Legislature(2011 - 2012)BARNES 124
02/23/2011 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Commissioner Hanley - Department of Education and Early Development Overview | |
| Board of Regents Annual Report to the Legislature | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT MEETING
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 23, 2011
8:00 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Senator Kevin Meyer, Co-Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Co-Chair
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Gary Stevens
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Alan Dick, Chair
Representative Lance Pruitt, Vice Chair
Representative Eric Feige
Representative Paul Seaton
Representative Peggy Wilson
Representative Scott Kawasaki
MEMBERS ABSENT
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
All members present
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Sharon Cissna
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Senator Cathy Giessel
Senator Linda Menard
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
COMMISSIONER HANLEY - DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND EARLY
DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW
- HEARD
BOARD OF REGENTS ANNUAL REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
MIKE HANLEY, Commissioner
Department of Education and Early Development (DEED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Gave an overview of his role and DEED.
PAT JACOBSEN, Vice-Chair
Board of Regents
University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a summary and answered questions
related to the Board of Regents Annual Report to the
Legislature.
RICHARD CAULFIELD, Provost
University of Alaska Southeast
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a summary and answered questions
related to the Teacher Education Plan for 2011.
MELISSA HILL, Director
Office of Academic Affairs
University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a summary and answered questions
related to the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research
Report and the Board of Regents Annual Report.
MICHAEL DRISCOLL, Provost
University of Alaska Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Stated support for mandatory academic
advising on behalf of the University of Alaska Anchorage and the
University of Alaska Fairbanks.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:00:56 AM
CO-CHAIR JOE THOMAS called the joint meeting of the Senate and
House Education Standing Committees to order at 8:00 a.m.
Present at the call to order were Senators Davis, French,
Stevens, Co-Chair Meyer and Co-Chair Thomas and Representatives
Kawasaki, Seaton, and Chair Dick. Representative Feige, Pruitt,
and Wilson joined the committee shortly thereafter. [Due to
technical difficulties no audio was recorded form 8:00:56 a.m.
to 8:04:10 a.m.]
^Commissioner Hanley - Department of Education and Early
Development Overview
Commissioner Hanley - Department of Education and Early
Development Overview
8:02:14 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced that the first order of business would
be to hear an overview of the Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED) by the new commissioner, Mike Hanley.
8:04:10 AM
MIKE HANLEY, Commissioner, Department of Education and Early
Development (DEED), stressed that the state needs to work hard
to make sure teachers are doing everything they can for Alaska's
students. He said "it is not okay to be a bad teacher when our
kids' lives are at stake. My goal is not to come in and clean
house. My goal is to make sure that we are holding ourselves
accountable for what we are offering to our children."
He discussed some of the programs that DEED is currently looking
at:
· The pilot program for prekindergarten, which will focus on
incorporating parental involvement in student education and
in schools.
· A family engagement action plan.
· Early literacy before kindergarten, which needs to engage
other programs available such as: Bright Beginnings, Head
Start and Imagination Library.
· Rigor. He noted that this conversation has been brought
forward because of the Alaska Performance Scholarship
(APS).
· A commitment to Alaska to create standards that are equal
to or better than the newly created national set of
standards, labeled the "Common Core."
He said Alaska's education performance, in regards to the rest
of the nation, is located "in the middle of the road." However,
internationally, Alaska's education performance "is barely in
the middle of the road." He said he is not satisfied with this
performance and it needs to be addressed.
COMMISSIONER HANLEY stressed the importance of training Alaska's
students so that they can be successful no matter where they go.
He noted that the APS, whose goal is to incentivize students and
families, has brought this conversation to the forefront. He
explained that there are some schools and districts that are
struggling to provide the curriculum students will need. The
department has an enormous challenge in front of them in order
to get all districts the access needed in order to be prepared.
He noted that another aspect DEED is looking into is the career
and technical programs. This involves coordinating and aligning
curriculums with industry standards.
