ACSA Region 2
 

 

November 4, 2008

 

TO:      ACSA MEMBERS

 

FR:      Sherry Skelly Griffith, ACSA Governmental Relations

 

RE:      Federal Title I Regulations Released October 28, 2008

 

On October 28, 2008 the U.S. Department of Education released final Title I regulations that will take effect 30 days from that date.

ACSA submitted extensive written comments this summer and primarily opposed most of the changes because our position has been making an extensive change to NCLB at this late juncture is not effective when a full reauthorization of ESEA is more appropriate.

Of the key areas changed under Title I, we did support a uniform graduation rate, credit for students taking longer than four years to graduate and breaking out graduation rates by subgroup. Most of the rest of the proposal we did not support and our concerns were similar to those raised by State Superintendent Jack O’Connell and State Board of Education President, Ted Mitchell in their joint letter to the U.S. DOE.

 

As is the tradition with outgoing presidents, this is an attempt to put a long term stamp on the principles of a program to secure a legacy. The package is 440 pages long. We will be preparing a more detailed summary in the coming weeks. Some of the new requirements include but are not limited to:

 

  1. Requiring NAEP results on local school report cards
  2. Requiring schools to notify parents of school choice and tutoring 14 days prior to the start of school.
  3. Requirement to have a uniform graduation rate and extended year credit for students who take longer than four years.
  4. Requiring that high school graduation rates be broken down by subgroup
  5. Require states to resubmit and justify subgroup size
  6. Authorize states to use multiple testing formats and multiple assessments (but not multiple measures).
  7. Creates the National Technical Advisory Council (experts in standards, assessments, statistics and psychometrics) to advise the U.S. DOE

 

If you should have questions please email me at sgriffith@acsa.org. You can view the entire package of Title I Regulations by going to www.ed.gov then click on “Top Stories” and then the press release and federal register.