Congress may have in the 鈥渃romnibus鈥� spending measure, which has been approved by both houses of Congress. But lawmakers kept two other stimulus-era Obama administration education-redesign programs: the School Improvement Grant program, which is aimed at turning around low-performing schools, and the Investing in Innovation grant program, which is meant to scale up promising practices at the district level.
But just because SIG and i3 are still around doesn鈥檛 mean there won鈥檛 be some changes to them.
For instance, the next round of projects funded under Investing in Innovation, which got cut from $141 million in fiscal year 2014 to $120 million in fiscal year 2015, are supposed to be focused entirely on high school redesign. Prospective grantees must have plans for improving graduation rates and ensuring that students graduate ready for college-level work. It鈥檚 worth noting that the bill also zeroed out the $46 million 鈥淗igh School Graduation鈥� initiative, which had somewhat similar goals.
And, even though Congress didn鈥檛 reduce the $505 million SIG program in its latest budget bill, it鈥檚 clear that lawmakers are still really unhappy with the Obama administration鈥檚 implementation program, which has posted .
The Obama administration didn鈥檛 actually invent SIG, but it sought鈥攁nd got鈥�$3 billion for the program in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the economic stimulus. With the new money came new strings for grant recipients: the Obama administration required schools that wanted the grants to use one of four prescriptive turnaround models. The administration鈥檚 strategies called for big, tricky steps like closing a school, turning it a charter, and/or extending the school day and using student data to inform instruction. States and educators liked the extra money for turnarounds, but said they felt constrained.
Earlier this year, also in a spending bill, Congress said states should be allowed to come up with their own school improvement strategies and . Lawmakers left it up to the U.S. Department of Education to fill in the blanks on how to make this work.
This fall, when the department came out with , it turned out the new flexibility wasn鈥檛 really so flexible. Any new ideas turnaround states proposed had to conform to the department鈥檚 鈥渢urnaround principles鈥� for states that have received waivers from provision of the No Child Left Behind Act. (That鈥檚 most states鈥�42 plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.) Those turnaround principles don鈥檛 really look much different from the most popular SIG model (鈥渢ransformation鈥�). A number of education groups, including the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of the Great City Schools, .
And it sounds like lawmakers agree. Members of Congress essentially laid a smackdown on the department in a report accompanying the bill. They told the department the draft regs 鈥渇all short of congressional intent鈥� because states have to stick to the waivers鈥� turnaround principles and are subject to new requirements. The final regs, which are due out next year, must 鈥渟trictly adhere鈥� to legislative language which 鈥渟tipulates that LEAs may implement an alternative State-determined school improvement strategy that has been established by a State educational agency.鈥�
Translation: Hey, Mr. Secretary, flexibility means flexibility. Your draft regulations don鈥檛 cut it. You鈥檙e clearly not listening to us. (Not exactly Joan-Rivers-on-the-red-carpet-snarky, but it鈥檚 pretty pointed as far as congressional report language on draft regulations goes.)
Another change in the bill is even more likely to lead to tweaks in the regs (and could even delay them, advocates speculate). In last year鈥檚 giant spending bill, Congress added a new SIG model of its own, the 鈥渨hole school reform model鈥� which allows states to partner with outside organizations with a strong track record of success. Originally, programs partnering with SIG schools had to have at least two high-quality studies to back up their approach. That didn鈥檛 leave very many options, so now states and schools can pick a partner with at least one high-quality study behind them.
That鈥檚 a helpful change, said Michele McLaughlin, the president of the Knowledge Alliance, which advocates for education researchers.
鈥淚 think it makes sense. It will allow more evidence-based approaches to be used in low performing schools,鈥� she said in an email. She noted that the revision is something a lot of groups asked for in commenting on the department鈥檚 proposed changes for SIG.