Schools need flexibility from federal government mandates in order to innovate, according to an ideologically diverse group of school officials testifying before a Senate Education Committee roundtable on Tuesday.
“What … communities need is flexibility to do what is in the best interest of their youth and as amazing as it sounds, there are significant differences in what children need who are literally only miles away from one another,” Susan Kessler, a principal from Nashville, Tenn., wrote. Kessler was one of the more liberal supporters of flexibility. She also advocated for government-provided pre-kindergarten, in addition to government-provided Internet access for impoverished families.
“States need flexibility in managing the way federal funds are allocated,” wrote Ken Bradford, the assistant superintendent of education in Louisiana. “States should be given the authority to combine and utilize federal title funds to meet agreed-upon goals. Progress starts with allowing educators the independence to innovate subject to accountability standards.” Bradford also said there should be flexibility to use federal funds for competitive grants, and that states should be allowed to decide exactly what “innovation” is.
James McIntyre, a superintendent from Knoxville, Tenn., wrote, “Building a flexible statutory and regulatory landscape has been quite purposeful in the Volunteer State, and I believe this type of freedom allows for innovation to flourish.”
Katie Duffy, the CEO of Democracy Prep Public Schools, said in her verbal testimony, “I think flexibility is incredibly important when you’re talking about funding innovation.” In her written testimony, she elaborated, writing, “Democracy Prep’s approach to improving academic outcomes for the low-income, at-risk students who had previously attended requires the flexibility to implement a program responsive to the specific needs of our students while continuing to serve all of them.” Democracy Prep is a system of public charter schools, some of which were non-charter public schools that Democracy Prep turned around into successful charters.
In his opening remarks for the roundtable, Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said, “Government ought to enable and encourage, not mandate, innovation. It can do this well.”
Other roundtable participants focused on evidence-based practices — the fruits of earlier innovations in education.
“Recent advances in evidence based practices and the learning sciences indicate that we have barely begun to scratch the surface of what is possible in terms of teaching and learning,” Robert Balfanz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in his testimony. “This means the ability of our students and teachers to improve is no impediment to the nation’s ability to achieve the outcomes it needs.”
Josh Davis, with Delta Health Alliance in Missouri, wrote “So long as the provisions of NCLB are tied to analysis of programs based on real-time data and objective goals, it can help foster innovation.”
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has already held three hearings this year on reforming No Child Left Behind.
