NOTICES
Approval of Standards of the Department of Education Necessary to Comply with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
[33 Pa.B. 2841] Section 2603-B(d)(10)(i) of the Public School Code of 1949, added by section 31 of the act of June 29, 2002 (P. L. 524 , No. 88) (Act 88), empowers the State Board of Education (State Board) to:
Approve or disapprove standards proposed by the [D]epartment [of Education] in order to comply with the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425) to maintain the eligibility of this Commonwealth to receive Federal funding for education programs. The [State B]oard shall approve or disapprove the standards within 30 days of submission to the [State B]oard's office or at its next scheduled meeting, whichever is sooner. Failure of the board to approve or disapprove the standards within the time established under this section shall be deemed an approval of the standards.24 P. S. § 26-2603-B(d)(10)(i). The standards proposed by the Department of Education (Department) and approved or deemed approved by the State Board under § 2603-B(d)(10)(i) must be deposited with the Pennsylvania Bulletin for publication. See 24 P. S. § 26-2603-B(d)(10)(ii). However, as provided by Act 88, standards promulgated by the Department under § 2603-B(d)(10) are exempt from the following laws:
(A) Sections 201 through 205 of the act of July 31, 1968 (P. L. 769, No. 240), referred to as the Commonwealth Documents Law.
(B) Section 204(b) of the act of October 15, 1980 (P. L. 950, No. 164), known as the Commonwealth Attorneys Act.
(C) The act of June 25, 1982 (P. L. 633, No. 181), known as the Regulatory Review Act.
See 24 P. S. § 26-2603-B(d)(10)(iii).
On May 21, 2003, the Department presented to the State Board proposed amendments to the Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook (Workbook) which sets forth the elements of the State Plan required for compliance with NCLB. Previously, the State Board had approved standards including Workbook elements necessary to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. § 6301 et seq. [22 Pa. Code Chapter 403] Approval of Standards of the Department of Education necessary to Comply with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 [32 Pa.B. 5151] and, Compliance With the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 [32 Pa.B. 6096].
At its meeting held May 22, 2003, the State Board approved the Resolution that delineated the changes to the Workbook. The resolution adopted by the State Board reflecting its approval of the Department standards appears as follows.
The State Board expects the Department to deposit the approved standards for publication in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
PATRICIA WHITE,
Executive Director
RESOLUTION Whereas, The United States Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) (P. L. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425), which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002; and
Whereas, NCLB, inter alia, amends Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (P. L. 89-10, 79 Stat. 27) (Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged), (20 U.S.C. § 6301 et seq.); and
Whereas, The purpose of Title I is to ensure that all children have the opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State achievement standards and academic assessments; and
Whereas, In furtherance of this purpose, Title I provides grants to State education agencies and sub-grants to local educational agencies (LEAs); and
Whereas, Progress toward the fulfillment of Title I's purpose can be made by closing the achievement gap between high and low-performing children, especially the achievement gap between disadvantaged children and their more advantaged peers; and holding schools, LEAs and States accountable for improving the academic achievement of all students; and
Whereas, State and local educational agencies must comply with the requirements of NCLB in order to maintain eligibility for continued funding under Title I; and
Whereas, Section 1111 of Title I, added by NCLB (20 U.S.C. § 6311), provides that any State desiring a grant is required to submit to the U.S. Secretary of Education a plan which, inter alia, shall demonstrate that the State has developed and is implementing a single, statewide State accountability system that will be effective in ensuring that all LEAs, public elementary schools and public secondary schools make adequate yearly progress (AYP) as defined under Section 1111(b)(2)(C) of Title I (20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(2)(C)); and
Whereas, Section 1111(b)(2)(E) of Title I, added by NCLB (20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(2)(E)), requires each State to establish a starting point for measuring the percentage of students meeting or exceeding the State's proficient level of academic achievement on the State assessments; and
Whereas, Section 1111(b)(2)(C) of Title I (20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(2)(C)) provides that the State shall define AYP in a manner that applies the same standards of achievement to all public elementary school and secondary school students in the State; is statistically valid and reliable; results in continuous and substantial academic improvement for all students; and measures the progress of public elementary schools, secondary schools, LEAs and the State based primarily on the academic assessments described in Section 1111(b)(3) of Title I (20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)); and
