On October 20, 1994, Congress passed the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), which reauthorized programs under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. Title XIII of the IASA created 15 Comprehensive Centers to improve the integration and effectiveness of technical assistance services. These Centers became fully operational on April 1, 1996. Two offices at the U.S. Department of Education, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) and the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA), provide oversight and leadership to the Comprehensive Centers.
Prior to 1994, the U.S. Department of Education operated 48 technical assistance centers. These centers were designed to serve each of the federally-funded programs under ESEA — Chapter 1 (Title I), Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Title VII, Bilingual Education, Migrant Education, and Indian Education. However, this method of providing technical assistance did not support integration of services related to the various federal programs to improve teaching and learning or school reform initiatives that would enable all students to achieve high standards.
IASA represented a departure in federal education policy. For the first time, educational programs funded under IASA would work together to help ensure that all children served by them acquired the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the 21st century. Instead of operating apart from the broader education that children receive, the amended ESEA now reinforces state and community reform efforts geared to challenging state standards, particularly those initiated or supported by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and the Presidents’ Call to Action. All of the major ESEA programs are designed to support state and local reforms to ensure that all children, regardless of their background or the school they attend, can benefit from school reform.
The coordinating efforts mandated under ESEA ensure that federally funded programs are integrated into a state’s overall school improvement efforts and focus on developing and implementing challenging state standards. Together, these efforts promote the alignment of all education components — curriculum and instruction, professional development, school leadership, accountability, and school improvement — so that every aspect of the education system works to ensure that all children can attain challenging standards.
The Comprehensive Centers work primarily with states, local education agencies (LEAs), tribes, schools and other recipients of funds under the IASA. Priority for services is given to high poverty schools and districts, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools, and IASA recipients implementing schoolwide programs.
The legislative mandate calls for the Comprehensive Centers to support and assist states, districts, and schools in meeting the needs of children served under the IASA. Title XIII of the Act charges the Comprehensive Centers to support IASA recipients in their efforts to:
- Implement school reform programs in a manner that improves teaching and learning for all students.
- Adopt, adapt, and implement promising and proven practices for improving teaching and learning.
- Coordinate school reform programs with other federal, state, and local education plans and activities so all students, particularly those at risk of educational failure, are provided opportunities to meet challenging state content standards and student performance standards.
- Administer and implement IASA programs.
To achieve their mission, the Centers are guided by one overriding aim: to ensure that students served under IASA programs meet the same high content and performance standards expected of all students, as defined by states in their Goals 2000 plans or IASA applications.
Key features of the Comprehensive Centers’ service delivery system include:
- Extensive and thorough technical assistance services within one organization which support programs authorized by the IASA.
- Consultations with state, district, and school representatives and other parties working with student populations served under IASA.
- Professional development for state, school district, and school personnel to increase their capacities to provide high-quality support of programs authorized by the IASA.
- Coordination of technical assistance and information sharing with the U.S. Department of Education and other federally funded centers involved in technical assistance, research, development and dissemination activities, including:
As programs are implemented under IASA, the Comprehensive Centers’ services are expected to help schools and school districts focus on improving opportunity for all children to meet challenging state content and student performance standards. The Centers’ services focus on assisting IASA grantees in:
- Improving the quality of instruction, curricula, assessment and other aspects of school reform.
- Implementing effective schoolwide programs.
- Meeting the needs of the children served under IASA, including children in high-poverty schools, migrant children, immigrant children, children with limited-English proficiency, neglected or delinquent children, homeless children and youth, Indian children, children with disabilities, and, where applicable, Alaska Native children and Native Hawaiian children.
- Implementing high-quality professional development activities for teachers, administrators, pupil services personnel, other school staff, and parents.
- Improving the quality of bilingual education, including programs that emphasize English and native language proficiency and promote multicultural understanding.
- Creating safe and drug-free environments, especially in areas experiencing high levels of drug use and violence in the community and in school.
- Implementing educational applications of technology.
- Coordinating services and programs to meet the needs of students so they can fully participate in their school’s educational program.
- Expanding the involvement and participation of parents in the education of their children.
- Reforming schools, school systems, and the governance and management of schools.
- Evaluating programs.
- Meeting the special needs of the students and local education agencies in urban and rural areas.
For the past five years, the Comprehensive Centers have delivered a range of services that helped their clients improve opportunities for all children to meet challenging state content and student performance standards. Specifically, the Comprehensive Centers:
- Helped to establish knowledge networks of key education stakeholders. The Centers’ activities are designed to facilitate and sustain discussion of systemic change between and among chief state school officers, superintendents, central office administrators, principals, teachers, parents, and students. Activities have included convening work sessions for state leadership and school practitioners and providing venues for sharing, such as face-to-face meetings, electronic meetings, and forums on the Internet.
- Built client capacity for educational change. The activities carried out by the Comprehensive Centers promote the creation and adoption by states, districts, and schools of challenging student performance and content standards, support the identification of areas for "action research," and aid in the design of long-term, professional development programs to enhance the capacity of teachers and administrators. All center activities are part of the overall strategy to develop and buttress structures which sustain educational improvement. The Centers have supported systemic change in professional practice and development for teachers and administrators. The meetings and special workshops that they convened explored a variety of issues, from how to track migrant education students to conducting needs assessments for schoolwide programs to assisting states and districts to develop standards and assessments. Working in collaboration with school districts and state education agencies, the Centers have developed and implemented parent training programs that include follow-up support for parents. At the request of tribally-controlled schools and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Centers provided training for teachers to improve mathematics and science instruction in BIA schools.
- Developed and disseminated a range of learning products to support educational change. Periodic and regular publications available through a variety of media, including the Internet, have helped to provide stakeholders with up-to-date, useful information on research and best practice. Materials offered by the Centers include training guides and manuals, monographs, and serial publications on best practice for special student populations, including limited-English proficient students. The Centers also provide information and resources for educators in their regions via sites on the World Wide Web.
States, districts, tribes, schools in high poverty areas, as well as schools serving students with special needs or with limited English proficiency, have a significant need for technical assistance. Simply asking students to excel and to perform to high standards without assuring and enhancing the capabilities of schools, teachers, administrators and parents is not likely to achieve a key aim of IASA, to produce a nation of flexible workers and lifelong learners in the 21st century. The Comprehensive Centers are strategically positioned as active players in school reform. They are committed to achieving excellence in their roles as technical assistance providers and to helping all students achieve excellence.
The professionals in the Comprehensive Centers are working to develop the human resources and institutions that are integral to the educational process. The accomplishments already demonstrated by the Centers provide clear and compelling evidence of the progress that can be made in reforming the nation’s schools when all stakeholders are given the tools to excel.