ATTAIN Act Reauthorization Assists NCLB

HR 2449 The Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act.

Reauthorization Update October 29, 2007
On October 16, the Senate shared its draft for NCLB reauthorization. This draft included the ATTAIN Act exactly as introduced in the Senate by Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Burr (R-NC), and Murray (D-WA) as Title II, Part D. The House did remove a few specific recommendations from the ATTAIN Act. The Senate bill, however, includes ALL of the key pieces from the original version of the bill, including 5% or $100,000 for state administration, 2.5% or 50,000 for research at the state level, $3,000 minimum for district formula grants, technology literacy requirements, and 40% for professional development. 

More than states provided input on this legislation throughout the process and this certainly emphasizes the potential of influencing policy with high quality data and models that make a difference for students.

In terms of next steps, the entire NCLB discussion draft will be reviewed in great detail and comments will be provided to the HELP Committee, similar to the House Ed & Workforce Committee. The House plans to introduce an actual bill, taking into account the input received on the discussion draft, in the next couple of weeks. The Senate will revise its draft based upon feedback received, as well, prior to introducing a bill. Both the House and the Senate will conference to come up with the final version. Several steps must still occur, but there is a good chance that educational technology will remain an important part of the overall NCLB draft.

Specifically, the ATTAIN Act, as proposed, would update the existing EETT program by:
• Increasing the share of state-to-local funding distributed by formula from 50% to 60% and adding a minimum grant size in order to assure that more school districts receive allocations of sufficient size to permit them to operate significant education technology programs.
• Strengthening the program’s emphasis on teacher quality and technology skills by raising the portion of formula-grants set aside for professional development from 25% to 40%, while emphasizing the importance of timely and ongoing training.
• Channeling the 40% of funds allocated for competitive grants, previously unrestricted, to schools and districts for systemic school reform built around the use of technology to redesign curriculum, instruction, assessment and data use.
• More closely aligning the program with NCLB’s core mission by giving priority in competitive grant awards to schools identified as in need of improvement, including those with a large percentage of Limited English Proficient students and students with disabilities, as well as by focusing formula grants on students and subjects where proficiency is most lacking.
• Renewing NCLB’s commitment to ensuring that students are technologically literate by the eighth grade through requiring states to assess student knowledge and skills, including through embedding assessment items in other state tests and performance-based assessments portfolios.
• Establishing a National Center for Achievement Through Technology to conduct research on education technology implementations and disseminate best practices.