Presentation of C. Todd Jones,
Executive Director of the President's Commission
on Excellence in Special Education

National Association of State Directors of Special Education Annual Meeting
San Antonio, Texas
November 14, 2001

Thank you Commissioner Gloeckler for that warm introduction and thank you Bill East for the opportunity to conclude this year's NASDSE Conference in beautiful San Antonio. This is a particularly important time to share with each of you the President's and Secretary Paige's strong interest in our work to provide America's children-including children with disabilities-with the highest quality education. I personally know their concern for our nation's children and their desire to ensure that no children, including children with disabilities, are left behind.

The President is committed to providing children with disabilities the appropriate supports they need to learn in their schools. President Bush has made education his highest priority and is committed to excellence in special education. An important component of the President's goals is an independent review of how we educate and serve children with disabilities-the creation, through Executive Order, of his Commission on Excellence in Special Education. Today, I want to share with you information about the Commission's charge to examine the current status of special education services in our nation's schools.

The mission of the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education is to produce a final report, due next spring, containing findings and recommendations in nine key areas that I will discuss in more detail later. But before I talk about these, I want to emphasize the process the Commission will take as expressed in the Executive Order.

An important message for me to communicate to each of you is that the Commission's work on a parallel track with the Department's process for reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It is not-repeat not-intended to replace that process. As many of you know, Bob Pasternack and staff in the Office of Special Education Programs are hosting a number of forums around the country to gather information on the current status and needs of special education across the country in connection with the upcoming IDEA reauthorization. In fact, if you haven't already heard, one of these forums will be held here in San Antonio on December 19th in conjunction with the Education Department's regional Improving America's Schools Conference. These public meetings provide an opportunity for the general public and special education experts, educators, and parents to offer their experiences and suggestions about the IDEA's next reauthorization.

Unlike the IDEA reauthorization process, the Commission's responsibility is broader than the IDEA statute. The President wants the Commission to fully examine the relationship between special education and regular education across disciplines and practices. It will also look to children served pursuant to other statutes, such as section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and children who are yet to be identified as needing special education services. To accomplish this, the Commission will take a broad view to include the wide scope of present and future research initiatives, funding, and policy implications.

The Commission will be an important part of the Administration's review of how to improve special education services in this nation. The Commission was formed to recommend policies for improving the educational performance of students with disabilities, and will do this by collecting information from a variety of sources to study issues related to Federal, State, and local special education programs.

Providing the President with recommendations to improve results for children with disabilities necessitates consideration of the full range of factors, both direct and indirect, that affect special education services. The Commission will look at the current effectiveness of teacher training and professional development not just of special educators, but also of how well regular educators are prepared to recognize, for example, children in their classrooms that show learning difficulties.

Like the public forums the Department is now conducting, the Commission's meetings will be open to the public and current plans are to meet at least four times. (I will note that the timing of these meetings has yet to be announced because the new fiscal year's Education Department appropriations bill has yet to be signed by the President.) The first meeting will be in Washington, and the other three meetings will be held in three different cities to provide the opportunity for those interested to attend and participate in the Commission's work. The Commission members will determine the exact locations of the meetings during our first meeting and we will make these locations publicly available through the Commission's website. The Commission website will serve as our point-of-contact for anyone interested in our progress and activities and can be viewed at http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/whspecialeducation/index.html.

Now I want to talk with you about those individuals the President has chosen to serve as members of this important Commission. The President chose each member of the Commission carefully so as to ensure that the Commission's report represents the entire breadth and depth of the challenges facing the field across the nation. These are not advocates for or against a particular topic in special education. The Commission members, although some may not be well known to you, represent various perspectives, and experience first-hand the current nature of special education service delivery.

As examples of the quality of the President's appointees to this Commission, Michael James Rivas from Texas and Cherie Takemoto from Virginia are Commission members who are parents of children with disabilities. Jack Fletcher is a researcher in language and other cognitive skills development of children with disabilities. Alan Coulter is a psychologist working directly with schools from California to Florida to improve the academic performance of students with disabilities.

The President, in his wisdom, even saw fit to appoint several special education administrators to the Commission. Dave Gordon, a former special educator working with children with emotional disturbances, is now a superintendent of schools in Elk Grove, California. Doug Gill is a fellow state director of special ed in the state of Washington. Nancy Grasmick is the Maryland state superintendent of schools and by education has a specialty in deaf education and Paula Butterfield is the deputy superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools overseeing special education services for more than 40,000 students.

These are parents and educators with real experience. The members of this Commission are results oriented people who represent the kind of practical understanding that is key to improving results for children with disabilities. These are advocates, practioners, and researchers working in the classroom together with parents to better serve children with disabilities.

Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will serve as Chairman of the Commission. Governor Branstad has the executive leadership experience needed for a Commission that will deal with what is both a crucial and sensitive area of education reform-excellence for students with disabilities, their parents, their teachers, and administrators. He brings 16 years of senior executive experience where he made education his top priority while Governor. Just as important, he understands the magnitude of special education on a personal level-his daughter is a special education teacher in California. I met with Governor Branstad in October and I am very impressed with his ability to quickly grasp the complexities of the issues before us. His energy matches his abilities and he has dedicated the next six months wholeheartedly to achieving the President's charge to provide a final report outlining the Commission's findings and recommendations consistent with the President's four education pillars:

1. Accountability for results,
2. Local control and flexibility;
3. Expanded parental options; and
4. Doing what works to improve student performance.

These four pillars are the cornerstone for the President's entire education agenda, which apply equally to special education because we will leave no child behind.

The Commission members are supported in their task by some of the most knowledgeable individuals in special education today who serve as ex officio members. These folks are Bob Pasternack, Ed Sontag, Reid Lyon, Wade Horn, and BethAnn Bryan who is senior adviser to Secretary Paige. They will provide the added support and access to research that Commission members need to be informed about every important issue the President has assigned to the Commission. This Presidential charge is to provide findings and recommendations on the following nine areas:

1. Cost-effectiveness.
The Commission will examine the appropriate role of the Federal Government in special education programming and funding. The Commission will look at those factors that have contributed to growing costs of providing special education services.

2. Improving Results.
The Commission will examine how to best use Federal resources to improve the success of children and youth with disabilities.

3. Research.
Understanding what works and what doesn't work based on sound research data is critical to making the best use of Federal resources. The Commission will recommend areas to target further research funding, and to synthesize what we already know works and doesn't work in educating children-particularly those with learning and other cognitive disabilities.

4. Early Intervention.
We know now that reaching children experiencing academic failure early in their school years is key to providing research-based intervention. Identifying children showing problems in learning to read in first, second, and third grades can mean the difference between academic and developmental success or failure throughout school.

5. Funding Formulae.
Opening the money spigot without building a better system focused on results and accountability will not solve the problems facing special education today. Looking at fresh ideas about how we can better spend Federal resources to improve special education is important and a charge the Commission takes seriously.

6. Teacher Quality and Student Accountability.
We have a shortage of well trained special educators, we have a high turn-over rate of those that do enter the field, and we need to close the gap between research and teacher training to improve how well we serve children with disabilities. We also need to consider ways for students to learn and be held to higher performance-students with disabilities will someday transition out of school and they need to be as productive as their abilities allow, but today we don't expect as much as we should of many children with disabilities we teach-they can and should be more accountable to achieve.

7. Regulations and Red Tape.
The Commission will study the impact of Federal and State laws and regulations and how these requirements support or obstruct the ability of schools to better serve children with disabilities. There is more that can be done to reduce the amount of time special education teachers spend on paperwork instead of teaching.

8. What Models Work in the States.
Washington, DC doesn't have all the answers. There are creative people, many in this room, with ideas about how to improve special education. The Commission will look at alternatives to the standard way of doing things. The practice of prescribing cookie cutter methods of bureaucratic requirements needs a fresh view and the Commission will take that fresh look at those structures.

9. Federal versus Local Funding.
The Commission will review the experiences of State and local governments in financing special education and an analysis of whether changes to the Federal "supplement not supplant" and "maintenance of effort" requirements are appropriate.

This is a tall order that I am confident Governor Branstad and the other members of the Commission can fulfill. It is important to point out to you that Governor Branstad has made it clear he wants the Commission's work not to be derailed to focus on any one issue, but to address each of these nine goals assigned to it by the President. The Governor wants to build consensus among the commissioners-a consensus [emphasize]-that provides the President with a useful and informative report about the current status of special education and where the Federal Government may focus its resources in the future to better serve children with disabilities.

The President's vision to leave no child behind is fundamental to the Commission's work. Schools cannot exclude children with disabilities when evaluating their success; the soft bigotry of low expectations has for too long left behind children with disabilities. The Commission will confront those low expectations and the aspects of our special education systems that create them.

As you know, President Bush strongly supports the principles embodied in the IDEA and the goal of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities so they can meet high academic standards and participate more fully in American society. The Commission's responsibility is to provide substantive guidance to him about how we can all do more to improve the success of these children. Governor Branstad and the Commission's members look forward to meeting that responsibility.

Thank you for having me here today and I welcome any questions.

< Previous page | ^ Top ^