Whereas, Section 1111(b)(2)(C) of Title I further provides that the State must define AYP in a manner that includes separate measurable annual objectives for the achievement of all public elementary and secondary school students and the achievement of economically disadvantaged students; students from major racial and ethnic groups; students with disabilities; and students with limited English proficiency; and
Whereas, Section 1111(b)(2)(C) of Title I additionally provides that for economically disadvantaged students, students from major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and students with limited English proficiency, the disaggregation of data shall not be required in a case in which the number of students in the category is insufficient to yield statistically reliable information or the results would reveal personally identifiable information about an individual student; and section 1111(h)(2)(D) of Title I (relating to reporting requirements) (20 U.S.C. § 6311(h)(2)(D)) specifies that the number shall be determined by the State; and
Whereas, Section 1111(b)(3)(C) of Title I (20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(C)) specifically requires that, beginning no later than the 2005-06 school year, States assess all students in grades three through eight against the challenging State academic content standards in, at a minimum, math and reading and/or language arts and, beginning in the 2007-08 school year, in science for students in a minimum of one grade per elementary, middle and high school levels; and
Whereas, Section 1111(b)(3)(C)) of Title I (20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(C)) requires that State assessments must: be aligned with the State's challenging academic content and student achievement standards; provide coherent information about student achievement of those standards; be valid and reliable for the purposes for which the assessment is used; and objectively measure student achievement, knowledge and skills without evaluating or assessing personal or family beliefs and attitudes; and
Whereas, To the extent that a State adopts assessments yielding national norms at particular grade levels, those norms must be augmented with additional items to measure accurately the depth and breadth of the State content standards (34 CFR 200.3(a)(2)(ii)(A)); and
Whereas, Pennsylvania currently uses the PSSA to assess students in grades three, five, eight and eleven in reading and mathematics and to assess students in grades six, nine and eleven in writing; and
Whereas, The PSSA, which has been found to be extremely reliable in yearly contractor-conducted reliability studies, has evidenced alignment with Pennsylvania's academic content standards in both external and Teacher Advisory Committee alignment studies, has been found in independent analyses to have both technical trustworthiness and coverage of the academic content standards and has been found to lead to the increased alignment of school district curricula with academic content standards, thus meeting the requirements of NCLB; and
Whereas, Section 2603-B(d)(10) of the Public School Code of 1949 (24 P. S. § 26-2603-B(d)(10)), added by section 31 of Act 88 of 2002, provides that the State Board of Education shall have the authority and duty to approve or disapprove standards proposed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (the Department) in order to comply with the provisions of NCLB to maintain eligibility for federal funding, within thirty (30) days of submission to the State Board's office or at the State Board's next scheduled meeting, whichever is sooner; and
Whereas, On September 18, 2002, the Department presented to the State Board two sets of proposed standards necessary for compliance with the provisions of NCLB (20 U.S.C. § 6301 et seq.) and at its regular meeting, on September 19, 2002, the State Board approved both sets of proposed standards; and
Whereas, The standards approved at the September 19, 2002 meeting included the adoption of 75 as the required number of students tested (per building) for purposes of measuring the AYP of students who are members of economically disadvantaged, major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and limited English proficient students (disaggregation number); and
Whereas, The standards approved at the September 19, 2002 meeting included supplementing the administration of the PSSA with a limited number of commercially available assessments currently used as local assessments in grades four, six and seven for reading and mathematics; and
Whereas, The standards approved at the September 19, 2002 meeting were subsequently published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin (32 Pa. B. 5151) and added to the body of standards and regulations codified in Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code. (See 22 Pa. Code § 304.1 et seq.); and
Whereas, Each State receiving funds under Title I was required to submit to the United States Department of Education (USDE) a document entitled Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook (Workbook) by January 31, 2003 setting forth elements of the State's plan for compliance with NCLB including the standards as passed on September 19, 2002; and
