Education Week - February 27, 2019 - 19

States See Mixed Impact
As Ed. Dept. Cuts Staff
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

tricts to take the lead, since they
are closer to the students and, in
the administration's view, can best
serve their needs.
But civil rights advocates have
serious concerns about whether a
smaller team can adequately ensure
that states are following federal
rules for the most-vulnerable groups
of students, including poor children
and those of color.
And there are big questions about
how the changes-especially the
staff reductions-are affecting the
department's core "customers": state
officials, who often look to the federal
government for technical assistance
and to explain ESSA, a relatively
new and often murky federal law.
Some state officials say they
haven't noticed much difference
between their interactions with
staffers during the Obama administration and the Trump years, and
they attribute any changes to ESSA,
which turned over a lot of decisionmaking authority to states.
But other officials describe long
waits for answers to technical questions, harried staffers, and a lack
of overall support and technical
know-how, including when it comes
to improving the lowest-performing
schools.
In the past, "you'd reach out to a
program officer and you'd get timely
responses to inquiries," said one
state official who, like five others interviewed for this article, requested
anonymity to speak candidly about
interactions with the department.
"Now what we're seeing in some in-

stances is that responses are going
unanswered for months at a time."
But others say they can't tell
the department has slimmed its
ranks-and that the new leeway
gives them room to make progress
on their own priorities.
"I'm enjoying the flexibility to get
our legs underneath us," said Matthew Blomstedt, the commissioner
of education in Nebraska, which
has recently made changes to testing and other areas. He thinks the
department hasn't veered from its
mission of working to protect vulnerable children. Officials pushed
Nebraska hard on its ESSA plan,
one of the last to be approved, he
said. "I give them credit for making us think a bit harder about the
equity charge under [the law]."

'Dear Parent' Letters
For her part, DeVos appears proud
that her agency has focused its efforts on educating families about
the law, issuing, for instance, a
parent guide to ESSA, rather than
reams of guidance for state officials.
"Instead of 'Dear Colleague' letters, I much prefer 'Dear Parent' letters," she told the National School
Boards Association last month,
according to prepared remarks. "I
encourage you to lead within your
state. Embrace the freedom ESSA
allows and the freedom for which
many of you fought."
The Education Department did
not respond to questions about how
state officials perceive its interactions with agency staff.
Ary Amerikaner, who served as

SHRINKING STAFF
The U.S. Department of Education has seen a reduction
in staff overseeing K-12 education in the past two years.
That includes career staffers and political appointees.
The drop in full-time staff positions comes amid changes
at the department, including the office of innovation and
improvement being folded into the office of elementary and
secondary education.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education

a deputy assistant secretary in
OESE during the Obama administration, worries that the thinning
ranks may jeopardize the department's ability to support states
in educating historically disadvantaged students and to provide
needed oversight.
"As a civil rights advocate, I know
that some state leaders are trying
to do the right thing, and I'm worried for them that they are not getting answers from the department
that are allowing them to move

I don't think [the
department] should
be given a pass when
states start to create
lower expectations ..."
CHRISTOPHER RUSZKOWSKI
Former New Mexico secretary
of education

forward," said Amerikaner, who
is now the vice president of P-12
policy, practice, and research at the
Education Trust, a civil rights organization. "History tells us some
state leaders are not trustworthy
when it comes to vulnerable kids,
and we need the federal government to be playing their role as
watchdog. Without sufficient bodies, the OESE can't do either of
those things well."
But Michael J. Petrilli, who
served in the Education Department during President George W.
Bush's administration, said now
that ESSA has turned over much
decisionmaking authority to states
"there's not a ton for those folks to
do, or at least there's not as much
for them to do."
"Those staff cuts reflect an administration that really is not trying to lead when it comes to K-12
education," said Petrilli, who is the
president of the Thomas B. Fordham
Institute, a think tank. "They do not
see it as their role to have a vision
of what school improvement looks
like or how [federal funds] should
be spent or what the next set of
reforms should be at the state and
local level."

