressing
these issues.
I think the bigger question is whether or not a pass rate
trumps a more rigorous curriculum. I spend a lot of time with
local businesspeople and with higher ed. people thinking about
what children need to be able to do in this coming century. I
have been doing that since the early 1990s, was doing it long
before No Child Left Behind.
The whole notion of children learning more as--for being
motivated learners as opposed to their teachers being
terrified. We use paperwork as a bit of a symbolic
representation of what this is about. But the bigger question
is what is actually happening behind all these increased pass
rates. Do they truly reflect what students should be learning?
I think we probably reached the limit of improved student
learning as measured by pass rates. But as we begin to progress
out of that, speaking from my own school division, we have got
to find a way for children to be able to know more and do more
and not just be looking at pass rates. That whole notion of
meeting pass rates drives the entire culture.
And I spend as much time trying to make sure that my
teachers aren't teaching to the test, if you will, and making
sure that instruction is rich. And that is what I am most
protective of. The numbers of staff that I have--and we will
always keep finding ways to find technology to help us cut
corners and try to meet more and more regulations. But, please,
ask yourselves if those regulations are important.
Does the state and the Federal Government really need to
know the individual lettered grades of our students and--and
the individual teacher performance ratings? That is my problem.
It is my school board's problem. I don't know that I am going
to be a better superintendent because somebody in Washington is
asking me to report what I am doing with those teachers. So I
thank you for allowing me that opportunity, sir.
Mr. Barletta. Thank you. You know, this discussion reminds
me so much of the--in the health care bill, the 1099 provision
and the unnecessary burden that we were implying onto
businesses of paperwork. And I am very proud that this Congress
has repealed that provision, recognizing that, you know, how
burdensome paperwork can become to, not only a business. But
today we are getting an education on how this paperwork is
affecting our education and educating our kids, which is the
most important principle that we want to do.
Ms. Marshall, in your research, have you come across any
specific paperwork requirements that actually help ensure
student success in school?
Ms. Marshall. I think very broadly, there--you can find
useful data within what is collected. The point is what is--and
Dr. Grimesey's comments very much get to this point. What
culture is all of this creating? And the federal role, the
federal accountability mechanism is a very blunt instrument.
And to the degree that it dulls other instruments' abilities,
those--the instruments of those sitting closer to the student
it prevents greater effectiveness of our education system.
So the precision tools that a teacher, a principal can use
in diagnosing student progress are much more able to improve
education in America than the blunt instrument of federal
accountability measures.
Mr. Barletta. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Hunter. Thank the gentleman.
Ms. Woolsey?
Ms. Woolsey. Thank you very much.
Ms. Marshall, I think I am quoting you right when you said,
``accountability is certainly important,'' in your testimony. I
am unclear what--who you are accountable to when you are a
witness today. You work for the Heritage Foundation. You make a
statement that you are not representing them today. Your
position is not their position.
So where is your expertise? Are you an educator? I mean,
where does your expertise come in telling us how to deal with
education issues? Or is this a philosophical statement, and you
come from a place of opinions that you are passing on to us? I
need to know that because I think it is very important in
weighing what your testimony is, is it expertise or opinion?
And in that, because what troubles me about your testimony
and what I see as the testimony of the Heritage Foundation, is
that you suggest that the Federal Government should not--should
just give money to schools and that the Federal Government
should not require paperwork and data to support that
investment, but while at the very same time stating that
schools must be accountable to parents. I don't understand how
we hold schools accountable, prove their effectiveness without
the data and reporting requirements. So that is a many-part
question to you.
Ms. Marshall. So I trained as a teacher and have great
empathy with those who are working in classrooms to improve
education in America. I have a great deal of passion and
interest in seeing better schools and classrooms across the
country. I have been working on and looking at ESEA for 15
years, a third of the law's life, unfortunate to say that I
have been here that long. And what we have seen is an
accumulation of more and more programs, more and more spending
without an improvement in education.
Ms. Woolsey. Well, you said this earlier. So can you tell
me, did you write your own testimony? Did you do your own
research?
Ms. Marshall. I did.
Ms. Woolsey. Or did your staff at the Heritage Foundation?
Ms. Marshall. It was a team effort, but we all did it.
Ms. Woolsey. Yes, but you all did it. So how do you
separate yourself from the people you are accountable to
because you work for them?
