NSBA's Letter to Congress: July 30, 2008

July 30, 2008

Member
United States Congress
Washington, DC 20510

Re: H.R. 4137, the “Higher Education Opportunity Act”

Dear Member:

The National School Boards Association (NSBA), representing 95,000 local school board members across the nation through our state school boards associations, is pleased that the House and Senate will vote tomorrow on the long-delayed reauthorization of the “Higher Education Opportunity Act,” H.R. 4137. We wish to provide you our views on Title II (Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants) in particular because of the important role the grants can play in helping to strengthen teacher quality, which is a critical component to raising student achievement and fulfilling the goals of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) / No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

In general, NSBA is pleased with the reforms within Title II, including the streamlined focus on partnership grants that directly involve local school districts, the strengthening of pre-baccalaureate teacher preparation programs, the promising addition of teaching residency programs, and heightened accountability for teacher preparation programs for increasing the number of teachers in shortage areas.

We appreciate that the conference committee agreement reflects school boards’ preferences for a number of provisions where the House and Senate (S. 1642) bills had differed. Among the several recommendations we offered, we especially appreciate 1) the inclusion of programs offering alternative routes to teacher certification as an allowable partner for the grants, 2) the emphasis on preparing general education and special education teachers to effectively teach students with disabilities and participate in individualized education program teams, as well as preparation for effectively teaching English language learners, 3) the emphasis on recruiting teachers from underrepresented populations, rural and urban communities, teachers of subject shortage areas, and mid-career professionals; and, 4) giving priority grant status to partnerships that include teacher preparation programs with a rigorous selection process.

We strongly support Section 206 “Teacher Development,” which requires teacher preparation programs to publicly report on annual quantifiable goals for increasing the number of teachers trained in shortage areas, increasing collaboration with local school districts to ensure training matches school districts’ needs, and focusing on effective training to teach students with disabilities, teach a diverse student enrollment, and teach in urban and rural schools.

Lastly, while we support the potentially promising addition of teaching residency programs to Title II, we believe the legislation would be strengthened by clarification that the establishment of criteria for selecting mentors for the teacher residents does not create a federal definition of “teacher effectiveness.” Our concern is with Section 202 (e) (2) (A) (iv), which states that “evaluation of teacher effectiveness shall be based on, but not limited to, observations of the following:” We suggest substituting the term “may” for “shall,” so that there is no confusion that Congress is mandating how local districts define or evaluate teacher effectiveness.

Thank you for moving forward with the reauthorization of this important legislation. We appreciate your consideration of our remaining concerns and would be pleased to answer any questions you may have. Please contact Marcus Egan, Director of Federal Affairs, at (703) 838-6707 or megan@nsba.org, for any additional information.

Sincerely,

Michael A. Resnick
Associate Executive Director