August 22, 2005

School Progress Reports Revealing, Encouraging

COLUMBUS – Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Upper Arlington) today issued the following editorial:

A week before most central Ohio children return to school from summer break, parents have already been shown a report card. This past week, the Ohio Department of Education released its grades for Ohio schools for the third year, and while the reported results can be confusing and conflicting for parents, they are critically important tools for evaluating the kind of education our kids are receiving.

When the idea of grading schools was first discussed, it was viewed as provocative and dangerous. However, after three years of progress reports, they are proving increasingly invaluable in identifying underachieving student populations and struggling school systems. Most Americans don’t buy an appliance without reading up it in Consumer Reports beforehand. We base our movie selections on critics’ suggestions. We avoid restaurants panned by the Zagat Survey. Why then would we not expect performance reviews for those tasked with educating our children?

The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), signed into law in 2001, sought stronger accountability for performance in the classroom, greater flexibility in how schools spend federal dollars, better targeting of federal spending to proven teaching methods, and more options for families in failing school systems.

The state report card has become the tangible face of NCLBA, and this year’s progress report shows much reason for optimism that the Act’s goals are within reach. The statewide average of all K-12 students’ scores increased by more than 4% over last year’s and by 17% since the ‘99-2000 school year. Overall, 96% of percent of Ohio districts received Excellent, Effective or Continuous Improvement designations, and Ohio’s graduation rate has continued to increase, up 6 percentage points since 1997.

Equally important, NCLB is eliminating achievement gaps in race and ethnicity that have haunted our education system for decades. Over the last five years, white, African American, and Hispanic 13-year-olds have made significant gains in math nationally, and the gap between white and African-American students in reading is the smallest it’s ever been. In Ohio, the graduation rate gap between white and black students declined by 2.7 points, and gaps between low-income and non-disadvantaged students, as well as disabled and non-disabled students, have narrowed in almost every subject in every grade.

Further, Congress and the Administration continue to ensure that NCLBA is fully funded, and that our nation’s education needs are adequately met. At no point in our nation’s history has the federal government invested so heavily in education. Since 2001, federal spending on K-12 schools has increased 40% nationally, and here in Ohio, the federal investment in education is up 44%.

NCLBA is not perfect. While it is extremely important that the new standards and performance reviews be flexible enough to allow for improvements to the system, they must be static enough to ensure predictability and consistency for administrators, teachers and students. The U.S. and Ohio Departments of Education will continue to work in cooperation to achieve this important balance. But while the Act may not be perfect, it is unquestionably pure in its intentions, and both the federal and state government will continue to improve education policy to ensure that its goal of ensuring a high quality education for everyone is met.

The federal interest in education is not, however, limited to the provisions spelled out in NCLBA. I helped draft legislation to directly assist teachers by providing tax relief for teachers who incur out of pocket expenses for items they purchase for their classrooms. The bill, Teacher Tax Relief Act of 2005, will increase the tax deduction for classroom supply and professional development expenses incurred by elementary and secondary school teachers from $250 to $400, and make this deduction a permanent part of the tax code.

I am also the lead co-sponsor of a bill to expand a reform program implemented in the Columbus Public Schools called Project GRAD.  Project GRAD’s goal is to transform the lowest-performing public schools into high-performing ones by offering research-based programs in reading, math, classroom management, social services, and college preparation, and then providing a four-year college scholarship to all students who qualify. High school graduation rates for long-term participants in the program have increased by 85 percent, and of those, college bound students have earned college degrees at a rate of 89 percent above the national average. Fortune magazine has called GRAD one of the best non-profits and the Ford Foundation calls Project GRAD “one of the most promising urban education reform efforts we have seen.” Right now, only 9,000 Columbus students have access to the program. With the federal funding I am proposing, more than half of all students in the Columbus Public Schools would be able to receive this intensive instruction and aid.

The federal commitment to education is at historic levels even amid numerous competing budgetary pressures. And as our children head back to the classrooms for the start of the school year, I am confident that their future is an increasingly bright one.