Education secretary lays down blueprint for federal law

The administration's blueprint includes raising standards, rewarding excellence and growth as well as increasing local control and flexibility while maintaining the focus on equality and closing the achievement gap.

"All of these policy changes will support our effort to meet the president's goal that by 2020, America once again will lead the world in college completion," Duncan said.

"In particular, the ESEA will set a goal that by 2020 all students will graduate ready to succeed in college and/or the workplace. We will build an accountability system that measures the progress that states, districts and schools are making toward meeting that goal."

The agenda asks states to adopt standards that prepare students for success in college and careers.

"In our proposal, we call on states to adopt college- and career-ready standards -- either by working with other states or by getting their higher education institutions to certify that the standards are rigorous enough to ensure students graduate ready to succeed in college-level classes or enter the workplace."

Duncan admitted that just setting standards is not enough.

He said there is a need for a new generation of assessments that measure whether students are on track for success in college and careers.

"We will support the effort to develop those tests so they will measure higher-order skills, provide accurate measures of student progress, and give teachers the information they need to improve student achievement," Duncan said.

Under No Child Left Behind, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2001, individual states were responsible for creating their performance standards, and through standardized testing, were to ensure that 100 percent of students meet the standards by 2014.

Despite solid gains in academic achievement, educators said they continue to struggle with the implementation of state and federal standards.

California's standards are based on the annual Accountability Progress Report, which is released by the Department of Education. The report provides results from the Academic Performance Index, or API, as well as the federal Adequate Yearly Progress program, known as AYP.

Although the Obama administration's blueprint proposes change, Associated Pomona Teachers President Tyra Weis said it does the complete opposite.

Teachers were speaking to the Obama administration about what they would like to see in the ESEA reauthorization, but as the blueprint was unveiled those same teachers became discouraged and disappointed, Weis said.

"The blueprint is heading in the same direction of one-size-fits-all approach to education that we saw in the last eight years with Bush," Weis said. "APT believes that a continued emphasis on test scores as being proposed by Arne Duncan only serves to narrow the curriculum and does nothing to support students in the classroom."

What schools need, she said, is adequate funding for their most at-risk students and a plan that will involve local stakeholders working with parents. Parents should also have more of a say on how they can improve their local schools.

Duncan's testimony included an outline of the administration's request for $3.9 billion to strengthen the teaching profession -- an increase of $350 million. The money includes $1.8 billion to support students by encouraging community engagement and support as well as exposure to other positive adults.

Obama's plans are a bold vision for reform that puts efforts to rewrite the country's education laws on strong footing, said Rep. George Miller, a Bay Area Democrat and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

"Congress now has an incredible opportunity to help reshape the future of this country by overhauling No Child Left Behind and finally ensuring a world-class education for every single child in this country," Miller said. "This blueprint lays the right markers to help us reset the bar for our students and the nation."

Saying the U.S. is "falling behind" in education, Duncan used some eye-opening statistics to persuade lawmakers that the Obama administration's plan to rewrite a federal education law is the right move for the nation's students and schools.

"A generation ago, we led the world, but we're falling behind. The global achievement gap is growing," he said. "If we're serious about preparing our nation's young people to compete in a global economy, we must, we must do better than this."

Duncan's statistics showed that 27 percent of American high schoolers drop out and that only 40 percent of the country's "young people" earn a two-year or four-year college degree.

The blueprint is a move in the right direction, said Rebecca Harper, San Bernardino Teachers Association president.

"The growth model is a good thing, but how to do it will be difficult. This will be a challenge especially with a district like San Bernardino City Unified that has a high transient rate," she said.

Harper said she has concerns about the blueprint proposing to reward schools that are making the most progress.

"I have a bad problem with ranking schools because you're comparing apples and oranges," she said. "Half the time there are schools in affluent areas that will do well on standardized tests and, because it's one test model, you're not doing justice to other schools."

Obama promised parents and their children that with his administration's help they would have better teachers in improved schools.

But pegging schools against each other struck a nerve with Weis, proving to her the administration was not focused on "real resources for students who are failing to improve."

"This focus on competition coming from Obama makes winners and losers and it doesn't focus solely on creating quality schools," she said. "It's a game and a contest that we feel we can't win."

Duncan said he is committed to working with Congress in the reauthorization of ESEA. It has been eight years since Congress last reauthorized the law, the longest gap between its reauthorization in the law's 45-year history.