CALDER director Jane Hannaway was recently appointed Commissioner on the Aspen Institute’s NCLB Commission, an independent, bipartisan effort designed to identify and build support for federal education policy aimed at improving academic achievement and closing the achievement gap. The Commission will capitalize on recent research, field experience with NCLB, and new stipulations under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and will conduct extensive research and outreach to gather best practices for improving key areas of the law.

As a follow-up to its education policy blueprint report, Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation’s Children, the Commission will hold a series of public hearings across the country over the next four months to build upon its previous recommendations on improving the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) during its upcoming reauthorization process. The hearings will focus on four key priorities for education reform: increasing teacher and principal effectiveness; increasing achievement in low-performing schools; building effective accountability and data structures and establishing quality common standards; and strengthening high schools.

The first public hearing, on School Improvement, was held on Wednesday, September 2nd at Howard University in Washington, DC. The hearing, entitled "Losing Patience with Chronically Low-Performing Schools: How to Improve School Improvement," brought together educators, school administrators, superintendents, and policymakers from around the country. Witnesses testified on programs and strategies at the school, district, and state-level that were working or not working and offered their assessments of how NCLB could become more effective. Commission members responded to questions from the audience and via Facebook following the hearing.