Joe Williams' Blog
June 8, 2010
Three Candles For DFER
Dear friend:
Three years ago today (June 7th) we stood in New York City and birthed a bouncing baby political advocacy organization called Democrats for Education Reform.
In an incredible 36-month stretch, you have helped us:
-- Direct more than $17 million into political and grassroots advocacy for education reform, creating momentum which has the potential to dominate education policymaking for years to come.
-- Play a leading role in efforts to pass groundbreaking K-12 reform-centered legislation in multiple states, including New York, Colorado, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Florida.
-- Lead efforts to frame the fight that is playing out within the Democratic Party on education issues. This successful framing has cleared the way for significant reform efforts stemming from the Obama administration, and filtering down into states all across the map.
-- Establish active DFER outposts in Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Colorado. New outposts are in the process of forming in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Oregon, Washington, California, and elsewhere. The effort to spread the reform blanket across as much of the map as possible is done in recognition of the reality that change must be pushed at all levels and all across the map in order to make the most of the current opportunity for reform.
-- Emerge as THE "go-to" voice for the education reform wing of the Democratic Party in press accounts, helping us level the political playing field for reform. Our activists and experts have been quoted in hundreds of mainstream news stories, including regularly in such publications as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, and Education Week. Our voices can be heard regularly on national radio broadcasts, and our envelope-pushing op-eds have appeared in newspapers from coast-to-coast.
-- Assume a leading role (more than any other advocacy group) in pushing the unprecedented "Race To The Top" reform contest on all levels- fighting hard for more than a year to keep the bar raised at the federal level and then, in states, to help clear the bar in as many state capitols as possible.
And so much more.
Continue reading "Three Candles For DFER"....
Posted by Joe Williams on June 8, 2010 2:36 PM
May 21, 2010
In Memory of Phyllis McClure
Phyllis McClure died earlier this week, She was a steadfast advocate for educational quality and equity, one who was willing and able, perhaps like no one else before or since, to blow the whistle on policies that worked against disadvantaged children, no matter how uncomfortable it made people. She was a lesson in political courage, passion, persistence, and integrity. She will be sorely missed. The statement below was posted by Kati Haycock of the Education Trust. We couldn't have said it better.
On the 56th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, a lioness of the movement passed on.
Phyllis McClure dedicated half a century to the fight for equal educational opportunity--and quality--for low-income students and students of color. One of the early champions and first conscientious critics of Title I, Phyllis used her perch at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund to demand that the nation's leaders make good on the promise of equal educational opportunity. And even as she celebrated the potential of Title I to drive change for poor children, she was never shy about pointing out its flaws.
"Our hopes that the Nation would finally begin to rectify the injustices and inequities which poor children suffer from being deprived of an equal educational opportunity have been sorely disappointed," McClure wrote in a 1969 report issued by the NAACP that would shape the debate for the next decade. "We hope that by bringing to light some of the more flagrant misuses of Title I funds that a concerted and continuing effort will ensue to help poor children to get what the nation promised them when the act was signed."
Even after leaving the NAACP in 1994, she dedicated her smarts and her grit to making Title I matter not just in the annals of history, but in the lives of the young people it was intended to serve. Her work took her from the halls of congress, into tiny hollers towns that others had forgotten, and big cities where "all deliberate speed" was, as Phyllis would have said, too damn slow.
Described lovingly by a long-time friend as a "pit bull without the lipstick", Phyllis was an irascible, passionate advocate who never backed down from a fight where the lives of poor children were at stake.
Though Phyllis McClure has passed on, her legacy will not soon pass away.
Posted by Charles Barone on May 21, 2010 10:25 AM
May 18, 2010
'Race To The Top' Turns Into 'Race Against The Clock'
Buckle up your seatbelts, there's turbulence ahead as we approach Memorial Day Weekend and the June 1 deadline for Round 2 of RTTT. Despite naysayers who continue to insist that the 'Race To The Top' hasn't done all that much to promote President Obama's progressive agenda of change for public education, we're seeing red hot reform action from coast to coast, the likes of which this nation has never seen. If you don't believe us, read the preview of the article Steven Brill wrote for next Sunday's New York Times Magazine in which Brill says, among other things:
"[the] media-alluring, if cheesy-sounding, contest called Race to the Top...has turned a relatively modest federal program (the $4.3 billion budget represents less than 1 percent of all federal, state and local education spending) into high-yield leverage that could end up overshadowing health care reform in its impact and that is already upending traditional Democratic Party politics."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Race-t.htmlOver just the past couple of weeks, in addition to the landmark teacher evaluation and tenure reform bill signed into law in Colorado, there is a deal in Central Falls that may help the state win support, or at least less active opposition, from teachers unions; exciting but largely under-the-radar action in Oklahoma; and, lots of end of session jockeying in states like Kentucky and West Virginia. Plus the usual Arizona and Texas nonsense and more. See below for details.
Continue reading "'Race To The Top' Turns Into 'Race Against The Clock'"....
Posted by Charles Barone on May 18, 2010 4:56 PM
April 29, 2010
States Are Racing!
Just added - see our 3 new Race Smarter briefs: MA, MI, and NJ.
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The Race to the Top Phase 2 application filing deadline is June 1st. Many states, some that applied in Phase 1 and some that did not, have begun to step up legislative, regulatory, and planning action in anticipation. States must send an intent to file for Phase 2 to the U.S. Department of Education by May 4th.
We have re-launched our Race to the Top deadline countdown clock and a series of state-specific Race Smarter briefs at http://www.dfer.org/list/issues/racesmarter/.
