We plan on continuing with this model of peer-to-peer sharing for future superintendent calls, so if you have suggestions for topics we should cover or areas that you'd like to know more about, please let me know by emailing me at OESE@ed.gov with the subject line "Superintendent Update."

Thanks for all of the hard work you do for kids, each and every day. Happy holidays to all of you!

 

Since the President’s announcement, 39 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have signaled their intent to seek flexibility from NCLB.  The next deadline for requests is February 21, 2012.  States can also make requests later in the spring. To learn more about ESEA Flexibility and to view States' requests, visit http://www.ed.gov/esea/flexibility.

OESE welcomes two new program offices: the Office of Safe & Healthy Students (OSHS) and the Office of School Turnaround (OST).

The OSHS, formerly known as the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, administers programs that help ensure safe and healthy learning environments for students, including those that deal with safe and supportive schools; health, mental health, environmental health, and physical education; drug-violence prevention; character and civic education; and homeland security and emergency management.

The OST is charged with providing financial assistance and other support, including through the administration of the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program, for State and district efforts to turn around the lowest-performing five percent of schools in each State.

Learn more about these two program offices by visiting their websites, which can be found on OESE's homepage.

The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia is holding a series of webinars on important topics for education and career training in rural areas. Learn more here or visit the REL Appalachia Web site, http://www.relappalachia.org/. The REL Appalachia serves the applied education research needs of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. REL Appalachia is part of a system of 10 research laboratories funded by the ED’s Institute of Education Sciences, which supports efforts to improve public education at the state, local, and school levels.

Supporters of education in rural areas can stay connected to ED's rural efforts by subscribing to the Rural Education listserv at www.ed.gov.

On December 2, the Departments of Justice and Education released two guidance documents -- one for school districts and one for colleges and universities -- detailing the flexibility that the Supreme Court has provided to educational institutions to promote diversity and, in the case of K-12 schools, reduce racial isolation among students, within the confines of the law.  This guidance makes clear that educators may permissibly consider the race of students in carefully constructed plans to promote diversity or reduce racial isolation.  It also recognizes the learning benefits to students when institutions include students of diverse backgrounds.  The guidance is primarily based on three Supreme Court decisions which specifically addressed the consideration of race by institutions.  It provides numerous examples of options that schools, colleges, and universities can consider to further diversify or reduce racial isolation.  For K-12 schools, the guidance discusses school and program siting, drawing school attendance boundaries, grade realignment, and restructuring feeder patterns, among other options.  In postsecondary institutions, race may be taken into account in admissions, in pipeline programs, in recruitment, and in mentoring, tutoring, retention, and support programs as efforts to achieve diversity.  Learn more: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201111.html.

serve disadvantaged students spent less state and local funding on teachers and other personnel than schools that did not receive Title I money at the same grade level in the same district.  Learn more: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/title-i/school-level-expenditures/school-level-expenditures.pdf.

PPSS also released a report summarizing current approaches in the 46 States with anti-bullying laws and the 41 States that have created anti-bullying policies as models for schools.  From 1999 to 2010, more than 120 bills were enacted by State legislatures to either introduce or amend statutes that address bullying and related behaviors in schools.  Twenty-one bills were enacted in 2010, and another eight bills were signed into law through April 30, 2011.  Of the 46 anti-bullying laws in place, 36 have provisions that prohibit cyber-bullying, while 13 have provisions that grant schools the authority to address off-campus behavior that creates a hostile school environment.  Learn more: http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/bullying/state-bullying-laws/state-bullying-laws.pdf.

The High School Equivalency Program (HEP) helps migratory and seasonal farmworkers (or children of such workers) who are 16 years of age or older and not currently enrolled in school to obtain the equivalent of a high school diploma and, subsequently, to gain employment or begin postsecondary education or training.

Deadline to Apply: January 18, 2012

Type of Grant: Discretionary/Competitive

Who May Apply: Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), Nonprofit Organizations

Learn More: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/hep/applicant.html

The College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) assists students who are migratory or seasonal farmworkers (or children of such workers) enrolled in their first year of undergraduate studies at an Institute of Higher Education (IHE.) The funding supports completion of the first year of studies.

Deadline to Apply: January 18, 2012

Type of Grant: Discretionary/Competitive

Who May Apply: Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), Nonprofit Organizations

Learn More: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/camp/applicant.html

Acting Assistant Secretary Michael Yudin will participate in the opening session of the National Title I Association's Annual Conference in Seattle. He and other OESE staff will also participate in various sessions throughout the conference. Learn more: http://www.nationaltitleiassociation.org/page/T12Conference/?

Acting Assistant Secretary Michael Yudin will join Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Alexa Posny for a panel sponsored by the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education. The panel will focus on ESEA flexibility and teacher evaluation system reforms, and how these efforts may affect students with disabilities.