Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education released its research base to support education reforms outlined in the Obama Administration’s ESEA Reauthorization: A Blueprint for Reform. Calling for an overhaul of ESEA (known as No Child Left Behind Act), the Department issued the research documents in answer to a groundswell of criticism around controversial Administration-supported recommendations such as linking teacher compensation to student achievement, supporting turnaround models for the lowest performing schools which support removing school personnel, and supporting charter schools.
While the quality and quantity of the research provided by the Department can be debated, it is clear that the research provided does little to consider the needs of students with disabilities and/or gifts and talents within the context of many education reforms promoted by the Administration. CEC has called for more research in numerous education reform concepts to determine the impact on students with disabilities and/or gifts and talents in its ESEA Reauthorization Recommendations.
President Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and leaders on the House and Senate Education Committees have called for the reauthorization of ESEA this year. In preparation for the reauthorization process, CEC unveiled its newly updated recommendations in March. In addition to advocating for greater research in many areas, CEC calls for:
· Supporting a well prepared successful educational workforce;
· Meaningful systems that encourage collaborative and supportive measurement, evaluation, and reward of professional performance;
· Strengthening assessment accountability for all children;
· Meeting the unique needs of gifted learners;
· Improving outcomes for all children thought the collaboration of all educators;
· Providing full funding to execute the goals and provisions of ESEA;
· Systems that are coordinated between ESEA and IDEA
Read CEC’s ESEA Reauthorization Recommendations
Read the U.S. Department of Education’s ESEA Reform Research