[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 155 (Monday, October 17, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6571-S6573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EDUCATION
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, last month several Republican Senators
came to the floor and offered legislation to fix No Child Left Behind,
the legislation that was passed nearly 10 years ago to try to address
our Nation's 100,000 public schools. In that legislation, we sought to
fix problems with the legislation, not just to create another big
reauthorization bill. The ideas we had were not all our ideas. They
included many ideas from President Obama and his excellent Education
Secretary, Secretary Duncan, as well as Democratic and Republican
Members of Congress. They included having more realistic goals for No
Child Left Behind. The original goal set in 2001 would, according to
Secretary Duncan, create an unworkable situation where 80,000 of the
100,000 schools might be identified as failing in the next few years.
A second goal of our legislation was to move decisions about deciding
whether schools and teachers were succeeding or failing out of
Washington, DC, and back to State and local governments. A lot has
happened in the last 10 years in the States--really the last 20 or 25
but especially in the last 10 years. We have better reporting
requirements from No Child Left Behind. We have new State common
standards, higher academic standards. We have new State tests that have
been created--not here but by the States to do that. And now States are
working together to create accountability systems. So there is a much
better chance that States and local school districts can create an
environment where students learn what they need to know and be able to
do.
Our legislation encourages States to create what I think is the holy
grail of public education; that is, principal-teacher evaluation
related to student achievement. I know from experience that is hard to
do. In 1983 and 1984, when I was Governor of Tennessee, we became the
first State to pay teachers more for teaching well. It took us a year
and a half and a huge battle with the National Education Association in
order to put it in place, but 10,000 teachers became master teachers.
It was a good first step. Tennessee is already doing it again.
Here is my local newspaper: Evaluation of teachers contentious. There
is nothing more contentious, and the last thing we need is Washington
sticking its nose into that, other than to create an environment where
State and local governments can use Federal money to pay for their own
State and local programs. We propose consolidating programs, making it
easier for school districts to transfer Federal money and expand
choices and expand charter schools.
Now, today, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate education
committee--the HELP Committee, as we call it--have introduced another
draft piece of legislation to fix No Child Left Behind. I intend to
vote to move this bill out of committee, although it is not yet the
kind of legislation that I would be willing to vote to send to the
President, but it is a good place to start.
There is a good deal of agreement in terms of what we want to do in
our legislation from a few weeks ago and the Harkin-Enzi bill. Among
the agreements is moving decisions about whether schools are succeeding
or failing out of Washington. Another is to encourage principal-teacher
evaluation without mandating, defining, and regulating it from
Washington, DC. Another good provision is to encourage but not define
and mandate and regulate using measures of growth of students--not just
whether they achieved something but whether they are making rapid
progress toward a goal. The idea is to make that in terms of whether
schools and students are succeeding.
There are many provisions in the Harkin-Enzi bill that have been
suggested by both Democrats and Republicans, but there are a number of
provisions--not in our legislation--that I don't support, and I am
going to seek to amend them. I have indicated to Senators that I intend
to offer seven amendments which, in my view, would take out of the
legislation provisions that tend to create a national school board. One
is the so-called achievement gap. One is the so-called highly qualified
teachers provision. These are all provisions that substitute the
judgment of people in Washington for that of mayors, local school
boards, governors, and legislators. So I don't think we need a national
school board, and neither do most Americans.
Some will say: Well, then, why would you support a bill that you
don't entirely agree with? The reason is we have a process in Congress.
This isn't like the health care bill a few years ago when we had 40
Republican Senators and Speaker Pelosi was in charge of the House of
Representatives. We now have 47 Republican Senators, we have a
Republican House of Representatives, and we need to get started fixing
this problem. We need to do something a little different around here.
Instead of just beating our chests, we need to find a way to put our
heads together, head toward a reasonable result, come up with a
solution, and offer it to the President and to the American people.
There is no reason in the world why we can't, with the amount of
agreement we already have, send to the President by Christmas
legislation fixing No Child Left Behind. We should do it because if we
don't, Congress's inaction will mean we will transform the U.S.
Education Secretary into a waiver-granting czar for 80,000 schools in
this country which, according to this law, will be identified as
failing.
Well, if we were to have an education czar, or if we were to have a
chairman of a national education school board, Secretary Arne Duncan
would be a good one. But I don't think we want one in the United States
of America. So I think we should act before Christmas in order to avoid
creating a waiver education czar, and we should act before Christmas in
a way that does not create a national school board.
There is one other suggestion I would make to the authors of this
bill. In our earlier meetings with the President, Congressman George
Miller of California, who was a key leader in developing No Child Left
Behind, said this bill to fix No Child Left Behind ought to be a lean
bill. I agree with Congressman Miller. The legislation Republicans
introduced a few weeks ago totaled 221 pages in its five bills. The
comparable section of the Harkin-Enzi draft is 517 pages. I urge us to
follow Congressman Miller's advice in the final result and be much more
succinct than that.
