Education sec’y enlists UF professor to advise on NCLB overhaul
Posted May 19, 2010
Leaders of the bipartisan effort to overhaul the controversial No Child Left Behind law have enlisted the aid of a University of Florida education professor to help them explore how technology can help advance school reform and improve student learning.
Cathy Cavanaugh, a UF associate professor of education technology, was one of several university and K-12 experts on virtual education invited in late April to meet with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton and Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) of the House Education and Labor Committee.
Duncan assembled the group to advise him on ways that hybrid models of teaching—blending online learning with conventional classroom instruction—can increase access to quality education, particularly for children with special needs. The group also discussed how schools could use comprehensive data systems to closely monitor how students are faring in school and identify which teaching practices are working best to help students succeed.
“Secretary Duncan was seeking specific examples and input on the language to use in the proposed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the formal name of No Child Left Behind),” Cavanaugh said. “I shared the data work we’ve done through UF’s Virtual School Clearinghouse and shared the findings of the 2009 report I wrote for the Center for American Progress about how virtual schooling can save money and expand learning time during the school day.”
UF’s online Virtual School Clearinghouse has compiled the first national database for virtual schools, which is helping schools and researchers identify the best online teaching practices.
Cavanaugh said that when the advisory group’s discussion turned to teacher education, Julie Young, president of the Florida Virtual School in Orlando, cited her school’s involvement in UF’s virtual internship program, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation. Cavanaugh coordinates the partnership with FLVS.
She said the advisory group will continue working with Rep. Andrews on the language of his committee’s proposal until they put it to vote later this summer.
Cavanaugh’s involvement is the second recent instance of UF College of Education faculty lending their expertise to the reauthorization effort of No Child Left Behind. Special education professors Mary Brownell and Paul Sindelar helped draft a set of recommendations concerning special education teacher quality and evaluation in a report submitted in late March to the House education committee. Their report was prepared on behalf of two special education professional organizations—the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education (HECSEE) and the teacher education division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC).
# # #
