Good afternoon.
Budget analysis and discussions continued to dominate
our activities this week, and we continue to work to comply with the provisions
of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).
This message contains information on the following
issues:
·
Announcement of the May State Board
meeting
·
An update on the FY04
budget
·
A summary of the proposed
·
Two notices of completed
rulemaking, one regarding certification and one regarding special
education
·
Information about a tool kit for
school boards to support efforts to prevent HIV infection
May Meeting of the
State Board of Education
The May meeting of the State Board of Education is
scheduled for Monday and
Update on the FY04
Budget
The budget process continued to pick up steam this week,
highlighted Tuesday by a rare session of the House meeting as a Committee of the
Whole to discuss the proposed education budget. State Budget Director John Filan
and I testified and answered members’ questions for more than four hours, and
that was followed by several more hours of testimony from the
public.
At the session, I reiterated the budget position taken
last week by the State Board, which advocates directing more resources to the
mandated categoricals, keeping some functions at ISBE that the Governor has
proposed to transfer, and fully funding some programs he has proposed to
eliminate, principally the ROE functions and the Truant Alternative Program.
(For full details of the State Board’s position, see the
Several representatives asked me about disparities
between our agency’s estimates of
the impact of the Governor’s
budget and the estimates that superintendents have made in their own districts.
I told them – as I have told you – that the process of analyzing these numbers
is complex and that some districts may be using premises to reach their
conclusions that are different from the premises we used. I told the
representatives that my staff will make every attempt to reconcile differing
estimates with any local superintendent who wishes to discuss
them.
On Wednesday, I spent several more hours meeting with
both Senate caucuses to discuss budget issues further. Yesterday I was the
luncheon speaker at the IASA meeting in
Next week, in addition to the continuing budget
discussions and the monthly State Board meeting, I will participate in a P-16
conference at the
Proposed
under
NCLB
We have completed work on
proposed
If you have comments, you
may submit them to me by e-mail (statesup@isbe.net). Keep in mind that the State Board is
required to develop criteria for highly qualified teachers and we have made
every effort to meet, but not exceed, the NCLB
requirements.
Some highlights of the DRAFT
proposal:
·
For NCLB purposes new teachers are defined as
those who were first certified in
·
Current teachers have seven options by which
to be considered highly qualified. These options are broad and should encompass
most current teachers in their primary assignment and many in their second and
even third assignments.
·
New Elementary Certificate holders are
considered highly qualified if they pass the Elementary/Middle Grades Test (The
test is being renamed to reflect the range of content knowledge; there is no
change in the test.)
·
Current special education teachers are
considered highly qualified if they hold one of four special education
certification options and pass the tests for those certificates and
endorsements. New special education teachers are considered highly qualified if
they hold one of the special education certification options and pass the
Elementary/Middle Grades Test. Alternatively, new special educators can be
considered highly qualified if they pass subject-area tests specific to the
subject area of their teaching responsibility or meet other identified options.
Special educators who serve as consultants for other teachers and are not the
“teacher of record” are not required to meet the requirements for “highly
qualified.”
·
Provisional certificate holders based on an
out-of-state certificate will be considered to be highly
qualified.
·
Holders of Transitional Bilingual
Certificates (Type 29) are considered to be highly qualified if they meet
certain specifications and are participating in an “alternative program” that
meets the federal definition. This requires support and continuing professional
development for the teacher as he or she moves toward full certification in
three years.
·
The overall formula for new teachers to be
considered highly qualified in
The State Board Web site
will be updated on
Notice of Completed
Rulemaking: Certification and Special
Education
Two rulemaking items recently adopted by the State Board
of Education are now in effect. Both these sets of rules have been posted on the
agency’s Web site at www.isbe.net/rules;
choose “Rules Currently in Effect” and scroll to the relevant Part number. (If
you print only the affected Sections, remember to include the table of contents
for the Part, which changes every time the Part is
amended.)
Certification
(Part 25)
The amendments contained in this set of rules implement
two major aspects of P.A 92‑796 (HB 1436).
New requirements for the renewal of
administrative certificates take effect beginning
The legislation provides for congruence among the
periods of validity of each individual’s administrative certificate and teaching
certificate(s). Therefore, in 2003 some individuals will receive administrative
certificates that have fewer than five years of validity, and the requirements
for continuing professional development will be reduced accordingly during that
first renewal cycle. The rules also describe several other circumstances in
which reductions in the requirements will apply.
Requirements for the standard teaching
certificate are presented in a series of new Sections describing six
potential alternatives from which individuals may choose. (See Sections 25.900
through 25.945.)
The revisions to Sections 25.720 and 25.725 are
technical in nature and are needed for further clarification of the
applicability of testing requirements to certified individuals seeking
additional certificates.
Affected
Sections: 25.11, 25.35, 25.315, 25.720, 25.725, 25.900,
25.905, 25.910, 25.915, 25.920, 25.925, 25.930, 25.940, and
25.945
Effective
Date:
Special
Education (Part 226)
These amendments have three
purposes:
·
They include a number of wording
changes required by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special
Education
Programs (OSEP).
·
They include revisions to the rule
on parental consent (Section 226.540) that respond both to OSEP and to
recent litigation.
·
The amendments to Section 226.800
explain how the current system of issuing state approval for individuals to
serve as directors of special education will be closed out in favor of a
standards-based endorsement. These changes complement recent amendments to
Part 29 (Standards for Administrative Certification).
Affected
Sections: 226.75, 226.100, 226.240, 226.250, 226.350, 226.530,
226.540, 226.605, 226.610, 226.625, 226.690, 226.740, 226.770, and
226.800
Effective
Date:
HIV Prevention in
Schools: A Tool Kit for School Board
Members
The National Association of State Boards of Education
(NASBE) and the National School Boards Association (NSBA) have been working with
education policymakers since 1987 to strengthen the role of schools in the
prevention of HIV infections. Much progress has been made, but 25 percent of all
new HIV infections still occur in the 13- to 21-year-old age
group.
With that in mind NASBE and NSBA, in partnership with
the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, have developed a tool kit that state and local board of education
members may use in their efforts to enhance the ability of schools to prevent
the spread of HIV infection among young people. The kit contains a wide range of
useful information for both educators and community
members.
For further information on the kit or any questions
about issues related to HIV/AIDS and the schools, contact Jim Bogden at NASBE
(703/684-4000) or Brenda Z. Greene at NSBA
(703/838-6756).
Robert Schiller
State Superintendent
of
Education
statesup@isbe.net