So despite these concerns, I will vote on Wednesday or Thursday,
whenever we finish, in favor of bringing this base bill out of the HELP
Committee and on to the Senate floor where we can have full amendments.
I am going to do my best to improve it in committee and on the Senate
floor to make it more like the legislation we introduced a month ago. I
am going to continue to do that in the conference we have with the
House of Representatives. I think it is time we recognize the American
people expect us to step up to major issues, to put our best ideas
together, and come up with a result. We are part way there. There is a
good place to start.
I thank Senator Harkin and Senator Enzi for the work they have done,
as well as Representative Kline and Representative Miller, and I thank
the President and Secretary Duncan for their attitude. I look forward
to working with them to come to a conclusion.
One last thing: We talk a lot about jobs around here. Every American
knows better schools mean better jobs, and they all know schools are a
lot like
[[Page S6572]]
jobs. We can't create them from Washington, but we can create an
environment in which people in their own communities, and families and
States can create better schools and better jobs. This is a good place
to start.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
a letter of support which also outlines my objections to the
legislation that was introduced today, and a copy of an article from
the Maryville Alcoa Daily Times today which reminds us of how difficult
it is to evaluate teachers fairly and how wise we would be if we
satisfied ourselves with creating an environment in which that could
happen but did not mandate it, define it, and regulate it from
Washington, DC.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
October 16, 2011.
Hon. Tom Harkin,
Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Mike Enzi,
Ranking Member, Committee on Health, Education, Labor &
Pensions, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Tom and Mike: Thank you for the opportunity to
participate in discussions about fixing the problems with No
Child Left Behind.
I support your base bill (the Elementary and Secondary
Education Reauthorization Act of 2011) as a first step in the
right direction that will enable our Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions (HELP) Committee to start working now to fix the
problems with No Child Left Behind. I will vote to move it
out of committee, although it is not yet legislation that I
could vote in favor of sending to the President.
I have attached a summary of 7 amendments I will offer.
Most of these are intended to stop the legislation from
creating a national school board that would substitute its
judgment for that of governors, state legislatures, mayors,
local school board members, parents, principals and teachers.
Hopefully, substitute language including these amendments
will be the final product of our legislative work.
Despite these misgivings, I believe the HELP Committee
should start now with this base bill and try to move an
improved bill to the Senate floor where there needs to be a
full and complete amendment process to further improve it and
send it to a conference with the House of Representatives.
There is no reason why Congress should not be able to send
legislation fixing No Child Left Behind to the President by
Christmas. If Congress does not act now, our inaction will
transform the U.S. Secretary of Education into a waiver-
granting czar over an unworkable law that has identified what
he says may be as many as 80,000 ``failing'' public schools,
a development even worse than provisions in this draft that
would make him a chairman of a national school board. If we
were to have such a czar or chairman, Arne Duncan would be a
good one, but I do not believe that we should have one in our
country.
The strengths of the base bill are that it moves most
decisions about whether schools are succeeding or failing out
of Washington and back to states and communities. It keeps
the valuable reporting requirements of No Child Left Behind.
It should help to produce an environment in which states and
school districts are more likely to create principal teacher
evaluation systems related to student achievement. It will
encourage schools to recognize growth in student academic
achievement as well as grade-level performance. The base bill
further includes many good provisions suggested by Secretary
Duncan and congressional Republicans, as well as Democrats.
The base bill's main weakness is that it contains
provisions that would transform the U.S. Secretary of
Education into chairman of a national school board. Chief
among these problems are federal mandates, definitions and
regulations for identifying ``achievement gap'' schools and
the ``continuous improvement'' of all 100,000 public schools.
Although the draft eliminates the concept of ``Adequate
Yearly Progress'' for 95% of schools, these provisions
attempt to reinstate it through the back door. In addition,
the bill retains in Washington, DC decisions about whether
our 3.2 million teachers are ``highly qualified'' or not. It
does not sufficiently consolidate programs and actually
creates several new ones that have no real chance of ever
being funded. And it does little to make it easier for local
school districts to transfer and use federal funds more
efficiently or to simplify the burdensome Peer Review process
for state plans that must be submitted to the U.S. Department
of Education.
There is one other important flaw: the bill is wordy. It is
at least 860 pages. When several of us met with President
Obama to discuss fixing No Child Left Behind, we agreed to
take Congressman George Miller's advice to produce ``a lean
bill.'' The five bills offered last month by Senators
Isakson, Burr, Kirk and I, along with several other
Republican Senators, totaled 221 pages. The comparable
sections of your draft total 517 pages. We can be more
succinct than that.
Despite these concerns, I will vote in favor of this base
bill being reported out of the HELP Committee and look
forward to working with you and our colleagues in the Senate
and House to improve the bill so that the President can sign
it into law this year.
Sincerely,
Lamar Alexander.
____
[From the Daily Times (Maryville, TN), Oct. 17, 2011]
Growing Pains: Blount Schools Strugle With Teacher Evaluation
(By Matthew Stewart)
Blount County Schools have experienced some difficulties in
implementing the state's teacher evaluation model, and
educators want state lawmakers to give them a voice in the
process.
