A Review of NAFEPA 34th
Annual Conference - 2008
By Everett C. Mann, NAFEPA Board Representative from Ohio

The NAFEPA 34th Annual Conference “Foundation For Success: Understanding and Using Data to Enhance Student Achievement” was held on April 13-16, 2008 in Washington, D.C. The conference chairperson, Rick Carder (CA), and his committee wanted to provide a balance of instruction, administration, and compliance information as we head into the 7th year of implementing NCLB. The 350 plus conference attendees were not disappointed.

Our first speaker, Doug Reeves, founder of the Leadership and Learning Center, spoke on leadership and talked about management being a subset of leadership and an undeveloped area for many school administrators. In developing a school’s culture, an example was given of a leader not being afraid to do some of the unglamorous work to demonstrate the value of every job in the school. Instructional practices stressed were nonfiction writing, standards based instruction, and multiple in-class assessments. A point that was especially relevant to me was made through an interactive activity when we listed new initiatives and terminated initiatives in our school districts in the last two years. Not many of us had terminated initiatives but we had many new ones we were expected to implement and monitor. When are there too many initiatives for schools and districts to be effective? More information can be found at www.leadandlearn.com.

The breakout sessions in the afternoon on the first day as well as the general session on emerging compliance issues the last day were of great interest to our over 160 new attendees and equal number of veteran NAFEPA folks. As Phil Rosenfelt and Kay Rigling, attorneys with the U. S. Department of Education spoke on new federal guidance on schoolwide and supplement not supplant, their audience had some questions, such as “How do we implement these new opportunities?” Kristen Tosh Cowan, an attorney with Brustein & Manasevit, in her presentation on emerging federal compliance issues, stressed the complexity and nuances of Title I fiscal guidance on Consolidating Funds in Schoolwide Programs when she stated that each time she read the 20 page document she highlighted important points until she had highlighted the entire document and had to start over. It was also noted by these speakers that my state of Ohio is a state that encourages using schoolwide programs for school reform and improvement and is seeking flexibility.

The last areas I want to comment on are legislation and budget. It was my privilege this year to serve on the NAFEPA Legislative Committee, and I had the opportunity to introduce Jack Jennings, CEO of the Center on Education Policy and a long time supporter of NAFEPA. Jack spoke on the NCLB legislation and the future. It appears that NCLB will not be reauthorized this year and with the national economy not doing well, Congress will have difficulty finding additional money for education. There may be some opportunities for us in using the new flexibility in the differentiated accountability pilot program and as mentioned previously, the new guidance on schoolwide programs. For planning purposes though, unless a new President and Congress would act quickly, we may be implementing our federal programs in a way similar to what we are doing now for two to three more years.

Note: If you are a NAFEPA member you will be able to access the Members Only Page to view all the presentations from the conference.