Ms. Marshall. I am sorry. These are my words. This is my
point of view. And I have done it on the basis of research that
we have published at the Heritage Foundation.
Ms. Woolsey. We, the Heritage? That is right. Okay. That is
good.
So I would like to ask all of you a general question. Let
us just pretend we can all agree on the data that we need to
collect, the methods, the format for collecting. Would you
support what it is going to cost to put this in place to have a
compatible system nationwide? Now, you have to assume you like
what we are doing. Would you support spending money on making
it happen?
Starting with you, Doctor.
Mr. Grimesey. Congresswoman, I would always support you
spending money on the things I like. [Laughter.]
Ms. Woolsey. There you go.
Mr. Grimesey. I have never expected to be asked that
question when I came to Washington. I think everybody would,
too.
Obviously, I was invited here today because I have
published articles in the state newsletter. And that got
somebody's attention and felt that I could make a contribution
today. And hopefully, I have presented myself as an individual
who really is committed to the ideal, but who is confronted
with the reality. And I have just sought to come today to offer
some--just some reports on what we are seeing. I don't come
here promising to be the person with the answers. And so, I
appreciate the opportunity. Absolutely, if we could have better
alignment between USDOE. There seems to be some suspicion on
the committee that maybe Virginia is not, you know, applying
the regulations the right way.
Ms. Woolsey. Normal?
Mr. Grimesey. And, you know, I just come with good faith
that that--you know, that they are doing the best they can,
just pointing out that there can be some work on that. But
obviously, yes, if we could come up with clarity. But I would
ask Congress to please be cautious with going in a direction
where we start really drilling down----
Ms. Woolsey. Well, we are assuming--in my question that we
all agree. We have agreed to something. See, we do that, and
then one-half of the Congress says, well, that is a great idea.
We are not paying for it. So then it dies. So would you pay for
it?
Mr. Grimesey. You go home and say I had one dreamer.
Ms. Woolsey. Mr. Willcox, would you pay for----
Mr. Willcox. I think an investment in a data system could
be a really worthwhile investment if it works. I think my
advice would be--humble advice would be to look at large states
like California who have tried to do something very similar, to
have a data system that captures all of the student
information, all of the teacher information. And it has taken
us years. And we are still very much struggling with it. So I
would say, yes, it is a--it would be a worthwhile investment.
Yes, we could automate a lot of things that are necessary,
as long as we don't lose sight of the outcomes-focused posture
that I suggested earlier. But I would also suggest just as
quickly that we look to the large states to see what they have
struggled with so that we don't duplicate those same struggles
at a nationwide scale, which would be horrendously complicated
and very difficult to extract ourself from.
Ms. Woolsey. Thank you.
Chairman Hunter. Thank the gentlelady.
Mr. Kelly?
Mr. Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And, all the witnesses, I would like to thank you for
coming.
I come from the private sector. And I have really found it
helpful that you can have an open dialogue with the people that
actually do the work as opposed to people who don't do the work
and really have never done the work, but establish regulations
and rules for you.
And other than coming here today, do you have an
opportunity to talk to the people in your state, education
departments, or at the federal level on what it is that needs
to be measured and how it should be measured as opposed to
people--again, I think the recurring theme that I see in this
model, government, is that there are unintended consequences
and unfunded mandates that add nothing but burden on you that
you can't meet and costs that you can't afford. And I am trying
to understand do you ever have that opportunity to have that
back and forth with the people that are actually making the
rules, but have never played the game.
And any of you can respond, or all of you could respond.
Mr. Grimesey. Well, Congressman, I will just say that, yes,
we do--in Virginia, we have a lot of access to our State
Department of Education. And there have been many examples of
where localities have offered input that has been taken very
seriously by our state superintendent and our state board of
education. What we have been referencing today are those
conversations we have where both the state and the locality are
scratching our heads trying to figure out what the Federal
Government wants us to accomplish and how they want us to go
about doing it.
Mr. Kelly. So you do it at the state level? But federal
level, you don't have that back and forth, that exchange?
Mr. Grimesey. The only contact I have had with USDOE
officials in the last--I would say, for 10 years--and that is
not to say that I haven't tried to call or have been told by--I
couldn't--would be the technical assistance workshop for the
Race to the Top competition in Minnesota last year.
Mr. Kelly. Okay.
