CEC Policy Insider

Join us! CEC’s Policy Team Heads to CEC’s Annual Convention and Expo with a Packed Agenda

We hope you will be joining us and thousands of special educators in San Antonio, Texas for CEC’s Annual Convention and Expo! CEC’s Convention will provide us all with an opportunity to reflect on special education and how we can continue to advance the profession and support better outcomes for children and youth with disabilities and gifts and talents.  This year’s convention will offer over 900 professional development sessions featuring the most pressing issues in the field, as well as speakers and celebrations you won’t want to miss!  

CEC’s Policy and Advocacy team will bringing to you the hot policy topics from budget to teacher evaluation and beyond! Here is the schedule of events from CEC’s Policy team:

• All Week – CEC’s Legislative Action Center: Come by CEC’s Legislative Action Center in CEC Central to learn more about the 113^th Congress, CEC’s policy initiatives and the advocacy that you can do on behalf of children and youth with disabilities, their families and the professionals who work with them!
  
  
• Thursday, April 4 – Inclusion, Equality and Opportunity: Join Michael Yudin, Acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and learn about vision and priorities for achieving inclusion, equity and opportunity for all individuals.  
  
  
• Thursday, April 4 – Update from the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER): NCSER Commissioner, Dr. Deborah Speece, will share how the federal government has invested in special education research and plans for future research initiatives.  

• Friday, April 5 - What’s Happening in Washington Session: Hear from Debbie Speece, NCSER Commissioner, as well as Melody Musgrove, Director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, in an interview with CEC’s policy staff.  CEC’s policy team will also give updates on current initiatives and policy discussions happening in Washington, and share CEC’s perspective.
  
  
• Saturday, April 6 – Global Special Education: Where Have We Come From, Where Are We Going?: Come learn more about major trends in global special needs education, focusing on the vital United Nations Conventions, Resolutions and international initiatives.

• Saturday, April 6 – The Policy Behind Education Research: CEC’s Recommendations for the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA): In 2013, CEC approved its recommendations to Congress for the reauthorization of ESRA. Come hear from leaders in special education research about these recommendations as well as the importance and impact of the legislation on the field. 

• Saturday, April 6 – CEC’s Position on Special Education Teacher Evaluation: Current Local Efforts, Issues to Consider and Recommendations for Fairness: Join CEC’s Policy Team as well as experts in the field for a conversation about CEC’s new Position on Special Education Teacher Evaluation, the policy discussions and climate that lead to its creation and examples for you how you can use the Position to advocate for strong meaningful evaluation systems in your schools.

Click here for more info on CEC’s 2013 Convention! Hope to see you in San Antonio!

Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities Becomes New Priority for Federal Innovation Program

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that the $150 million Investing in Innovation program – grants which fund the development of innovative ideas – will prioritize proposals that focus on improving outcomes for students with disabilities, among other areas.  CEC is applauding the Department’s efforts to use i3 to support students with disabilities.

Investing in Innovation, known as i3, was established in 2009 by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and provides funding to test ideas that are in the development, validation, or scale-up phases. 

Other priority areas for i3 development grants include: Improving the Effectiveness of Teachers or Principals; Improving Low-Performing Schools; Improving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education; Improving Academic Outcomes for English Learners (ELs); Improving Parent and Family Engagement; Effective Use of Technology; and Serving Rural Communities; in addition to Improving Academic Outcomes for Students with Disabilities.

The 2013 application process for development grants is now underway and pre-applications are due April 26, 2013. Following the peer review process, the Department will announce a list of the highly rated pre-applications. These entities will then be invited to apply for the Development competition and given additional time to complete their full application.

 

More information about the priorities.

More information about the Development notice of intent to submit an application.

More information about the i3 grant program.

CEC, DEC Call On President to Address Young Children with Disabilities in Early Learning Proposals

In a letter to President Obama, CEC, together with its Division on Early Childhood, have called on the Administration to support meaningful partnerships between pre-kindergarten and other early learning proposals and programs that serve young children with disabilities, namely IDEA’s early intervention and preschool programs.  

The CEC and DEC letter comes in response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, whereby he called for expanding access to pre-kindergarten and the Administration’s early education plan, which was released on February 14, 2013.  CEC and DEC applaud the Administration for its leadership and commitment to supporting a continuum of high-quality early learning opportunities for children from birth to age five.

