Legislative Update November 16, 2007

Quick Report

Override Vote

The House of Representatives by a vote of 277-141 failed to override the president’s veto of the Appropriations for the Departments of Labor/Health and Human Services/Education for the current fiscal year. The Senate will not push for a vote. There is a plan circulating in the Senate to redraft the spending plan splitting the difference between what the Congress proposed and vetoed and what the President’s budget outlined. In round figures this results in a loss of about $2.25 billion in funds from the Congressional proposal. Currently, the government is functioning under a continuing resolution which expires on December 14.

House Committee Action on Higher Education Act

The House Education and Labor Committee passed, 45- 0, a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. It is expected that this bill will be acted on by the full House when they return in January. During the debate, which stretched over two days, the Committee accepted 12 Republican amendments.

Head Start Reauthorization Going to President’s Desk

The House and Senate have agreed to the same set of changes to Head Start and the legislation now goes to the president for his expected signature. In this revised Head Start is a new focus on literacy. A background memo is being prepared to brief IRA members as to the new literacy sections of this Act.

Reports

NAEP’S 2007 Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA)

NAEP’S 2007 Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) was released Thursday, November 15, 10:00 am. (The participating urban districts’ scores in reading and math are reported separately from the NAEP states results.)

Reading scores for 4th and 8th graders are generally the same or have increased slightly since 2002, when the TUDA began collecting these statistics from volunteer urban public school districts. The exception: Houston’s 4th grade reading scores dropped since 2005 to the same level recorded for 2002. Only Atlanta and DC posted reading gains in both 4th and 8th grade.

The Nation’s Report Card Reading 2007: Trial Urban District Assessment and the Nation’s Report Card Mathematics 2007: Trial Urban District Assessment are at http://nationsreportcard.gov/

National Assessment of Title I: Final Report

This Congressionally mandated two-volume report, “Summary of Key Findings,” presents findings on the implementation and impact of the Title I program. Volume I contains key findings on the implementation of the program under No Child Left Behind, and Volume II reports on follow-up findings from Closing the Reading Gap, an evaluation of the impact of supplemental remedial reading programs on the achievement of 3rd and 5th grade students. For the summary and full report go to:http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20084012/index.asp