Educational Leaders Must Develop Networks of Informed Stakeholders to Ensure the ESEA Reauthorization Process Promotes the Mission of Learning for All

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), reauthorized as No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001), requires instructional leaders utilize strategies, approaches, and program initiatives that are scientific or research based and frequently monitor to close any identified achievement gaps.  In this pursuit, educational leaders, in-service teachers, as well as teacher candidates, will benefit from understanding the seven correlates of Effective Schools Research, which includes the two variables within a holistic system.  Given any system is a "network of interdependent components that work together to accomplish the aim of the system" (Deming (1993), institutes of higher education (IHE), teacher preparation programs, and school systems will benefit from increasing expectations for its stakeholders to increase their knowledge of systems and their ability to think systemically. 

Effective Schools Research identifies the following correlates as present in all cases of an effective educational system:

1.     Clear and focused mission

2.     Climate of high expectations

3.     Instructional leadership

4.     Opportunity to learn/student time on task

5.     Frequently monitoring student progress

6.     Safe and orderly environment

7.   Home-school relations (Lezotte & Snyder, 2011)

Given the interdependency of the seven correlates of Effective Schools, educational leaders must approach these correlates with the view of implementing them holistically and interdependently.  Thus, a clear and focused mission as well as strong instructional leadership is required to move the other interdependent correlates from being an ideal to effective systemic practice.  Since Effective Schools Research demonstrates that a result of an educational system ignoring the interdependence among the seven correlates is slow progress, then a lack of strong, respected educational leadership that brings consensus for a clear and focused mission will result in confusion about simultaneously and systemically incorporating all the correlates. 

Starting with A Nation at Risk (1983) through the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, PL 98-10) known as No Child Left Behind (2001), politicians have predicated education reform on the need to fix a broken system.  While far past due, Congress has undertaken the reauthorization process for ESEA.  This process will either provide another opportunity for true reform or simply offer politicians more chances to use education as a means for power.  To mitigate the latter and promote the former, effective educational leaders must proactively ensure ESEA is “rewritten to reflect its original purpose: success for all children, especially disadvantaged children” (American Association of School Administrators, 2010). 

The power to guide professional development, promote professional learning communities, and encourage active collaboration between all stakeholders, provides the educational leader a tremendous opportunity to engage networks of stakeholders to become informed and proactive during the current ESEA reauthorization process.  One goal for educational leaders will be to help networks of stakeholders understand the need for ESEA reauthorization to address the primary mission of ESEA.  The related action plan would be for the effective educational leader to develop stakeholders into informed networks that willingly seek to promote the mission of learning for all.  As a result, the reauthorization process will more likely focus upon education of the whole child while ensuring upward mobility for all Americans.  "Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government;... whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights" (Jefferson, 1789). 

References:

Lezotte, L. W. (1991) Correlates of effective schools: The first and second generation.

               http://www.effectiveschools.com/images/stories/escorrelates.pdf

Lezotte, L. W., & Snyder, K. M. (2011). What effective schools do: Re-envisioning the

correlates. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Purkey, W. W., & Siegel, B. L. (2013). Becoming an invitational leader: A new approach to

               professional and personal success. Atlanta, GA: Humanics. Retrieved from:

               http://invitationaleducation.net/featuredbooks.html

Schmoker, J, (1999) The Key to Continuous School Improvement (2nd edition) ASCD

To Cite:

Anderson, C.J. (July 31, 2015) Educational leaders must develop networks of informed stakeholders to

               ensure the ESEA reauthorization process promotes the mission of learning for all.  

               [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/

Service Learning, Education, and the Budget Crisis

I have been an advocate for service learning before my work with the initial AmeriCorps class of 1993-94. I believe in the spirit promoted by the words of Marian Wright Edelman, "Service is the rent we pay for living; it is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time."
On February 14, 2011 President Obama sent his Fiscal Year 2012 budget request to Congress, which included proposed funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service and its programs. This budget request is designed to strengthen our nation’s volunteer sector, foster innovation and civic engagement, and mobilize five million Americans to help solve critical problems through national service. This is a bold budget request, recognizing national service and service learning is a critical, cost-effective investment in our nation’s future. It teaches participants to solve problems, strengthen communities, and transform its participants. These are important service learning programs throughout the country but especially our most disadvantaged urban areas.
Last week, Appropriations Committee Chair Rogers (R-KY) proposed the elimination of the entire Corporation for National and Community Service, including AmeriCorps. Starting yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives began consideration of the budget that will fund the last seven months of Fiscal Year 2011 – called a Continuing Resolution. If passed in its current form, the resolution will immediately cut $100 billion from the federal budget and eliminate the Corporation for National and Community Service. The Continuing Resolution could create a shock to the fragile economic recovery and send us back into a recession that would cost far more in the long term than it would save in the short.
Undoubtedly, as noted previously in this blog, we need to get a hold of the nation's budget deficit. These coming weeks will be just the beginning of a battle to save vital service and educational programs in this country. Ideologies are quite dichotomous related to what is best for the public interest and for the nation's future. We need to encourage our elected leaders to face tough choices to address our country’s challenges.
However budget cuts will be necessary! Either party's proposed budget will hurt all communities in many ways. As a country, we need to reign in the deficit.
Yes, it is time we roll up our collective sleeves and provide more service learning without expectation of remuneration. I am encouraging increased levels of service learning from my college students and will be an active participant in the budget debate. What will you do?
You are encouraged today and throughout the year to let your Representative know the cost effectiveness of education and national service programs, which help the nation's long-term growth and vitality. Surgical cuts in the budget should keep this truth a priority during every debate.
You can call your Representative directly, be connected through the House Operator (202-225-3121), or look him/her up online by ZIP code here.
When contacting elected officials, it will be important for you to know that:

• The Continuing Resolution will decimate vital services in our
  communities when millions of Americans need food, shelter, healthcare, job
  training and educational support.
• AmeriCorps provides important educational support. For example, 140 AmeriCorps members are serving in 10 Boston Public Schools. They are providing targeted and school-wide interventions in literacy and classroom behavior. If Congress eliminates AmeriCorps, nearly 2,000 high-risk 3rd-9th graders will no longer receive this additional support in the classroom.
• The Continuing Resolution will only push unemployment rates up because many Americans who are struggling to find work, rely upon national service
  programs to earn a subsistence-level stipend, develop skills, and create
  pathways to future employment.
• The federal investment made in faith based and community organizations through the Corporation for National and Community Service leverages $799 million in matching funds from companies, foundations and other sources.