Our Advocacy Agenda

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The Education Trust promotes and supports policies that raise student achievement, close achievement gaps, and ensure all students can succeed. Click the links below to learn more about our advocacy work. Stay up to date on our work by checking this space frequently.

CONGRESS IN REVIEW - 2012

As last year and the 112th Congress drew to a close, we thought it appropriate to reflect on the education related work that Congress, the White House, and the Department of Education undertook during the last two years. These two years have been busy ones for education — we had Race to the Top competitions, waivers of No Child Left Behind, two Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bills in Congress, and serious funding challenges to some core higher education programs.

Trying to reduce all those different and disparate actions into one assessment of whether it had been a good or bad Congress for equity seemed impossible to us. So we decided not to do it. Instead, we’ve assessed the impact of each action based on whether it had the potential to improve educational equity. This infographic represents our resulting assessment. Put simply: The 112th Congress was an educational equity rollercoaster.

 

COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY 
Staggering increases in college prices, and public policies that exacerbate existing inequalities, continue to threaten the ability of low- and middle-income students, as well as students of color, to afford higher education.

 Recent Actions

  • Co-signed by TICAS, Ed Trust's May 15 letter to Rep. Joe Courtney supports the Student Loan Relief Act of 2013.
  • Ed Trust released a statement urging Congress to work together to maintain the interest rate on subsidized student loans for undergraduates at 3.4%, rather than allowing it to double to 6.8%.
  • Ed Trust Vice President Jose Cruz testified before the U.S. Senate HELP Committee on the importance of keeping college affordable for low- and moderate-income students.

 For more information:

ACCOUNTABILITY IN K-12 EDUCATION

Our schools aren’t doing the job we need them to do. American students trail behind those in many other developed nations, our employers report that young people don’t have the skills and knowledge needed for the workforce, and college remediation rates remain high. In addition, glaring gaps in academic achievement and graduation rates separate low-income students and students of color from other students.

Our nation needs accountability systems that set ambitious achievement goals, provide clear information to parents and community members, and require decisive action when expectations are not met. These systems will help ensure that federal investments in education actually improve achievement and close gaps between groups, applying pressure where needed to accelerate the pace of improvement.

 Recent Actions

  • Learn about No Child Left Behind and the waiver process, including the poor history of state goal setting. Check out Ed Trust’s statement on first round waivers, analysis of the accountability comments of the first round winners, and listen to Ed Trust’s joint webinar with the National Center for Learning Disabilities analyzing the content of those first 11 approved applications.
  • The Education Trust joined a broad coalition of 40 other civil rights, disability, business, and education organizations in a letter to House Ed & Workforce Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.), opposing the Student Success Act. Among other things, the coalition opposes the bill's lack of accountability standards for achievement and learning gains by subgroups of disadvantaged students.
  • The Education Trust joined more than 30 other education reform groups signing a letter to the Secretary of Education calling for subgroup accountability, while the Tri-Caucus sent a letter to the House and Senate education committees calling for the same.

For more information:

SUPPORTING EDUCATORS AND PROMOTING QUALITY INSTRUCTION

Teachers are by far the most important in-school factor in determining whether our students succeed and our nation’s schools improve. An ever stronger and more sophisticated body of scholarship confirms what parents have long suspected: Highly effective teachers help children soar while ineffective teachers actually hobble students’ chances for success. That's why ensuring that our teacher force is as strong as possible and that we don’t keep assigning our weakest teachers to the children who most need our strongest are absolutely critical to boosting overall achievement and closing the longstanding gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from their peers.

Recent Actions

For more information:

FISCAL EQUITY AND COMPARABILITY

High-poverty schools need access to the same resources as low-poverty schools, whether that means  money or, more importantly, effective instruction. Legislative loopholes and other policy choices have resulted in hidden funding gaps and inequitable access to effective teaching. We are promoting ways to eliminate these inequities.

Recent Actions

For more information:

HIGH STANDARDS AND HIGH-QUALITY ASSESSMENTS

The common core state standards and assessments have the potential to replace the existing haphazard patchwork of state standards and assessments and to help states raise the bar for students across the country. Although the common core effort is state-led and non-federal, Congress can help support states through the transition to these stronger standards and linked assessments.

Recent Actions

For more information:

  • Check out our fact sheet to find out how Congress can provide support and incentives for states as they transition from current standards and assessments to new, higher college- and career-ready standards.
  • Read our publication “Shut Out of the Military: Today’s High School Education Doesn’t Mean You’re Ready for Today’s Army," to learn about how important high standards are for ensuring that our young people are prepared for the careers they want. For example, more than one in five young people with a high school diploma who are interested in enlisting do not meet the U.S. Army’s minimum eligibility standards.
  • Click here for further reading.

PUBLIC INFORMATION AND REPORTING

If parents are to engage effectively with their children’s schools, they need to be well-informed. Sustained community engagement in schools, a key component of student success, depends on the flow of quality information to parents and other stakeholders.

Recent Actions

  • Read more about the type of information states and districts should be required to collect and report in this fact sheet.
  • In “Parents Want to Know,” The Education Trust outlines how the data collection required by current federal law fails to meet the needs of parents. The brochure suggests six key areas in which parents need more and better information: student achievement, climate, funding, high schools, school districts, and teachers.

For more information:

Other Recent Efforts:

  • In response to increasing gun violence in schools and communities across the country, Ed Trust sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to support S. 649, the "Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act of 2013," which seeks to curb gun violence.
  • Ed Trust and 145 other national organizations crafted a letter to President Obama outlining priorities for dealing with the fiscal cliff. Those priorities are, among others, no more cuts to non-defense discretionary programs, including the education programs, and no extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of people.
  • Ed Trust, along with 31 other organizations, sent a letter to Secretary Duncan asking him to stand tough on gainful employment even in the face of the court ruling vacating much of last year’s final rule. The letter also asked the Secretary to use his existing authority to enhance consumer protections for students at for-profit colleges.
  • Read the Ed Trust statement warning that passing the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act into law would harm millions of American students who are trying to learn their way to a brighter future and earn their way into the middle class.
  • Ed Trust joined a diverse coalition of 79 groups to file an amicus brief in the Affordable Care Act case at the Supreme Court, to argue that a ruling by the court that Medicaid expansion amounted to federal coercion would jeopardize other important funding streams, like Title I funding. 
  • Click here for further reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Holidays from The Education Trust! As the year and the 112th Congress draw to a close, we thought it appropriate to reflect on the education related work that Congress, the White House, and the Department of Education undertook during the last two years. These two years have been busy ones for education — we had Race to the Top competitions, waivers of No Child Left Behind, two Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bills in Congress, and serious funding challenges to some core higher education programs.

Trying to reduce all those different and disparate actions into one assessment of whether it had been a good or bad Congress for equity seemed impossible to us. So we decided not to do it. Instead, we’ve assessed the impact of each action based on whether it had the potential to improve educational equity. This infographic represents our resulting assessment. Put simply: The 112th Congress was an educational equity rollercoaster.