On December 11, 2006, Secretary Spellings announced an outreach project that the U.S. Department of Education is undertaking to help local school districts and States effectively implement the public school choice and supplemental educational services (SES) provisions of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act. The purpose of the outreach project is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how the choice and SES provisions are working at the "ground level" and, in turn, to determine what we can do to foster and improve implementation.

As part of the outreach project, staff from Office of Innovation and Improvement are visiting school districts in 14 States. Districts have been selected from every region of the country, in cities and States of varying size. The visits consist of separate meetings with district and State officials, parents, and SES providers, as well as roundtable discussions that bring together the various stakeholders to discuss how best to collaborate on effective choice and SES implementation. The visits also include visits to SES provider sites to see tutoring programs in action.

The school districts that have been selected for a visit include:

• Anchorage (AK) School District: November 2-7, 2006
• Chicago (IL) Public Schools: November 29-30, 2006
• Los Angeles (CA) Unified School District: December 7-11, 2006
• Hillsborough County (FL) Public Schools: December 14-15, 2006
• Boston (MA) Public Schools: December 19-20, 2006
• Providence (RI) Public Schools: January 24-25, 2007
• Little Rock (AR) School District: January 29-30, 2007
• Buffalo (NY) Public Schools: February 20-21, 2007
• Charlotte-Mecklenburg (NC) Schools: February 26-27, 2007
• Denver (CO) Public Schools: March 5-6, 2007
• Albuquerque (NM) Public Schools: March 8-9, 2007
• Miami-Dade County (FL) Public Schools: March 15-16, 2007
• Baltimore City (MD) Public Schools: March 22-23, 2007
• Pittsburgh (PA) Public Schools: March 29-30, 2007

The outreach project will culminate in a summit, slated for early summer 2007, to which all participating districts will be invited, as well as other key stakeholders. At the summit, key results from the district visits will be shared with a national audience.

The outreach project is part of the Department's ongoing efforts to improve SES implementation, which also include two SES pilot programs in operation this school year.

Press release - Secretary Spellings Highlights Free Tutoring for Los Angeles Children Under NCLB