Education Week - January 7, 2015 - 20

GoVErnMEnt & polItIcS
Harkin's Deep Imprint
As Feisty Progressive
Seen in Federal Policy
Now-retired senator key education advocate
By Lauren Camera
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, the Iowa
Democrat who served for nearly four
decades in Congress between both
chambers, kept two items hanging on
his office wall that he looked at each
time he left to cast a vote, attend a
committee hearing, or work on a bill.
One was a framed drawing of the
house in Slovenia that his mother,
Frances Valentine, was born in and
where she lived until the age of 25.
The house had a dirt floor and no
running water.
The other was his father's Works
Progress Administration card from
1939, which asked him to report to
work as soon as possible, for $40.30
a month. His father, Patrick Francis
Harkin, who had worked in the coal
mines of southern Iowa, was unemployed
at the time, and his mother
was pregnant with Mr. Harkin, the
youngest of six children, who was
born four months, to the day, after his
father received that wpa card.
"There were no jobs, and life
looked pretty bleak," explained
Sen. Harkin during his farewell
address Dec. 12 on the floor of the
U.S. Senate. "Things looked hopeless,
and then my father, who only
had a 6th grade education, got that
letter from Franklin Roosevelt and
got a job. It was important for a lot
of reasons, not only for money and
the dignity of work, but it gave my
father hope."
The story is the backdrop to Sen.
Harkin's entire legislating philosophy,
which was guided by the need to
ensure a ladder of opportunity exists
for those who want and need it.
The progressive Democrat, who
championed education equality and
the rights of people with disabilities,
cast his last vote on the evening of
Dec. 16, closing the curtain on both
the 113th Congress and a storied career
on Capitol Hill.
Headed East
Sen. Harkin grew up in Cumming,
Iowa, population 350.
After working his way through the
University of Iowa in Iowa City with
help from a Navy rotc scholarship,
and after that five years spent as a
Navy pilot, Mr. Harkin first came to
Washington in 1969 as staff member
for Rep. Neal Smith, D-Iowa,
who was investigating the military's
progress in Vietnam.
During a tour of South Vietnam,
Mr. Harkin discovered and photographed
"tiger cages," hidden prisons
where prisoners of the United
States' South Vietnamese allies
were abused and tortured. Over the
objections of his superiors, he provided
the photos to Life magazine,
which simultaneously exposed gross
violations of human rights on the
part of South Vietnam and further
energized the anti-war movement in
the United States.
The decision cost Mr. Harkin
his job, but he didn't stay away
for long. He earned his law degree
from Catholic University in Washington
and in 1974 was elected to
the U.S. House of Representatives,
and a decade later to the Senate.
Advancing the rights of students
and people with disabilities was one
of Sen. Harkin's signature issues. He
Added Waiver Leeway for Some States
By Alyson Klein
and breathing room to implement assessments."
States
that are seeking to renew
their waivers from provisions of the
No Child Left Behind Act and are in
the midst of making the transition to
new "college- and career-ready" assessments
can ask for permission to
hit the pause button on their school
ratings through the 2015-16 school
year, under new guidelines from the
U.S. Department of Education.
Schools in states that get the flexibility-which
is being offered through
the waiver-renewal process-could remain
frozen in place, accountabilitywise,
for one school year. That means
schools could perform poorly on the
new tests and wouldn't have to worry
about being bumped down into "priority"
or "focus" status, the two waiver
categories for lower-performing
schools. Public perception would still
be a concern, though, since test scores
would still be public even if they didn't
result in accountability changes.
Advocates for states were pleased
with the change, tucked away in
frequently-asked-questions about
waiver renewals published by the
department last month. "We're happy
that they are offering this flexibility,"
said Carissa Miller, the deputy executive
director of the Washington-based
Council of Chief State School Officers.
"From the get-go, we wanted the space
And Daria Hall, the director of K-12
policy development at the Education
Trust, an organization in Washington
that advocates for poor and minority
children, thinks that the idea of
a one-year pause is smart policy. But
she cautioned that accountability
shouldn't be suspended indefinitely.
"This is something we think is necessary
for the first year of a brandnew
assessment," she said. "We think
a one-year pause is reasonable policy.
We need to be really mindful that this
doesn't slip into a two-year or fouryear
pause."
Some Limitations Apply
Notably, the flexibility doesn't necessarily
extend to every waiver state.
States that want to pause their rating
systems will have to let the department
know that in their renewal
applications, and explain their reasoning.
In addition, the option only
applies to states that are rolling out
new tests this school year.
The Education Department has
already allowed some states to take
a pause on accountability as they
make the transition to new collegeand
career-ready assessments. Sixteen
states received "double-testing"
waivers allowing schools that were
20 | EDUCATION WEEK | January 7, 2015 | www.edweek.org
PAUSE BUTTON
piloting the new assessments in the
2013-14 school year to use only one
test, for some or even all of their
schools. Some states got double-testing
waivers for all their students-
including California, which doesn't
even have an nclb act waiver.
It's unclear if states and schools
that have already gotten a doubletesting
waiver will be eligible for the
newest flexibility-if so, that could
amount to a two-year pause in accountability
for some.
The latest offer of flexibility doesn't
come as a surprise, said Anne Hyslop,
a senior policy analyst at Bellwether
Education Partners, a consulting
organization in Washington
and an expert on nclb waivers. In
addition to the double-testing waivers,
she noted that the department
stayed mum when states developed
"long, drawn-out" transition plans to
the Common Core State Standards.
But she said she's hoping the department
sticks to its word and
doesn't offer an accountability pause
to states that aren't trying out new
assessments this year.
"This kind of flexibility isn't going to
be appropriate for all states," she said.
The department also made it clear
in its new guidance that it is offering
states an incentive-$1 million
a year-to participate in an evaluation
that would help determine
The U.S. Department of Education added a
few new wrinkles and incentives for some
states looking to extend their waivers from provisions of
the No Child Left Behind Act, tucking them into answers to
"frequently asked questions" listed in recent guidance on
renewals. Among the highlights:
* States transitioning to new college- and career-ready assessments can
ask for a one year "pause" on their school rating systems, so ratings
would remain steady through the 2015-16 school year.
* States that want to participate in an evaluation of how the waivers
have affected student outcomes would get a $1 million incentive to do
so, and could even be eligible for a longer renewal.
* Renewal applications will be reviewed by Education Department staff
members, not by peer reviewers, to help streamline the process.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education
whether waivers actually worked
when it comes to moving the needle
on student achievement. And it seems
possible that states could even get to
keep their waivers for up to four years
if they participate in the evaluation.
A state may "request and receive
approval of its [Elementary and
Secondary Education Act] flexibility
renewal request for a fourth year,
through the 2018-2019 school year,
if a funded evaluation would benefit
from an additional year of implementation,"
wrote Deborah S. Delisle, the
assistant secretary for elementary
and secondary education in a letter
to states highlighting key parts of
the frequently asked questions.
But the Obama administration
will be long gone by 2018-19, and it's
an open question whether the next
president will continue with the
waivers, much less the evaluations.
It would have been better if the department
had started this initiative
earlier, Ms. Hyslop said. Still, this is
"better late than never."
No Peer Reviewers
Another twist: There won't be
peer reviewers for the waiver renewals.
All of the work of assessing
state applications will fall to department
staff.
The guidance is also notable for
Then-Chairman Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa, listens
during an executive
session of the Senate
Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions
Committee last
September, in his final
term in Congress before
retiring.
iStockphoto
T.J. Kirkpatrick for Education Week-File
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - January 7, 2015

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