The department has many different focuses and he is evaluating
each one with division heads, he explained. By doing this he
hopes to figure out which focuses should be moved forward and
which ones should be cut back.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS said the committees look forward to working with
him and the department on these issues.
8:10:20 AM
SENATOR FRENCH turned to the pre-kindergarten handout [included
in the document packet]. He read the following quote:
"If properly funded and managed, investment in [early
childhood development] yields an extraordinary return,
far exceeding the return on most investments, private
or public."
The handout continued by explaining that children who attend
preschool:
· Are more likely to graduate from high school.
· Are more likely to earn a higher degree later in life.
· Show 31 percent greater gains in vocabulary learning.
He said that it is interesting to look at education from an
investment point of view. He explained that if an investment of
about $25 million was made over the next ten years for pre-
kindergarten, the state of Alaska could see enormous economic
benefits. He encouraged the commissioner to institute a state
wide pre-kindergarten program.
SENATOR STEVENS said one issue that continues to come up is how
to prepare rural children for college or career and technical
programs. The answer to this is typically distance education.
However, it is difficult to assume that this will actually
happen. He asked who in the department is going to help children
become successful in all areas of Alaska.
COMMISSIONER HANLEY answered there will be many people involved
in this issue, including him and this is a big issue for DEED.
Currently, the department is moving forward with the Virtual
Learning Network in order to develop 16 virtual online courses.
This is a coordinated effort between the department, the
Southeast Regional Resource Center (SERRC), and 11 school
districts, superintendents, and principals.
8:14:38 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON said all of the states across the nation,
including Alaska, are trying to collect "longitudinal data
information." He asked if the department has looked into
incorporating the data steps as the state develops this set of
data.
COMMISSIONER HANLEY replied that data should drive a lot of the
decisions that are made. He asked if there was a specific set of
data that he is referring to.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON answered that the state is developing a
longitudinal data set to track students from the time they enter
school through college or career and technical training. He said
his concern is that the effective use of this data is not being
incorporated as the state moves forward.
COMMISSIONER HANLEY concurred, it is important to be able to
easily track students' progress after secondary school. He noted
that it is on his radar to work with postsecondary institutions
in doing this.
8:17:14 AM
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON said requiring children to come to
school at age 5 would not take a lot of money. She asked what
would happen if they required students to come to school at that
age.
COMMISSIONER HANLEY replied that it is a bit erroneous that
kindergarten is technically optional because of the age
requirement. He said that this is a mixed message when the
importance of early education is discussed, since the state
law's mandatory age requirement does not match up with this. He
said that he does not know what it would look like if the
mandatory age was 5, but he suspected that the effects would be
positive.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS added that Senator Davis' bill [SB 8] addresses
this issue by reducing the mandatory age to 6 years old and
increasing the upper age to 18.
SENATOR DAVIS asked, now that he is oriented with his job, if he
has the proper tools to fulfill his duty as commissioner. She
requested that, when he gives an overview, he assess and share
with the legislature how the department is organized and what it
needs.
COMMISSIONER HANLEY replied that he is open to input. He added
that the Division of Teaching and Learning Support is an
overloaded area at DEED. He explained that the department needs
to make sure that it is maximizing its focuses with the staff
that it have.
8:21:18 AM
CHAIR DICK said the issues that have been brought up today were
discussed 35 years ago. He said he finds reluctance amongst the
legislature to fund a model that is met with mediocre success.
He asked what creative solutions he has to address these ongoing
issues in a different way.
COMMISSIONER HANLEY replied that his responsibilities are to the
children of the state. Schools are a reflection of both
communities and society and both need to be addressed when
discussing education. He said "I don't know the formula for
that. Our communities change all the time." He explained that he
is committed to addressing these issues and he wished he knew
exactly what that would look like at this time.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS said the committees look forward to working with
him in the future.
^Board of Regents Annual Report to the Legislature
Board of Regents Annual Report to the Legislature
8:25:22 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced the next item of business would be the
annual report from the Board of Regents.
