New Report: Investing the Recovery Funds for Student Success

Posted by on May 11, 2009

Five suggestions for those federal stimulus funds

The Coalition for Student Achievement, convened in response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is comprised of 50 national organizations. In early May it issued five recommendations for governors, state school officers, superintendents, and other education leaders on how to invest federal stimulus dollars to leverage significant increases in student performance. The group recommends: developing national standards for testing; producing data that educators, policymakers, and parents can use; evaluating teachers in a meaningful way; turning around low-performing schools; and helping struggling students. If these recommendations are undertaken, the group says, by 2012 Americans will see at least 40 states adopting evidence-based, college- and career-ready testing standards; students, parents, teachers, principals, district, and state leaders will have comprehensive data that show what’s working for students; clear, differentiated teacher evaluation systems will be in every state and school district; neighborhoods served by the lowest-performing five percent of schools will have new, quality education options; and students at least two years behind in reading, writing, and mathematics will get targeted interventions. “Transformation will happen only if state and district leaders are willing to take advantage of this investment opportunity,” the recommendations say. “The forces of inertia are powerful… The time for bold action is now.”

Read more: http://www.coalitionforstudentachievement.org/economic_rec.asp