Gotta hand it to the press office at the U.S. Department of Education. USDOE conducted a conference call for Virginia education writers regarding a pilot program announced today allowing Title I schools in Year One in four of our districts to offer tutoring instead of choice. Smart move on their part to speak directly to our Virginia education writers. It would have been helpful on this end to have an idea of what was going on.
Virginia DOE received an e-mail and a fax on the approval of the pilot program, but no notice that USDOE’s press office was conducting virtual press conference. This is a continuation of a pattern in which USDOE schedules events without giving the state education agency a “head’s up” of their plans. In my last post, I pulled a quote of Sec. Spellings from yesterday’s USDOE back-to-school news release. Here is another quote:
“No Child Left Behind is a partnership, not a mandate,” she said. “I take that partnership seriously.”
Making sure the locals are in the loop has done wonders for the relationship between Virginia DOE and our 132 school districts during the ten years since the commonwealth began its standards-based reform. A similar approach by USDOE would likely improve its NCLB “partnership” with the states.
Remember – views of the substitute blogger do not necessarily reflect those of the Eduwonk!