Here is the first of a series of weekly updates on state activity. Special thanks to our crack staff, especially Charlie Barone, federal policy director and occasional DFER disc jockey:
Arizona: Despite coming in 40th out of 41 states in Phase 1, Governor Jan Brewer announced today that the state would re-apply in Phase 2. The state seems to be doubly challenged, as it is coming off a toxic legislative run in which it passed a a law that encourages racial profiling of suspected legal immigrants and, in what can only be interpreted as a nod to tea partiers and Obama-hating birthers, a law that requires Presidential candidates to show that they are "constitutionally eligible" for office. The state says it will focus a large part of its efforts on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, toward building the state's 21st century economic competitiveness.
Buena suerte.
Continue reading "States Are Racing!"....
Posted by Joe Williams on April 29, 2010 6:01 PM
March 15, 2010
ESEA Blueprint: Plenty of Obstacles, Political and Otherwise
Washington, D.C., March 15, 2010 - The Administration's rollout of its plans for ESEA reauthorization will continue this week as President Obama today officially sends his "blueprint" for NCLB overhaul to the Hill, and Secretary Duncan testifies at no less than three hearings before various Congressional Committees on Wednesday and Thursday.
President Obama devoted his Saturday radio address to his ESEA plan, following "sneak preview" Power Point presentations and briefings with key interest groups and reporters late last week. On Saturday night at 5:00 p.m., the Department electronically distributed the actual 45-page "Blueprint for Reform."
"We are equal parts cautious and optimistic. Overall we see much to like," said Charles Barone, director of federal policy for DFER.
Continued Barone, "Piecing together what's on paper with what we've heard in briefings and conversations with key Administration officials, we think it's a reasonable attempt to maintain a delicate balance between competing aims: to respond to both real and perceived problems with current law; to sustain the law's success in highlighting achievement gaps and to prod state and local reforms to close them; to redouble efforts to improve school leader and teacher effectiveness; and, to fundamentally restructure chronically failing schools.
"The Administration certainly has its work cut out for it. It has to ease discomfort with a law that has identified roughly a third of schools in the U.S. as 'in need of improvement' while at the same time acknowledging that more or less half of all students who graduate high school and enter college require remedial education in reading and math.
Continue reading "ESEA Blueprint: Plenty of Obstacles, Political and Otherwise"....
Posted by Joe Williams on March 15, 2010 4:17 PM
March 3, 2010
ESEA Reauthorization: Keep Accountability Strong!
Washington, DC, March 3, 2010 -- Democrats for Education Reform joined a coalition of 18 advocacy, civil rights, and policy study organizations today who submitted a set of recommendations to the President and Congress regarding the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
"This statement of principles makes it clear that there is broad support for a new ESEA that invests in fundamental education reform, promotes innovation, builds human capital, and continues to holds schools accountable for results," said Charles Barone, Director of Federal Policy at Democrats for Education Reform. "Part and parcel of this effort must be decisive action to fundamentally restructure schools and school systems that are chronically low-performing."
Overall, the group endorses the direction the Obama Administration is taking to school reform. The signees ask the Administration to maintain and elaborate the bright lines in federal law around accountability and teacher quality and effectiveness, and couple that with a competitive grant strategy that invests in and rewards states that are ready, willing, and able to step up their education reform efforts, including reconstituting, restarting, converting, or shutting down the lowest-performing schools.
Highlights:
NCLB and Race to the Top
"We the undersigned believe that even though neither is perfect, ESEA 2002 (NCLB) and Race to the Top are both landmark education reforms that have moved the country's education goals and policies in a markedly positive direction."
Accountability
States must set annual, measurable, and ambitious goals for the academic performance of all students and for closing achievement gaps between: 1) economically disadvantaged students; 2) students from major racial and ethnic groups; 3) students with disabilities; and 4) students with limited English proficiency, as compared to their non-disadvantaged peers.
School Interventions
"We embrace the Administration's push to compel increasingly intensive interventions in low-performing schools.
"Persistently low-performing schools necessitate fundamental changes in staffing and leadership, including reconstitution, conversion to a charter school, restart, or shutdown. After other approaches have been tried and have failed, these are the only viable options with a reasonable probability of success."
Performance-Based Funding
Continue reading "ESEA Reauthorization: Keep Accountability Strong!"....
Posted by Joe Williams on March 3, 2010 9:08 AM
February 23, 2010
Applause For Obama Administration's Tough Position on Title I Requirements
Changes to NCLB will provide additional incentive for states to enact more rigorous academic programs
New York, NY, February 22, 2010 - Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), a national advocacy organization that seeks to reorient the education debate within the Democratic Party, commends President Obama in the wake of his announced proposal to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The president delivered a stern, but necessary, message to the governors of all 50 states today that failing to enact and implement sufficiently rigorous education standards in their states would result in a drop in federal funding through Title I, under his proposed plan.
"President Obama has taken a bold step to correct one of the weakest aspects of No Child Left Behind," said Joe Williams, DFER's executive director. "In requiring states to adopt 'college or career ready' standards in order to receive Title I funding, the president is sending a message that academic rigor is not just a nice bonus in our educational system - it's a requirement. No longer will the federal government throw away good money on failed state education policies. Simply put, states must actively work toward the best interests of our nation's students or face a terrible consequence."
DFER further commends President Obama for seeking additional funding for the administration's successful Race to the Top initiative as part of the NCLB reform. Race to the Top's first round catalyzed serious policy innovation in a number of states, with 40 states and the District of Columbia submitting applications for funds to be distributed on the basis of serious reform proposals.
Continued Williams, "The beauty of Race to the Top is that it rewards those states that are putting actionable reform proposals to work, and encourages every state to get serious about fixing their broken education systems. The era of rewarding mediocrity is over."
Posted by Joe Williams on February 23, 2010 10:10 AM
