NSTA Legislative Update
April 26, 2004

Letters Supporting Science Education Still Circulating—Please Call Your Representative
No Child Left Behind Update
            ED Announces Additional Flexibility on Student Participation Rates on Assessments
            NCSL Forms Task Force to Study Federal Education Law
            House Lawmakers Issue Two Reports on NCLB
            Fourteen Chief State Officers Ask for Additional Flexibility to AYP
            PEN/Education Week Poll Finds Support for NCLB Waning
New Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative at U.S. Department of Education  
President Announces Math and Science Scholar Fund
New House Legislation Would Recognize Outstanding Contributions in Math and Science Education

Letters Supporting Science Education Still Circulating—Please Call Your Representative

Two Dear Colleague letters asking for Congressional support for science education programs are still circulating among members of Congress—and we need your help!

The first letter is from Representatives Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) and Rush Holt (D-NJ), addressed to Representative Ralph Regula (R-OH), chairman of the House Education Appropriations Subcommittee, seeking $300 million in funding for the FY2005 Math and Science Partnerships at the U. S. Department of Education under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This grant provides block funds directly to each state department of education, which, in turn, provides competitive grants to local science and math education programs.

The second Dear Colleague letter is from the office of Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV) to Senators Christopher Bond and Barbara Mikulski, chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. In this letter, Senator Rockefeller is asking his colleagues to maintain funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program. The president’s budget eliminates funding for the NSF MSP program for FY2005.

It is very important that we get as many Members of Congress to “sign on” to these letters as possible. Please take a few minutes to send an e-mail to your House representative and your Senators.

E-mail your Representative and ask him or her to sign on to the Ehlers/Holt letter to Chairman Regula requesting $300 million for the Department of Education Math and Science Partnerships. To send an e-mail to your Representative, go to http://www.house.gov.

E-mail your Senators and ask him or her to sign on to the Rockefeller letter to Senators Bond and Mikulski, asking them to maintain funding for the NSF MSPs in the VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies spending bill. To send an e-mail to your Senators, go to http://www.senate.gov.

As you will recall from a previous NSTA Legislative Update, Dear Colleague letters are sent from Representatives or Senators to their fellow members who serve in leadership positions, asking them to take a specific course of action in support of an issue. Often the author(s) of the Dear Colleague letter seeks other members of Congress to “sign on” to a proposed letter before it is sent to the rest of Congress. This is very important, because the letters gauge the level of interest and support among all Members of Congress for a specific issue. In other words, the number of Members of Congress who sign on to a Dear Colleague letter indicates that a particular issue is very important and has a very high level of support.

So, if you have already e-mailed your representatives, thanks for your support. If not, please take moment now to send an e-mail to your representative and both Senators.  Adding your voice does make a difference, and we need as much support as possible to grow these programs. Thanks.

In late March, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would relax the NCLB requirements on student participation on state tests. Previously, schools were required to test at least 95 percent of students every year; if not, they would be faced with sanctions under NCLB. The new flexibility now allows schools to test an average of 95 percent of students over a two- or three-year period. Students who are unable to participate in the tests as a result of “significant medical emergency” are also exempt from the school’s participation rate.

The National Council of State Legislatures has developed a task force that will examine how NCLB is affecting public education and identify the current challenges the law poses to states. The NCSL task force will also suggest regulatory and legislative changes that will help states meet the NCLB goals; identify successful approaches to compliance that states have already developed; and ensure that “federal funding is commensurate with the requirements of the law, preventing undue fiscal burdens on states.” “NCLB represents perhaps the most pronounced federal involvement into a traditionally state and local function in our history,” says New York Senator Stephen Saland. “Many believe that, notwithstanding its laudatory purposes, the act imposes a number of unfunded and underfunded mandates on states and school districts. And in its effort to elevate standards, some of its requirements are unreasonably, if not extraordinarily, difficult to attain. It is my hope that the kind of thorough analysis we are undertaking will provide solutions to these concerns.” The task force hopes to release recommendations later this fall.

Both House Republicans and Democrats on the House Education and the Workforce Committee released updates on the implementation of NCLB. The Republican’s 33-page document answers frequently asked questions about the law, while the Democrats 10-page update outlines the failure of the Bush administration to fully fund NCLB. The Republican document can be found at http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/108th/education/nclb/nclbfaq.pdf and the Democrat document is at http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats

In late March, the chief state school officers from 14 states—Alaska, California, Connecticut, Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Washington—sent a letter to Education Secretary Rod Paige, requesting that the states be allowed to use their own systems for measuring academic progress instead of the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) system under NCLB.

 “Without any changes to the law, calculations suggest that within a few years, the vast majority of all schools will be identified as in need of improvement. Many of these schools will be given that designation despite having shown steady and significant improvement for all groups of students,” write the chief state officers. Officials from the Department of Education and key members of Congress balked at the state officials requests. “These changes would cripple the law, making it easier for states to hide the fact that some children are not learning, even as those states accept billions of dollars of increased federal education aid being provided under NCLB,” said House Education Committee Chair John Boehner (R-OH). The letter can be accessed online at www.cde.ca.gov/nclbgrowth/letter.htm

As NCLB enters its third year, a new poll finds that more voters know about the law—75 percent up from 56 percent a year ago—and the more voters learn about NCLB, the more they oppose it. Approximately 28 percent of the voters polled opposed the law, up from 8 percent last year. Six in 10 voters disapproved of the requirement that special education students take the same tests as general education students, and one in two voters had concerns about holding ESL students to the same standards as English-speaking students.

“Last year the basic instinct of voters was to support No Child Left Behind, but few really understood the law. Data from the poll shows that the more people know about the law, the less they seem to support it,” says Virginia B. Edwards, editor and publisher of Education Week.

In addition, the poll shows that nearly 60 percent of all Americans say they are more likely to vote for a presidential candidate with public education as the centerpiece of his administration. For more information on the poll go to   http://www.publiceducation.org/portals/Learn_Vote_Act/pollfindings.asp.

New Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative at U. S. Department of Education  

On April 21, Education Secretary Rod Paige announced a new program that will allow teachers and education experts to share techniques for raising student achievement, and keep teachers informed of the latest strategies and research on effective educational practices.

The Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative will include teacher roundtables on effective teaching, professional development, teacher leadership, and ways to advance the profession. Summer workshops on programs to improve student achievement, a Research-to-Practice Summit in Washington, D.C. this summer, and electronic updates to teachers will also be part of the initiative. For more information, go to http://www.teacherquality.us

President Announces New Math and Science Scholar Fund

During an appearance in Arkansas on April 16, President Bush announced the Presidential Math and Science Scholars Fund, a new public-private partnership that would provide $100 million in grants to encourage low-income students to study math and science. Students eligible for Pell Grants would be eligible for the grants, but the program would be run separately from the Pell program. The new initiative would be offset (paid for) with changes to the Pell grant program that would limit abuse to the program.

New House Legislation Would Recognize Outstanding Contributions in Math and Science Education

The Congressional Medal for Outstanding Contributions in Math and Science Education Act of 2004 is the new House bill introduced by Representative Nick Smith (R-MI) and Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)  that would authorize the National Science Foundation to create a new program to recognize as many as 10 private companies for their outstanding efforts to improve student achievement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in a school or community elementary or secondary school. Additional sponsors of this legislation include Representatives Holt and Ehlers. The House Science Committee approved the bill on March 31. For more information on H.R. 4030, to go http://thomas.loc.gov/.

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