8:25:44 AM
PAT JACOBSEN, Vice-Chair, Board of Regents, University of Alaska
(UA), said the Board of Regents report to the legislature covers
information on teacher preparation, retention, and recruitment
efforts by UA. She explained that in addition to this report,
the board has made progress on creating the Teacher Education
Plan for 2011 and the Center for Alaska Education Policy
Research was established this year. This center will enhance
decision making by policy makers, education professionals, and
the public. The center will conduct non-partisan research on
policy issues specific to Alaska, ranging from early childhood
development to higher education.
She turned the committees' attention to the Board of Regents
2011 Annual Report [report included in the document packet].
The first topic was education graduation rates. She explained
that, overall, UA's graduation rates are relatively consistent,
outside of an increase from 2009 to 2010 in graduates with a
special education endorsement. The University of Alaska
Southeast (UAS) has contributed greatly to this by making a
commitment to graduate more students who have this endorsement.
She noted that this is a primary example of UA responding to the
workforce demands in K-12 schools.
Page 7 included a gap analysis that determines how many teachers
are needed annually in Alaska to fill existing vacancies. She
explained that with a more expansive study the board could look
at the number of applications, hiring trends, and data on
attrition in order to explore factors that contribute to teacher
turn over.
Page 10 addressed the teacher placement of UA graduates. It
reads:
Teachers who received their initial preparation from
the University of Alaska work in 52 of Alaska's 54
school districts. Statewide, UA-prepared teachers make
up 28 percent of the teaching force. The percent of
all certified staff that received any education degree
or endorsement from UA is slightly higher -- about 32
percent.
Page 11 included the efforts to attract, train, and retain
qualified school teachers. She explained that in order to
increase the number of teachers prepared in Alaska, more
students will need to go to college. UA recently collected data
on the 266 programs designed to reach out to potential students.
Efforts are being made to better track, review, and measure the
effectiveness of these outreach and college bridge programs
which promote secondary education.
8:32:50 AM
RICHARD CAULFIELD, Provost, University of Alaska Southeast
(UAS), expressed his appreciation for Ms. Jacobsen's work in
making teacher education important. All three UA campuses are
committed to training individuals to become teachers. He
explained that his focus would be on the four goals of the 2011
Teacher Education Plan [report included in the document packet].
The first goal was to recruit, retain, and graduate more
students in education, particularly Alaska residents [page 6].
He said there is much to do to graduate more Alaskan teachers
and to see them hired and successful in Alaska's schools. He
explained that UA hopes to do this by expanding recruitment and
focusing on successful program completion. The focus of this
recruitment will be, in particular, on underrepresented minority
students, especially those of Alaska Native Heritage.
Finally, the board supports Alaska educator loan repayment and
incentive programs, in order to make sure that these programs
are affordable.
The second goal was to increase program access to more Alaskans,
no matter where they live [page 7-8]. He noted that the greatest
need for Alaskan teachers is in rural Alaska. The university
expects to offer more teacher education courses to
nontraditional students through online delivery, e-learning,
hybrid or blended delivery, and site-based models. He said that
in the upcoming year it is expected that at least 50 percent of
teacher education courses will be accessible to nontraditional
students.
He said UA will continue to focus and invest in instructional
technology and professional development.
Finally, UA will work with DEED in order to expand alternative
routes to teacher licensure.
The third goal was to focus on high demand areas in education,
particularly in special education and math and science [page 8].
He explained that Alaska's requirements for teachers in high
demand job areas can be different from those in the lower 48.
For this reason it is important to more closely track Alaska's
specialized credential demands and recruit in these areas.
Finally UA hopes to increase the number of pre-college students
participating in future education experiences by 10 percent each
year.
He said that UA is trying to strengthen special education
program opportunities. He added that it is also important to
find innovative ways to make science and math more relevant to
Alaska's students.
The fourth goal was to conduct research in order to find
solutions to Alaska's educational challenges [page 10]. He
explained that the new Center for Alaska Education Policy
Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) has been
created to figure out how to improve teacher education programs,
reduce drop-out rates, finance schools, and improve access to
education and training in rural communities. He noted that the
funding of $250,000 per year that is needed for this center to
continue is uncertain at this time. UA believes that good data
is essential to effective results in teacher education.