Mr. Grable. I echo the same comments. Quite a bit of
conversations with our state department and some with our local
representatives, but very little with the federal Department of
Education.
Mr. Willcox. I would say the same thing. We have access to
our state department. I think the complexity, at least in our
state, is the diversity of our state. We have got large urban
areas like many states and lots and lots of rural areas that
these needs are just so diverse. So it is not a matter for us,
in my opinion, of being able to have a conversation or to be
able to express an opinion. It is the reconciliation of all
those different opinions across a large group of very diverse
places serving very diverse populations with different needs.
Ms. Marshall. And, Congressman, from the federal level, I
would say that it is difficult to find local perspectives and
state information on the compliance burden. And it is something
that the Government Accountability Office ought to look into in
an updated fashion.
Mr. Kelly. No, you know, I have met with Mr. Dodaro from
GAO. And, quite frankly, I don't know how anybody figures out
how anything is going on in this country right now. We have
over-regulated and over-burdened you so much with unneeded
information and continued to do it and then invite you in here
and then chastise you for coming in and giving witness.
I have got to tell you. I appreciate what you are doing. I
think it is very brave. And, please, don't give up on us. At
some point, we are going to get it right. And we are going to
be able to educate kids. I don't know how you mandate
education. I don't know how you pass a law that says every
child must be educated and must reach a certain level.
I have always believed that true education will take
place--the child that wants to learn, a teacher that wants to
teach and a parent that supports both. My personal opinion is
we need to have less government telling you what the rules
should be. And they don't know. They have never done it. They
have never walked the walk. They have talked the talk. But they
have never walked the walk.
So keep up what you are doing. And, in spite of the over-
regulation you face and the burdensome data that you have to
collect for eyes that may never look at it, thank you for your
efforts and what you are trying to do to help our kids and our
future. Thank you.
And I yield back.
Chairman Hunter. Thank the gentleman.
Mr. Platts?
Mr. Platts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to first thank each of the witnesses for your
testimony. I apologize for my late arrival. And I will try not
to be repetitive in my question.
First, I want to thank all of you being here and your
written testimony, which gives us great resource of information
and also, for those of us juggling between different hearings,
the chance to get your sentiments even without hearing you here
in person. And especially to our administrators, my sincere
thanks for what you do every day.
As a product of public education--and I have the privilege
of commuting from my home in Pennsylvania every day. So I
started this morning dropping my kids, two middle schoolers,
sixth and eighth grade, at the same public middle school, then
junior high when I went to that same building and was behind my
parents' education, my K-12 teachers and administrators gave
me. And now that same school district is giving my kids the
greatest blessing I could have got, beyond the home.
I guess the first question is we recently had a hearing
on--in a different committee about duplicative programs. And
GAO did a study mandated--Senator Coburn led the effort on how
we can streamline the process and as it relates to paperwork
and the burdensome requirements we place on you.
One of the areas highlighted was more than 80 different
teacher preparation programs that we have. And I was wondering
if any of you have experiences as administrators or the
Heritage Foundation in trying to access for your schools and
your teachers any of those teacher prep. programs and looking
at, well, you know, we want to do this, but we have paperwork
for this program and then another teacher prep. program,
additional paperwork.
In other words, it is not just the cost of that
duplication, but the burden that--you know, instead of having a
streamlined teacher preperation assistance, that we have it
over 80 different programs over multiple different departments
and agencies, if you have any experience with that and the
paperwork that goes with all those different 80-some programs.
Mr. Willcox. Our teacher preparation program is a
combination of a lot of things, traditional things that you
would expect--supporting teachers to clear their credentials
once they have graduated from a credentialing program. Most
recently, we started a teacher residency program across our
system of schools. And that program we have high hopes for. We
have high hopes that we will be able to continue with it.
Mr. Platts. I take it by the hesitancy that you are not
necessarily accessing any of the 80-some programs that are out
there, which maybe is good in that you are not spending that
money. But it also means maybe there are programs that would
benefit your districts that you are not aware of, even though
we have 80-some different programs.
Mr. Grable. Are you referring to pre-service teacher
programs?
Mr. Platts. No. They run the gamut. There are nine alone in
science, technology, engineering, math--that focus on.
Mr. Grable. Okay.
Mr. Platts. But nine different programs instead of one. And
so, when we talk about paperwork, that means we have nine
different administrative requirements to access funding for the
same issue within the Federal Government. So appreciate that
you are not familiar with that.
