ESEA: A Blueprint for Reform Presented by, Kristie Renzi & Bridget B. Potts

President Barack Obama States: We must reform our schools to accelerate student achievement, close achievement gap, inspire our children to excel, and turn around those schools that aren't providing students with the education they need to succeed in college and a career.

Blueprint for Reform will:  Ask states to set standards that prepare students for college and careers  Create a fair accountability system that recognizes and rewards growth and progress  Provide flexibility to state and local educators to innovate and create local solutions  Focus rigorous, meaningful interventions and support for the lowest-performing schools that also have not demonstrated any progress

The Top 10 Reasons why A Blueprint for Reform will NOT achieve its’ intended outcomes:

The Top Ten: 10. If you are a highly effective teacher as a reward you will be sent to a low-performing school. 9. College and Career-Ready standards will be created in each state yet there is no requirement for curriculum to be developed to support the new standards. 8. In order to get additional funds you must apply for competitive grants.

The Top Ten: 7. If you are a high-performing school district, your funds will be cut in order to fund the low- performing schools so that there is equity. 6. The blueprint does not focus on making the smart kids feel cool rather making the smart kids invisible. 5. There is a focus on college teacher preparation programs to measure teacher effectiveness rather than lack of resources, no time to collaborate, not enough professional development opportunities and much more.

The Top Ten: 4. In order to assist with teaching migrant students the Blueprint is committed to acquiring more accurate and timely data on these students. 3. The expectation is that we teach a well- rounded curriculum at the same time that we achieve mastery in language arts, mathematics and science. 2. Since teachers were concerned about teaching to a test under NCLB, the Blueprint requires that states create a better assessment.

And the number 1 reason why is…