Request to Amend Accountability Plan – Pennsylvania – NCLB Policy Letters to States

June 3, 2004

Honorable Vicki Phillips
Secretary of Education
Pennsylvania Department of Education
333 Market Street, Harristown 2
Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333

Dear Secretary Phillips:

I am writing in response to Pennsylvania’s request to amend its state accountability plan under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Following our discussions with your staff, those changes that are aligned with NCLB are now included in an amended state accountability plan that Pennsylvania submitted to the Department on March 31, 2004. A list of the changes is enclosed with this letter. I am pleased to approve Pennsylvania’s amended plan, which we will post on the Department’s website.

Additionally, Pennsylvania has also submitted data on its use of multi-year averaging, and in doing so, has met the conditions of approval that were detailed in Eugene W. Hickok’s July 1, 2003 letter to you.

This letter also documents one aspect of Pennsylvania’s amendments for which final action is still needed. Pennsylvania wishes to apply a confidence interval to safe harbor determinations. Pennsylvania may use this statistical test (limited to a 75% confidence interval) for making adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations this school year. We request, however, that Pennsylvania provide impact data from the 2003-2004 AYP data regarding the use of this statistical test for “safe harbor” when available. These data will provide valuable information regarding this particular aspect of the accountability system.

If, over time, Pennsylvania makes changes to the accountability plan that has been approved, Pennsylvania must submit information about those changes to the Department for review and approval, as required by section 1111(f)(2) of Title I. Approval of Pennsylvania’s accountability plan is not also an approval of Pennsylvania’s standards and assessment system. As Pennsylvania makes changes in its standards and assessments to meet requirements under NCLB, Pennsylvania must submit information about those changes to the Department for peer review through the standards and assessment process.

Please also be aware that approval of Pennsylvania’s accountability plan for Title I, including the amendments approved above, does not indicate that the plan complies with Federal civil rights requirements, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

I hope that you have found the accountability plan amendment process effective for implementing a state accountability system that best serves the needs of Pennsylvania’s students and schools and that will lead to improving the academic achievement of all students. As evidenced by the diversity among state accountability plans and state consolidated applications, States have great flexibility in the design of their systems and implementation of particular NCLB provisions. If, as you implement your accountability plan, you find additional elements of your plan that you believe should be refined or amended for next school year to best serve the needs of your students and schools, I encourage you to explore all the areas of flexibility available to your State.

In addition to the flexibility available to States in the design and implementation of their accountability plans, I also encourage you and your districts to utilize the additional flexibility available for the administration and operation of NCLB programs. NCLB continued the flexibility available to States and districts under the 1994 reauthorization of the ESEA, including the ability to consolidate State and local administrative funds (sections 9201 and 9203), to operate schoolwide programs (section 1114). Additionally, NCLB created several new flexibility options for States and districts for the operation of federal programs. These new flexibility provisions include the State Flexibility Authority (sections 6141 through 6144), the Local Flexibility Demonstration program (sections 6151 through 6156), Transferability (sections 6121 through 6123), and the Rural Education Achievement program (sections 6201 through 6234). These flexibilities truly offer States and districts the ability to target federal resources to their unique and individual needs.

I am confident that Pennsylvania will continue to advance its efforts to hold schools and school districts accountable for the achievement of all students. I wish you well in your school improvement efforts. If I can be of any additional assistance to Pennsylvania in its efforts to implement other aspects of NCLB, please do not hesitate to call.

Sincerely,

Raymond Simon
Assistant Secretary
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

cc: Governor Edward G. Rendell

Enclosure

Amendments to the Pennsylvania’s Accountability Plan

These statements are summaries of the amendments. For complete details, please refer to the Pennsylvania Accountability plan on the Department’s website: http://www.ed.govhttps://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/stateplans03/index.html

Confidence Interval (Element 3.2)

Revision: Pennsylvania will apply a 95% confidence interval AYP status and 75% confidence interval to safe harbor decisions.

Assessment and accountability for LEP students (Element 5.4)

Revision: PA will apply the flexibility recently offered by the Department with respect to testing recently arrived LEP students in the English language proficiency assessment (required), reading/language arts (not required), and mathematics assessment (required). These test results will not be included in AYP determinations.

Other Indicators (Elements 7.1 and 7.2)

Revision: PA is changing AYP targets for attendance and graduation to 90% and 80%, respectively, and to allow continual progress from one year to the next on those indicators for schools and districts that are below the targets.

Average Participation Rate (Element 10.1)

Revision: PA will implement the flexibility provided under the Secretary’s transition authority to average participation rates for up to three years to meet the 95% student participation rate in assessments.

Decision Letters on State Accountability Plans