August 2013 State Board of Education Meeting

The Nebraska State Board of Education met on August 8th and 9th in Lincoln, and the two predominant topics on the agenda regarded the search for a new Commissioner of Education to replace Dr. Roger Breed, who retired June 30th, and the release of an alignment study, conducted by McREL, comparing Nebraska's Language Arts state standards with the Common Core standards in the same subject.

The search for a Commissioner is being conducted under contract with recruitment firm PROACT, and both their staff and NDE Human Resources Director Joel Scherling provided insight on the process. They shared a position profile and the results of their community engagement report, both of which received 7-0 approval from the Board at Friday's business meeting. Some changes to the position are as follows:

•      Added language regarding vision for the agency and state education landscape
  
•      Added some essential functions
•      New section regarding Outreach/Engagement/Collaboration
  
•      Changes to human resources section reflect changes in state personnel management system
  
•      Some changes in finance responsibilities
  

The Board discussed which parts of the search and hiring process will be happening in committee versus by the full board, which would require them to be open meetings. On balance in this discussion is confidentiality for prospective applicants versus information and participation by the full board. Also under review were the minimum and preferred qualifications outlined in the position profile and position description. Board member Rachel Wise issued concerns regarding the general language of qualifications that exist in state statute being drafted into more specific qualifications in the current position profile and the potential impact this could have on the search.

This process is currently modeled off of the 2008 process, which had 4 finalists. Board President Pat Timm reminded the Board that, "as in the past, this is a very open process." Timm urged members to be available toward the end of the year, as she hopes the Board will be conducting interviews with finalists at that time.

According to state statute, Nebraska must review & update standards in the core content areas every 5 years, and because Language Arts and Math were adopted in April and October 2009, respectively, they will be up for review quite soon. NDE's Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Innovation Donlynn Rice reminded the Board that the goal of the standards Nebraska wrote was to 'focus on students before content," and explained that as they are revised, there will be added "emphasis on college & career readiness." 

NDE contracted with McREL to conduct an alignment study with the Common Core State Standards -- which Nebraska has not adopted -- and will also be reviewing the standards in comparison with the ACT, SAT, & NAEP guidelines. Furthermore, in October, representatives from Nebraska's higher education institutions will be reviewing standards for their alignment with college and career-ready goals. Rice anticipates presenting the first draft of English/Language Arts standards to the Board in January of 2014, with Math standards following shortly after in March 2014.

Rice was joined by NDE's Director of Language Arts, Tricia Parker, to explain the results of the Common Core alignment study. In general, they said, Nebraska should be quite pleased with its standards, because, as Parker put it, "it's kind of like going to a grocery store in another town. They pretty much have all the same things and they're in similar places, but some things aren't in the same place you're used to finding them." The biggest differences, she said, were in organization, specificity, and the emphasis in different genres of writing.

Only 3% of Common Core is NOT addressed in Nebraska's standards for Language Arts, and standards are 94% of equal rigor. When reviewed from the opposite direction, 10% of NE standards are NOT addressed in Common Core, and these are mostly related to digital communication and new media. Further, Rice and Parker explained that some of the perceived mis-alignment is based on Nebraska's committment to local control, meaning the state sets standards, not curriculum. In this regard, the Common Core is more directive. You can view the executive summary of the study here.

Director of Assessment Valorie Foy announced that NeSA scores in Reading, Math, Science will be released on August 13th this year -- far ahead of the schedule of previous years -- and that the State of Schools Report will be released in September, with additional data on graduation rates to be added in October.

Other Board updates included an extensive explanation of federal legislation -- HR 5 and S 1094 -- from Assistant Commissioner Brian Halstead. He also reviewed developments on state legislation, including the likelihood that LB 438 will be revisited and the possibility that the current Tax Modernization Committee hearings could lead to radical changes in the way Nebraska funds public education. Both of these topics will be covered in a forthcoming blog post on this website. 

The next regularly scheduled Board Work Session & Meeting will be September 5th and 6th, and you can receive live updates via Twitter by following @NCSAToday.