Mr. Grimesey. Congressman, the only thing I could add to
that is that much of that money flows through the state. And
then the state creates both pre-service and in-service
opportunities that aren't always clear to the localities. That
would be more of an SEA, USDOE program.
All we know is we are told that this program is available.
And we do take advantage of multiple programs, particularly for
expanding the certification opportunities for teachers,
teachers that are certified in one area and there is a high
need that we have and the state recognizes that, then provides
an opportunity for teachers to get multiple certifications, for
example, in special education or math and science.
Mr. Platts. Right. I am going to run out of time. Quickly--
and I apologize again. This may be repetitive. The number one
area of paperwork or regulation that you would want us to make
sure we are looking closely at--I think I know what the answer
probably--or may be from my own districts. But if you want to
highlight a certain area of regulation within education law
that we should look at streamlining what we require of your
districts.
Mr. Grable. I don't know that I could identify one. It
would be redundancies in all of them. I mean, there are
redundancies in IDEA, in Title 1, High Ability, ELL. I mean,
there are just redundancies throughout all of them that could
be streamlined.
Mr. Platts. The reason I say I would guess is back home,
IDEA is where I hear the most concerns and maybe especially
from the classroom teachers and the paperwork associated with
simply doing the job. I have seen it as a parent. Both of my
children have been in gifted programs, so it is from a
different side. But----
Mr. Grable. Again, I shared earlier that our state uses an
electronic IEP format. So that creates efficiencies and reduces
a great deal of that paperwork and inefficiencies that some may
experience.
Mr. Platts. Okay. Thanks again for your testimony and your
work with--on behalf of our nation's children.
Yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Hunter. Thank the gentleman.
I would once again like to thank the witnesses today.
Really appreciate it. Appreciate your forthrightness and your
testimony.
And in closing, I would like to recognize the ranking
member from Michigan, Mr. Kildee.
Mr. Kildee. I thank you.
First, I would like consent to submit about two pages of
additional testimony.
Chairman Hunter. Without objection.
Mr. Kildee. And thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. We have
had a very good panel here. I think there is agreement and some
differences. But I think all of you have a passionate belief in
good education.
And, Mr. Chairman, you have put together a very good panel.
And you have conducted a very good hearing. And as a former
teacher, I, therefore, give you an A+. [Laughter.]
Chairman Hunter. I appreciate it. But is that under a
growth model or--where did I--I don't know where I started at.
Thank the gentleman.
You know, I would like to say this seems more in a
technical realm we could have this hearing with some very smart
information systems, maybe some librarians, some people who
catalogue data for a living, data about data and data about the
data about the data, et cetera, all the way down to
infinitesimal points, which we have to be able to bring out.
One thing I don't really understand is this is all stuff that
is being done in industry. It is being done in the NFL. I
mentioned it before.
When you watch a football game, you have information about
a football player down to Pop Warner. And all of this
information is assembled over a lifetime. And it is put
together. And it has metadata, which is able to call it out and
the way that queries are written.
What I don't understand, I guess, and it is going to be our
job to look at this or the states' jobs to look at this, is if
you put data into a repository--I used to do databases. I used
to do programming database management, all kinds of stuff that
was not as fun as sitting right here. But it is doable. And
everybody else does it.
And you all talk about you sending information to the
state, to the Federal Government. Well, when in reality, I
think it is incumbent upon those people that want your
information to reach out and grab it. And that is very doable,
is it not?
Would you agree that that is doable, to reach out and grab
the information from you? So I think we need to look at it like
that, if anything. It is incumbent upon the people that want to
get at your data. It is not your job to manufacture ways and
contrivances to get that data out. If the Federal Government
wants to know some information, even if they don't need it--let
us say they just want to know about it--or states want to get
at some information, well, you all have already compiled that
in whatever format you have. And it is very simple to make
that, as Mr. Scott said, workable with any type of a query for
any type of a database.
Anyway, that is something that we need to work on. But I
think you all agree that the Federal Government is onerous
sometimes. But, as Mr. Grable said and all of you attested to,
it is still needed in some ways to ensure that we do really
push our children towards success. But there has to be a limit.
And right now, there isn't one. And that is what we are here to
fix.
So with that, thank you. There being no more business to
discuss, the committee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:33 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]