The Administration’s early education plan highlighted many areas of critical importance to implementing a coordinated approach to providing early learning opportunities, including:

• Improve quality and expanding access to preschool to enable all low- and moderate-income four-year olds from families at or below 200% of poverty. 

• Focus on high-quality programs through state-level standards for early learning, qualified preschool teachers, and a plan to implement data and assessment systems. 

• Expand the availability of full-day kindergarten.

• Grow the federal investment in the Head Start program  

• Launch a new Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership program

• Expand the evidenced-based home visiting initiative

• New investments to expand access and quality in the Child Care and Development Block Grant

Although this plan represents a starting point, CEC and DEC have expressed the importance of involving programs that serve infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities at the forefront of planning and during the program implementation to ensure that young children with disabilities have meaningful access to early learning programs. 

Additionally, CEC and DEC call on the Administration to increase the investment in both IDEA’s early intervention (Part C) and preschool (sec. 619) programs.  The President is expected to unveil his budget to Congress during the week of April 8. 

Check back for regular updates as the Administration’s proposal evolves!

Special Education Teachers Participate in NBC’s Education Nation in Detroit

Last weekend, in Detroit, Michigan, several CEC members including Ben White, Student Member of CEC’s Board of Directors, Joe DeMarsh, President-Elect of Michigan CEC, and Erin King, Kellie Taylor and Lela Davis, Special Education Teachers in Detroit Public Schools, attended at teacher town hall at the first of three education summits held by NBC’s Education Nation.

Topics on the agenda at the Detroit teacher town hall included Options for Education in Michigan, Common-Core Standards, and Teacher Evaluation. Overall, according to CEC member Erin King the discussion was engaging because “[t]he audience spoke from the heart.”

The town hall explored ways that Michigan is using education reforms to improve student achievement. In the area of school choice, teachers discussed Michigan’s experiment with state-run education as a remedy for chronically failing schools. Specifically, to address issues in failing schools, the state has created the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). The EAA is new to Michigan this year; it is essentially a statewide charter district. The EAA has taken over the lowest performing schools in Michigan in hopes to improve student achievement. Teachers on the panel and in the audience said they have seen student growth in their non-traditional environments – and attributed success to small class sizes and community involvement.

Teacher evaluation sparked the most intense discussion however. Teachers expressed concern with the emphasis on testing that evaluations including student achievement measures could bring. And teachers were even more concerned with methods for receiving meaningful and effective feedback from other educators. Educators in the audience agreed that teachers needed better ways to get constructive feedback and actually have opportunities to improve their craft with colleagues. Read CEC’s Position on Special Education Teacher Evaluation or want to join our CEC discussion about it? Then sign up for our Special Education Teacher Evaluation Community today!

Not much of the teacher town hall discussion, if any, however, focused directly on special education. According to Ben White, “I think the event went well for the most part. (But) There was no mention of special or gifted/education education with the exception of a brief mention of music programs, which was disappointing.”

The next two events are going to be held in New Orleans (April 12-19) and Phoenix May (3-10). It would be great to have more CEC members attend these events and speak out! We need to be sure that special education is front and center as an important component of any discussion. Check here for more information about how you can attend!

Representatives Chu and Hinojosa Introduce CEC Supported “Equal Access to Quality Education Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives

CEC is applauding Representatives Judy Chu (D-CA-27) and Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX-15) for introducing the Equal Access to Quality Education Act (H.R. 2902), legislation that ensures schools facing the greatest challenges are also staffed by the highest quality teachers.

Of particular interest to CEC and special educators, the Equal Access to Quality Education Act invests in expanding and strengthening programs that prepare special education teachers and bilingual teachers to meet the needs of diverse classrooms.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights found that schools serving mostly African-American students are twice as likely to have teachers with one or two years of experience than schools within the same district that serve mostly Caucasian students. Additionally, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) recently released a report that notes that bachelor’s degrees in education were awarded predominantly to white candidates (82 percent) with females making up more than 75 percent of graduates of teacher preparation programs.

This legislation would establish a grant program to help develop strong, high quality pathways into the teaching profession. In this way, Representatives Chu and Hinojosa hope to address the influx of young, inexperienced teachers into the schools with the highest needs.  Additionally, the legislation seeks to increase the diversity of teachers by addressing barriers that may prevent entry to teacher preparation programs, such as poverty. 

CEC supports this legislation and its approach to increasing diversity and access to high quality teachers and education for all students. For updates, stay tuned to the Policy Insider!