AASA Rural Educators Meet With Secretary Duncan

Nov. 20, 2009 - Several weeks ago, top officials from the U.S. Department of Education reached out to AASA, seeking help identifying the needs of rural schools. Coordinating with the Department, AASA invited nine superintendents from across the country, representing a variety of rural school districts, to meet with Sec. Duncan. On Nov. 17, 2009, the nine superintendents gathered for a full day of meetings in Washington, D.C. (See the list of attendees below.)

Giving Rural Districts a Voice
The focus of the day was to provide feedback on school-improvement strategies in rural areas and initial feedback and input on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act. Participants in the meeting were able to contribute their thinking both on Capitol Hill and the Department. With the median school district size in the United States being 1,400 students, it is clear that small school districts should have a bigger say in policy discussions.

The day started early with meetings with Senate education staff to discuss the upcoming reauthorization of ESEA and also provide feedback on funding within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The afternoon was filled with three hours of meetings with Sec. Duncan and senior staff at the Department.

The meeting at the Department was broken up into three segments:

Stimulus Funding
During the first hour, participants were updated and then led in a discussion of ARRA by Deputy Sec. Tony Miller and Deputy Assistant Sec. for Rural Outreach John White. During this time, the superintendents were able to share the good, the bad and the ugly of stimulus funding including the jobs it had saved in West Virginia, the lack of new funding for Kansas and the overall concern about governors supplanting their effort in education with ARRA funding.

School-Improvement Strategies
Sec. Duncan joined meeting participants for a discussion of school-improvement strategies for the lowest-performing rural schools. During the hour he was with the participants, he did more listening then speaking. When he did talk, he was contributing to the intense conversation and following up with more questions. He was clearly interested in the feedback from the superintendents on strategies to strengthen schools in need of improvement. The discussion ranged from the need for professional development for rural principals in turn-around schools, to addressing the needs of native children, to the need for resources to rural schools via formula -- not competitive -- avenues.

ESEA Reuthorization
The final hour of the meeting was a discussion of the Department’s priority for the reauthorization of ESEA led by the assistant secretary for program planning and policy evaluation, Carmel Martin. During this discussion, the Department outlined six major areas of focus for reauthorization:

1. Raise the Bar, Close the Gap
2. Tight on Goals, Loose on Means
3. Fostering Equity, Opportunity and Reform
4. Recognize, Reward and Replicate Success
5. Develop a Culture of Innovation and Excellence
6. Optimize Investment

These areas will form the broad framework for the Department’s strategy moving forward. In addition to these areas, there was a discussion of the failures of the census to measure the poverty of school districts and a push for free and reduced lunch counts to be used instead. Finally, there was a series of conversations about teacher training and recruitment in rural schools.

Sharing Success Stories
Throughout the day, the participating superintendents tried to tell the success story of rural schools across the country and urged the Department to replicate the successful practices of rural America rather than forcing rural schools to comply with federal laws that were created for urban settings. It was clear that this meeting was just the start of the conversation with Sec. Duncan and his staff and it was clear he was ready to learn.

Meeting Attendees
The nine superintendents who met with Sec. Duncan at the Department of Education were: AASA President Mark Bielang of Paw Paw, Mich., Public Schools; Randy Mohundro of Deleon, Texas, Independent School District ; Lyn Guy of Monroe County, W.Va., Schools; Elizabeth Reust of Plainville, Kan., Unified School District 270; Timothy Mitchell of Chamberlain, S.D., School District; Kevin Mitchell of Park County, Wyo., School District 1; Deborah Jackson-Dennison of Window Rock, Ariz., Unified School District 8; Randy Shaver of Tupelo, Mis., Public School District; and Beatriz Ramirez of Raisin City, Calif., Public Schools. AASA staff attending the meeting included AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech and public policy staffers Bruce Hunter and Mary Kusler.

AASA would like to express our thanks to the superintendents who attended the meeting. It was wonderful that they were able to attend on such short notice.

By Mary Kusler, assistant director of policy and advocacy