Today, NCLR's Senior Vice President for Programs, Delia Pompa, testified on Capitol Hill at the Education and Workforce Committee’s hearing on the “Student Success Act” and the “Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act.”
Watch Pompa’s testimony below. For the full hearing, click here. The introduction to her written testimony as well as the section on the “Status of Public Education” can be found after the video; you can read the full text here.
Delia Pompa’s Testimony:
In my role as Senior Vice President, I oversee programs ranging from prekindergarten and early childhood education to early college high schools and charter schools. My work on public school reform has been shaped by more than 35 years of experience leading local, state, and federal agencies and national and international organizations. I began my career as a kindergarten teacher in San Antonio, and went on to serve as a district administrator in Houston and as Assistant Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency. I was formerly the Director of Education, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, and Youth Development for the Children’s Defense Fund, and Director of the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Language Affairs at the U.S. Department of Education. In particular, I am focused on helping academic institutions understand and respond to the needs of underserved children and their teachers.NCLR appreciates the Committee’s efforts to hold this hearing on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). While I am here as a representative of NCLR, I hope to present the views of a large network of civil rights and education reform organizations working on behalf of children. In my testimony today I will focus on provisions of the “Student Success Act” which address accountability, resource equity, and teacher quality.
Specifically, I will provide a brief description of the public school student population; background on the importance of ESEA to children of color, English language learners (ELLs), students with disabilities, and low-income children; discuss how the “Student Success Act” addresses the needs of these children; and provide a broad framework for moving forward with ESEA.
Status of Public Education
Today’s public school student population is diverse. In 2009, students of color represented
41.3% of all public school students (22.3% Hispanic, 15.3% Black, 3.7% Asian).The share of Latino students in public school doubled between 1989 and 2009 from 11% to 22%. That year, in the 65 largest urban school districts, Latinos accounted for 37% of all students, the highest proportion among all groups. Taken together, students of color represent 80% of all students in the 65 largest urban school districts (37% Latino, 35% Black, 7% Asian, 1% American Indian/Alaskan Native).
However, students of color are attending suburban schools in growing numbers. Suburban schools have added 3.4 million students between 1993 and 2006, with nearly all of this increase due to an increase in the enrollment of children of color.
As the charts below show, student achievement, as measured by the National Assessment of
Educational Progress, has improved slowly over the past decade and a half. Hispanic, Black, and economically disadvantaged students have made steady progress, while ELLs and students with disabilities have lost ground after years of improvement. Gaps between these students and White students have not sufficiently closed.
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Spending gaps between schools within districts may have impeded greater progress among children of color and those from low-income communities. For example, one study found that a school in New York City received about $2,000 less per student than another school in the same district serving fewer students who were from low-income families.
While there has been some progress in improving student achievement, it is clear that the children from low-income and minority backgrounds lag behind their peers. Addressing this challenge requires federal policy interventions grounded in the origins of ESEA.
