A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Appendix 1

The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994
Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

The Improving America's Schools Act of 1994, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), provides nearly $11 billion to school districts and schools to improve teaching and learning, primarily for economically disadvantaged students. The overhauled ESEA encourages states and schools to set high academic standards for students' academic achievement, addresses the problems of school violence and drug use, provides resources for professional development for teachers, creates incentives for educational innovation through charter schools and improved access to technology, eliminates federal red tape, and redesigns federal programs to strengthen and reinforce state and local school reforms.

Highlights of the ESEA reauthorization include:

Title I: Helping Disadvantaged Children Meet High Standards

At $6.9 billion, Title I is the largest program in ESEA. It affects more than 50,000 schools and 5 million children in high poverty areas. The new Title I focuses its resources on improving teaching and learning to help students reach higher levels of achievement. It encourages innovation by allowing funds to be used for extended-day programs, effective transitions from preschool to school, increasing parental participation, and schoolwide programs.

Title I programs will be developed around challenging state standards for what students should know and be able to do. Accountability is guaranteed through the use of high-quality state assessments for measuring students' progress toward these standards. These two fundamental changes in Title I--the role of high academic standards and the use of state assessments-- will ensure that Title I is an integral part of a state's reform efforts rather than another add-on federal program.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools

Effective instruction and learning require an environment that is both safe and drug-free. The Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act provides $481 million to create a comprehensive effort to deal with problems of school violence and drug use. The act provides greater flexibility to local school districts in designing programs, which can include comprehensive school safety strategies, coordination with community agencies, implementation of violence prevention activities and the installation of metal detectors and hiring security guards.

States and local school districts will be required to measure performance and to report publicly on progress toward meeting their goals and objectives. A new national evaluation system will be established to assess the impact of the act on youth, schools, and communities.

Professional Development

Professional development for teachers, principals, and other school staff is critical to provide the instruction and learning environments necessary to help all students reach higher levels of achievement. The new Eisenhower Professional Development program will support sustained, intensive, high-quality professional development tied to high academic standards. The program will require school districts and schools to develop plans for improving teaching. Most of the funds will go to providing district- and school-level teacher improvement efforts.

The Eisenhower Professional Development Program recognizes the different needs of schools and provides teachers and principals with important roles in determining what kind of training they need. The effort moves away from short-term, one-time professional development activities and toward more sustained, long-term efforts that become integrated into the daily life of the school.

Innovation and Flexibility

The Improving America's Schools Act provides support for the development and initial implementation of public charter schools. Charter schools seek to improve school and student performance by replacing rules-based governance with goals-based accountability. The Public Charter School Program will make grants to charter schools to design and plan their educational program and to describe the educational results the school will strive to produce.

There are many other ways in which the Improving America's Schools Act provides greater flexibility to states, school districts and schools in the implementation of ESEA programs. States and local school districts will be allowed to consolidate their administrative funds and to administer the funds in a coordinated way without having to keep detailed records. If states and local school districts discover statutory or regulatory requirements that inhibit the implementation of effective programs, they will be able to request waivers.

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