Fact Sheet: President Clinton's Plan. to Strengthen Accountability for Resu

      PRESIDENT CLINTOND,S PLAN TO STRENGTHEN ACCOUNTABILITY FOR RESULTS IN
EDUCATION
January 18, 1999

In his State of the Union Address, President Clinton will announce a
package of accountability measures designed to hold students, teachers,
and schools to high standards, and to ensure that school districts and
states provide students with a high quality education. These proposals
will help to lift student achievement in every public school and close the
opportunity gap by giving special attention to disadvantaged students in
low-performing schools.

The PresidentD,s plan marks a sea change in national education policy --
for the first time holding states and school districts accountable for
progress and rewarding them for results.  While insisting that states and
local governments retain primary responsibility for education, President
Clinton will call on Congress to make sure federal dollars support what
works and not what doesnD,t.  His proposal emphasizes reforms that a
growing number of states, cities, and schools across the nation are
implementing and that are producing clear results.

Specifically, the President will announce that he will send Congress
legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to
ensure that schools end social promotion; teachers are qualified to teach
the subjects they are assigned; states turn around their lowest-performing
schools; parents get annual report cards on school performance; and
schools institute effective discipline pOlicies.

End Social Promotion.  The PresidentD,s proposal will require states and
school districts to end social promotion '-- the practice of promoting
students from grade to grade regardless of whether they have mastered the
appropriate material and are academically prepared to do the work at the
next level.  Students who are promoted without regard to their achievement
fall even further behind their classmates, and are more likely to lack
basic skills upon graduating from high school.

To ensure that this requirement helps more students succeed, rather than
simply increasing the number held back, states and school districts would
have to show how they will help students meet promotion standards on time
by (1) strengthening learning opportunities in the classroom with clear
standards, small classes with well-prepared teachers, high quality
professional development, and use of proven instructional practices;   (2)
identifying students who need help at the earliest possible moment; (3)
providing extended learning time, including after-school and summer school
for students who need extra help; and (4) developing an effective remedial
plan, with intensive intervention, for students who still do not meet the
standards, so they can get back on track in their schooling.

In 1996 President Clinton challenged every state and school district to ad
opt policies to end social promotion and require students to pass high
school graduation exams. Twenty-six states now have high school exit
exams, and last year four states adopted policies to stop promoting
unprepared students from grade to grade.  A growing number of urban school
districts, including Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington
D.C. are adopting similar policies.  In

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Chicago, which three years ago ended the practice of social promotion in a
way that gives students who need it substantial extended learning time,
.,.
citywide math and reading scores have gone up every year, with the largest
gains among the most disadvantaged students. President ClintonD,s FY 2000
budget proposes to triple federal funding for after-school and summer
school programs (from $200 million to $600 million) to help schools ending
social promotion give students the extra help they need to succeed.

Put Qualified Teachers in the Classroom.  According to the National
Commission on Teaching and AmericaD,s Future, one of the most important
factors in improving student achievement is the knowledge and skills
teachers bring to the classroom. Yet every year, approximately 50,000
individuals teach on "emergency" certificates, which means they do not
meet the standards the state has set for certification.  In addition,
numerous teachers teach subjects for which they lack adequate preparation,
with fully one quarter of secondary school teachers lacking even a minor
in their main teaching field.  Students in schools with the highest
concentrations of poverty -- those who often need the most help from the
best teachers -- are most likely to be in classrooms with teachers who are
not fully qualified: for example, in schools with the highest minority
enrollment, students have a less than 50 percent chance of having a math
or science teacher with a license and degree in the field.

The PresidentD,s proposal will require states to adopt performance
examinations for all new teachers, requiring them to demonstrate both
subject-matter knowledge and teaching expertise.  The proposal also will
require states and school districts to phase out, over five years, the use
of teachers with emergency certificates and the practice of assigning
teachers to subjects for which they lack adequate preparation.  To support
these new teacher quality standards, the proposal will provide resources
to help states strengthen teacher certification standards, test new
teachers, provide training to current teachers, and give incentives to
recruit more highly qualified teachers.

Turn Around Low Performing Schools.  The PresidentD,s proposal will
require states to identify the schools with the lowest achievement levels
and least improvement and take corrective action to turn them around.
These corrective actions, based on a careful assessment of each schoolD,s
needs, would include steps such as intensive teacher training, support to
improve school discipline, and the implementation of proven approaches to
school reform.  If these actions do not result in improved student
achievement within two years, the proposal would require states to take
additional corrective actions, such as permitting students to attend other
public schools; reconstituting the school, by fairly evaluating the staff
and making staff changes as appropriate; or closing the school and
reopening it as a charter school or with an entirely new staff.  Nineteen
states currently take similar actions to help improve low-performing
schools, and experience demonstrates that when these interventions
carefully implemented and accompanied by the resources to support change,
schools improve and student achievement increases. The PresidentD,s FY
2000 budget contains $200 million to help states begin taking these steps
immediately.

Issue School Report Cards.  The PresidentD,s proposal will require states
to distribute to all parents annual report cards for each school and
school district, as well as the state as a whole. The report cards will
include information on student achievement, teacher professional

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qualifications, class size, school safety, and other factors that will
help parents to judge the performance of the schools. Where appropriate,


the report cards also will show the academic achievement of ethnic and
racial subgroups, to ensure accountability for helping all students
achieve. Thirty-six states currently publish or require local school
districts to publish school report cards, and five additional states will
begin the practice in the next two years. A recent report by Public
Agenda, however, shows that only 31 percent of parents had seen these
report cards. The PresidentO, s. proposal will help ensure that all parents
in all states have access to the information they need to evaluate the
quality of their schools and identify the areas in which improvement is
needed.

Adopt Discipline Policies.  Schools must be a place of learning.
President Clinton already has challenged states, communities, and schools
to take a number of steps to restore order and safety, such as adopting
school uniforms, enforcing truancy laws, and imposing curfews.   But in
some schools, the breakdown of classroom discipline remains one of the
biggest obstacles to learning and one of the greatest concerns for
teachers, students, and parents alike. The PresidentO,s proposal will
require states and school districts to adopt discipline policies to make
sure students have the chance to learn and teachers have the chance to
teach.

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