American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
On February 13, 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion “stimulus package” designed to create jobs, spur economic activity, and “lay the foundation for a sustainable 21st century economy.”
One of the largest commitments included in the stimulus package was to education, with nearly $100 billion dollars set aside for America’s schools. The goal of the education stimulus is twofold: to help school districts meet immediate needs, such as dealing with budget shortfalls and potential teacher layoffs, and also to promote long-term reform to America’s schools. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Education has identified four core reforms that will help our schools meet the goals of dramatically improving student achievement and closing the achievement gap:
- Adopting rigorous college- and career-ready standards and high-quality assessments;
- Establishing data systems and using data for improvement;
- Increasing teacher effectiveness and equitable distribution of effective teachers;
- Turning around the lowest-performing schools.
In a document entitled
“Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement,” the Department of Education presents five questions decision makers must ask when considering the best way to use ARRA funds. Those questions are:
- Does it drive results for students?
- Does it increase teacher capacity?
- Does it accelerate reform?
- Does it avoid the cliff and improve productivity?
- Does it foster continuous improvement?
Regarding teacher capacity, the document states:
“Teacher effectiveness is a major influence on students’ academic success. Districts and school leaders can improve teacher effectiveness and address inequitable teacher distribution through how they recruit, hire, induct, develop, evaluate, advance, and compensate teachers. Moreover, they can create the school conditions that foster teacher effectiveness and retention such as excellent school leadership, time for collaboration, and a culture of continuous improvement.”
Since its inception, the National Staff Development Council has been committed to ensuring that teachers have the tools necessary to ensure all students achieve. We believe this is achieved by applying high standards for professional development for everyone who affects student learning. NSDC views high-quality staff development programs as essential to creating schools in which all students and staff members are learners who continually improve their performance.
As a provision of ARRA, stimulus funds must be spent no later than September of 2011. While schools and districts have just two years to spend this money, the key to ensuring long-term reform through ARRA is making sure districts spend their money on initiatives that have the capacity to create systemic changes in how they do business, and, more important, have the maximum effect on student achievement. The passage of ARRA is and the money made available to schools through the act is an opportunity to make long-term investments in proven strategies that will change the way we teach, learn, and lead in our classrooms.
As part of its commitment to ensuring that every educator engages in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves, NSDC provides a wide range of custom-designed services that have proven to have positive, long-term effects on student learning. The information that follows provides an overview of these services, as well as how each of them have impacted students and teachers in districts across the country. It is our hope that schools and districts wishing to make long-term investments in teacher professional learning that has a direct and sustainable impact on student achievement will consider working with NSDC to implement one of these strategies.