``We don't mind accountability, but it has to be fair,''
said Grady Caskey, who serves as the Blount County Education
Association's president. ``The system has to be based on
achievable expectations and goals.''
Blount County Schools is using the Tennessee Educator
Acceleration Model (TEAM), which was developed by the state
Department of Education. Alcoa City Schools and Maryville
City Schools are using the Teacher Instructional Growth for
Effectiveness and Results (TIGER) model, which was developed
by the Association of Independent and Municipal Schools,
Both Alcoa and Maryville field-tested evaluation models.
However, Blount County didn't field-test a model.
Many county educators have become frustrated with TEAM's
implementation, Caskey said. ``People are throwing up their
hands and saying, ``I'm done.'' Teachers are asking more and
more about early retirement requirements, We have two
seasoned teachers who are retiring mid-year. Several more are
considering it. We're losing our best, most experienced
teachers.''
BCEA has learned about many implementation problems, he
said.
Blount County's principals haven't set uniform
requirements, Caskey said. ``Some are requiring lesson plans
for the entire school year. Others are only requiring
observation plans, which is what the law actually requires. I
recently received an email from a teacher who puts his kids
to bed at 8 p.m. then writes lesson plans until midnight or 1
a.m.''
Educators also don't have a template for their lesson
plans, he said. ``They've got several different versions
floating around. It's causing a lot of busy work. I thought
the governor said this was going to be less paperwork. We're
drowning in it.''
Educators need to start talking with lawmakers about the
evaluation process, Caskey said. ``TEAM is counterproductive.
I know we can identify better ways to improve teachers.
Legislators are going to have to change it. Politics got us
into this mess, and politics will get us out. Education isn't
a business. We're not an assembly line. We're not turning out
widgets but humans.''
students in limbo
Many educators are also worried about the evaluation model.
``TEAM has some good points,'' said Rebecca Dickenson, who
is Eagleton Elementary School's librarian. ``However, it was
implemented in a huge hurry without enough explanation for
teachers and principals.''
``It's left teachers in limbo with their kids,'' said Mark
Williamson, who teaches social studies at William Blount High
School. ``Principals are trying their best, but things are
constantly changing.''
Williamson, a former BCEA president who currently serves on
the executive board, thinks the evaluation model has affected
his students academically. ``I spent 15 hours working on a
lesson plan for my first evaluation. At the end of the day,
it took 15 hours away from my kids. I couldn't plan ahead,
find updated information or seek out current events such as
the Arab Spring, I was trying to do what I needed to do
according to the lesson plan.''
Teacher morale has been impacted as well, he said.
``I haven't seen my principal as much,'' said Dickenson,
who also serves as BCEA's vice president. ``I'm used to her
walking through the library and getting the opportunity to
see what I'm doing in class. However, she's been inundated
with evaluations this year.''
Lawmakers need to lessen the workload for observers, she
said.
resolving problems
School officials are working to address teacher concerns,
said Director of Schools Rob Britt. ``It hasn't been
implemented consistently across the state. So, you're going
to see these things in every system. We're personally
experiencing a lot of growing pains.''
Britt and Dr. Jane Morton, supervisor of instruction for
grades 6-12, organized two forums with teachers before fall
break. They gathered input and created a list of nearly 35
concerns.
School officials are seeking answers from the state
Department of Education, Britt said. ``I know teachers are
concerned about TEAM, and I am as well. We're making efforts
to try to get answers for teachers and get more direction for
principals. We're very sensitive to teacher concerns. It's
high stakes, and we're performing our due diligence for
them.''
School officials are also working to create supports for
teachers, he said. ``We want to keep our teachers. We want to
support them and help them grow. We're committed as
administrators to making it as palatable as possible.''
[[Page S6573]]
The school district's observers will require more training,
Britt said. ``Most are implementing the way that they were
trained. The state didn't provide exhaustive training. It was
more surface-level, which was a good beginning. However, it
wasn't thorough. We need more follow-up in a timely manner.''
future plans
The state Department of Education is currently evaluating
TEAM.
State officials are committed to gathering feedback that
will help determine where the evaluation model needs
revision, and stakeholders are providing input through
several channels.
The Tennessee Consortium on Research, Evaluation and
Development (TN CRED) is launching a statewide survey in
spring 2012 and conducting focus groups throughout the year,
State officials are also traveling across the state to meet
with stakeholders.
The state Department of Education's Advisory Group will
bring revision recommendations to Education Commissioner
Kevin Huffman, Based on the proposed revisions, the
recommendations might need to be brought before the State
Board of Education.
I thank the President, and I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I asked for unanimous consent to be
recognized following the remarks by the Senator from Tennessee. It has
been called to my attention that the Senator from Virginia would like
to have the floor at this time, so I renew my unanimous consent request
that I be recognized at the conclusion of the remarks of the Senator
from Virginia.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
The Senator from Virginia.
____________________