Dwindling Morale

Political Appointees

January 2017
January 2019

The total number of staff members in the elementary and secondary education office has dropped
from 294 career staffers at the end
of Obama's tenure to 258 midway
through Trump's term, in part
due to attrition. And the number
of political appointees, such as
deputy assistant secretaries, has
fallen, too, from 15 at the end of

the Obama administration to nine
about midway through Trump's
term.
One potential reason for the departures: a dip in employee morale.
The department ranks dead last
among 27 midsize federal agencies
when it comes to employee job satisfaction, according to a December report from the nonprofit Partnership
for Public Service that ranks "the
best places to work" in the federal
government.
What's more, a separate report
administered by the Office of Personnel Management earlier this
year, found that morale had slipped
at the Education Department. Only
61 percent of employees felt the
agency was successfully completing its mission in 2018, compared
with 73.2 in 2016, before the Trump
team took office.
The current leaders at the department "really see the role of
[the agency] as one of compliance,
to only hold states accountable for
what is in the law," as opposed to
helping them look beyond it, said
one recently departed department
employee. "There's a space for leadership that's just going to be a void."
It's clear that career staffers are
trying to do more with less-but
they are largely succeeding, one
state official said.
"You can definitely tell they're
stressed and busy and trying to
cover way more than they probably can handle. But at least the
folks that we work with have done
everything they can to get back to
us." The official said the department is responding to states within
the time limits set by ESSA, "but it
definitely is taking every last second of what they've got."
An official in another state said the
department has been responsive to
any questions asked, but the official's
state has largely steered clear of asking the federal government for help
or clarification.
"I think in some ways that's an approach that many states are taking,
to not necessarily ask a lot of questions," the official said.

'Making This Stuff Up'
Some state officials, though, say
things are slipping through the
cracks.
For instance, one state official
said the department didn't provide
clarity on how to distribute a federal grant until deep into the school
year. That created a "potential
mess," the official said.
State officials also say they could
use more clarity on parts of ESSA
they are not getting now from the
federal government, particularly on
pinpointing research-based solutions for low-performing schools-
what the law calls "evidence-based
interventions."
"There's not enough support coming from the federal government
in terms of what constitutes ac-

ceptable interventions," one official
said. "We've had to do a lot of [professional development] on our own
on how to vet evidence."
This official's state wants to make
sure its districts are only spending school improvement dollars "on
things that are proven to work,"
this official added. But without
clear direction from the department, districts are pushing back on
the state's efforts to impose stricter
standards for what constitutes
a school improvement strategy
backed by evidence, the official said.
An official in another state has
had largely positive interactions
with department staff but still sees
the leeway as a double-edged sword.
"It's good to have flexibility, but
then you really are making this
stuff up," that official said. "I would
like to have some guidance because I imagine their guidance is
research-based."
This official wishes the department were more proactive, offering additional assistance on things
like college-and-career readiness,
prekindergarten, serving Englishlearners, and strategies for fixing low-performing schools. That's
something former staffers say is
harder to do with fewer hands.
"That's what we try to do for districts, anticipate the needs," the official said.
But others see the changes as
welcome-and say they may not go
far enough yet.
"There's still a little bit of a disconnect between the appointees and
the career," an official from another
state said. "In general, we appreciate less prescriptiveness. I think
it's going to take some time for the
general ethos of the DeVos regime-
less prescriptive, more-hands-off-
to actually spread to the people
doing the work."
Melissa McGrath, the chief of
staff for the Council of Chief State
School Officers, which represents
state school chiefs, said the interactions have been smooth.
"CCSSO has maintained a productive working relationship with
the U.S. Department of Education,
and they have been responsive to
our organization."
Christopher Ruszkowski, who
until recently served as secretary
of education in New Mexico, said
he felt like the ESSA plan process
offered states "healthy scrutiny."
But he's worried the department's
hands-off attitude could lead it
to approve changes to plans that
water down accountability. (The
state's new governor, Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham, has pledged
to make big changes to the ESSA
plan Ruszkowski put in place.)
"I don't think [the department]
should be given a pass when states
start to create lower expectations
for teachers and lower expectations
for students, when they start to not
hold students accountable for performance," he said.

Career Staffers

294

January 2017
January 2019

258
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