On July 31, 2008 the House and Senate passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act, or HEOA, (this is the Higher Education Act reauthorization bill) by an overwhelming majority (83-9 in the Senate and 380-49 in the House). The President signed the bill into law on August 14. This reauthorization is five years in the making, and the final bill provides substantive changes to current law.
Title II Partnership Grants
Title II of the Higher Education Opportunity Act addresses higher education based educator preparation programs. Following is a summary of the changes in Title II from current law.
- The 3 grant streams (state, recruitment, partnership) in the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant program are consolidated into one stream, the partnership grants. Like the current partnership program, these will be partnerships between teacher preparation units at IHEs, high-need local educational agencies, high-need schools, arts and science departments at IHEs and community partners. Grant funds are refocused, though, on building/enhancing one-year clinical experiences for pre-service candidates, developing induction programs for new teachers, developing teacher residency programs (for master degree level candidates), and preparing school leaders for rural schools.
- The “eligible partnership evaluation” requirements for the partnership grants have been amended from current law proposed law, in light of NCLB (which didn’t exist in 1998), to have institutions report on the number of highly qualified teachers teaching in high-need LEAs who teach in high-need subject areas, and high-need areas such as special ed, ELL. Current law doesn’t speak in terms of highly qualified teachers and focuses more on the number of teachers who teach in core academic areas or address special ed or ELL.
- Accountability provisions – The institutional reporting requirements have been amended to have institutions report the pass rates on candidates who have completed 100% of their nonclinical coursework. AACTE recommendations adopted by Congress to include this provision as it will ensure that pass rates are reported on candidates who’ve completed a substantial portion of their preparation program. Currently, pass rates are reported on all students who take teacher certification/licensure assessments regardless of where they are in a preparation program. Additionally, institutions will now report the average scaled score for those candidates taking the assessments.
- The Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant program maintains its $300 million authorization level for FY 09. This provision was retained at AACTE’s request.
New Programs in Title II
HEOA includes five new programs in Title II (while the programs have been authorized, there are no funds currently appropriated to the programs).
1. Preparing Teachers for Digital Age Learners – these are partnership grants between IHEs, state educational agencies, and technology. businesses/organizations to strengthen graduate teacher candidates’ knowledge of and proficiency in using technology effectively in the K-12 classrooms to enhance and assess learning. Funds can also be used to strengthen the way preparation programs teach classroom technology integration.
2. Teach to Reach grants - these will provide funds to institutions to help prepare general education teacher candidates to teach children with disabilities
3. Adjunct Teacher Corps - provides funds to LEAs to prepare professionals in math, science and critical languages to serve as content specialists in K-12 schools.
4. Augustus Hawkins Centers of Excellence - will provide funds to minority serving institutions to strengthen teacher preparation programs and to increase the number of teachers prepared in these programs.
5. Graduate Fellowships to Prepare Faculty in High-Need Areas at Colleges of Education – these funds will support doctoral candidates who will become faculty who prepare teachers in the math, science, ELL, and special education fields.
TEACH Grant Amendments
While Title II of HEOA contains the bulk of provisions impacting educator preparation programs, there are other parts of the bill that will be of interest to the profession. In Title IV, HEOA amends the TEACH Grant statute. TEACH Grant recipients who are preparing to teach in a state-listed high-need field will now be able to teach in that shortage field regardless of whether that field stays on the state’s shortage list during the candidate’s preparation or while carrying out the service obligation. Other amendments call for the U.S. Department of Education to carry out a program report on the TEACH Grant program and for the Secretary of Education to develop a list of extenuating circumstances for which a TEACH Grant recipient can be excused from completing the service obligation.
Additional New Provisions
- Title IV, Loan Forgiveness for Service in Areas of National Need – new program will provide up to $10, 000 in loan forgiveness for individuals serving in high-need professions like nursing, early childhood education, librarians, HQTs serving English Language Learners in low-income schools, superintendents, school counselors, and principals.
- Title VIII, Teach for America is authorized for the first time.
- Title VIII, American History for Freedom – This is a new program that will provide grants to institutions to help them strengthen their history programs in American history and western civilization. Grants can be used to strengthen the history content mastery of candidates in teacher preparation programs.
- Title VIII, Early Childhood Education Professional Development and Career Task Force – will provide grants to develop statewide taskforces focused on improving professional development for early childhood educators, strengthening ECE competencies and standards, and easing the pathways for early childhood educators seeking postsecondary degrees.
Work Well Done!
While no piece of legislation is perfect, this reauthorization of Title II represents a significant step forward for the educator preparation profession. The focus on strengthening the clinical components of preparation programs, of ensuring that all candidates are prepared to work with students with special needs and to work with ELL students, and of increasing the faculty capacity in high-need areas is the right focus for this bill. It is clear Congress has listened to AACTE members as you have talked about what constitutes a strong preparation program.
On September 29, AACTE will offer a free webinar on the Higher Education Opportunity Act. To register for the event go to www.aacte.org. To see a more detailed summary of the changes between the Higher Education Act and the Higher Education Opportunity Act click here.