Whereas, The Workbook was submitted to USDE early in January of 2003 by the administration of then-Governor Mark Schweiker and then-Secretary of Education, Charles Zogby; and
Whereas, On January 21, 2003, Edward G. Rendell was sworn in as Governor of Pennsylvania and Vicki L. Phillips was nominated for, and later appointed to, the position of Secretary of Education; and
Whereas, Since January, the Department has been engaged in conversations with USDE relative to the plan elements delineated in the Workbook; and
Whereas, On April 10, 2003, the chair of the State Board was present at an on-site review of the Workbook and was subsequently given updates regarding progress made on the Workbook; and
Whereas, Based on a comprehensive review of the plan, research and discussions with USDE, the Department has revisited some of the decisions made prior to January 2003 relative to elements of the plan; and
Whereas, The Department's research has revealed that when numbers larger than 40 are adopted as the disaggregation number, the number of Pennsylvania schools, and even LEAs, that do not have subgroups is excessive; and
Whereas, Having an excessive number of schools without subgroups will impede efforts to accurately measure the progress of students, schools and LEAs and will, therefore, contravene the purposes of NCLB; and
Whereas, The Department has carefully studied issues relevant to the design of an assessment model that meets NCLB's content, comparability and technical requirements; and
Whereas, The Department's research has revealed that supplementing the administration of the PSSA with other commercially available assessments that are currently used for local assessments in grades four, six and seven would require extensive augmentation to ensure that all tests are providing valid and reliable data for purposes of NCLB; and
Whereas, The costs associated with the augmentation necessary to ensure that the supplemental assessments comply with NCLB are exorbitant and would require each school district to assume a portion of the cost; and
Whereas, On May 13, 2003, the Department met with the Committee of Practitioners to provide information regarding a proposed new disaggregation number and the proposed use of a single supplemental assessment as well as to seek input from the Committee on these proposed changes; and
Whereas, The Department has determined that 40 should be adopted as the standard for the required number of students tested (per building) to form a group for purposes of measuring AYP of students who are members of economically disadvantaged, major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and limited English proficient students; and
Whereas, The Department has therefore determined that the standard establishing the required number of students tested (per building) to form a subgroup (22 Pa. Code § 403.3(c)(5)) should be amended to reflect a required number of 40, rather than 75; and
Whereas, The Department has decided to amend the standard establishing supplemental testing for grades four, six and seven (22 Pa. Code § 403.3(d)(1)(ii)) to reflect that a single assessment, chosen by the Department, will be used for each of the grades four, six and seven, rather than the Department identifying a number of commercially available assessments for use as supplemental testing; and
Whereas, The Department on May 15, 2003 submitted its proposed standards to the State Board for approval under section 2603-b(d)(10) of the Public School Code; and
Whereas, On May 21, 2003, the special committee of the State Board established to work with the Department in the development and review of standards necessary to comply with NCLB conducted a public meeting to review and discuss the amendments to the standards proposed by the Department; and
Whereas, On May 21, 2003, the NCLB Committee approved a motion to recommend to the State Board that it approve the amendments to the standards proposed by the Department; and
Whereas, At the regular business meeting of the State Board held May 22, 2003, the Secretary of Education made a presentation explaining the proposed amendments to the members of the State Board; and
Whereas, The State Board at its May 22, 2003, meeting publicly voted to approve the proposed amendments to the standards presented to it by the Department.
Now, Therefore, Be It
Resolved: That forty (40) shall be adopted as the required number of students tested (per building) to form a group for purposes of measuring AYP of students who are economically disadvantaged, members of major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, and limited English proficient students.
Resolved: That in addition to the continued administration of the PSSA, those tests shall be supplemented with a single assessment for each of the grades four, six and seven for reading and mathematics that will be determined by the Department through the Request for Proposal process.
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 03-1165. Filed for public inspection June 13, 2003, 9:00 a.m.]
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Bulletin full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