8:40:52 AM
MELISSA HILL, Director, Office of Academic Affairs, University
of Alaska, said this year the University of Alaska Foundation
made a commitment of $250,000 to start the Center for Alaska
Education Policy Research. She explained that it is their hope
that UA will be able to continue funding this center through the
next fiscal year. She referred the committee members to the
document on the center [included in the document packet]. She
stressed that there is a need for quality research on education
that is specifically related to the state of Alaska.
MS. JACOBSEN said that the university has made progress in
increasing teacher education and retention in the state. She
said she is excited about the creation of the Center for Alaska
Education Policy Research, which will provide insights and
numbers in the future to allow for data driven decisions and
policies.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS thanked them for their presentation. He
explained that a lot of this information is not new to the
committee members and it is good to have documents that lay out
UA's goals.
8:44:01 AM
SENATOR STEVENS thanked the Board of Regents for supporting SB
241 [passed into law during the 25th Legislative Session].
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON asked what steps the university has
taken in incorporating new educational and behavioral research
into the classrooms.
MS. JACOBSEN replied that this may be a question for the Deans
of Education. She noted that having the regents give the report
on the university to the legislature can be "a mixed bag." In
order to get more information on the programs it is important to
also have the individuals who implement these programs speak.
The Board of Regents deals more with the overall policy.
PROVOST CAULFIELD answered that incorporating new research
speaks to the need for Alaskan trained teachers who understand
the various issues specific to Alaska. He said all of the
teacher education programs at UA make active use of experienced
mentor teachers. The faculty members are not oblivious to the
current issues in the classroom and are in tune with the
changing needs of society.
8:49:52 AM
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON said many of these issues are happening
throughout the nation. She stressed the importance of passing
new research on to current teachers.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked what the percentage is of in-state versus
out-of-state recruiting.
MS. HILL replied that page 10 of the Board of Regents Annual
Report shows the placement of UA graduates in Alaska's school
districts. She explained that the largest challenge is
encouraging teachers to go to areas where they are needed the
most. The way to get more Alaska trained teachers is by making
sure more students go to college. She explained that it is
important to celebrate and recognize teachers so that students
will be inspired to take that career path. The Future Educators
of Alaska program is aiding in this process.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked what the overall percentage is of in-state
recruits.
MS. HILL answered that about 80 percent of recruits are from
outside the state. She explained that the number of life time
educators in rural Alaska has shrunk; there is a lot of urban
migration.
CO-CHAIR THOMAS said if the state has such unique educational
needs this could be a horrible impact on the education system as
a whole, not to mention in the rural areas. He asked what can be
done to immediately retain teachers in rural areas.
MS. HILL replied that DEED and UA's partnership with the
Statewide Mentor Project have made strides in that area. She
said that this initiative has been able to promote teacher
retention in rural areas for up to five years, though beyond
this is challenging. She explained that this has to do with a
number of complexities including housing, the work environment,
and the support of a community. She said she believes this
project has been very successful under this joint leadership.
She stressed the need to hold these programs accountable for
doing what it says it will do.
8:55:22 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS questioned whether individuals within this
program can critically look at the system without bias in order
to aid in the success of the program. He pointed out that in the
past there were issues with the Teacher Education Program for
these reasons.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON noted that the legislature is taking huge
strides in addressing education. He explained that the two task
forces on education, which met over the interim in regards to
the Alaska Performance Scholarship (APS), both recommended that
in order for postsecondary institutions to receive scholarship
recipients they should provide an academic advisory system and
provide courses and degrees in a timely manner. He asked if UA
and the board will look at this recommendation favorably.
MS. JACOBSEN replied yes, these are reasonable requests.
She returned to Co-Chair Thomas' comments on the reports. She
reassured him that the Board of Regents feel the same way and
expect to see reports on the outcome of these programs after a
deadline has passed. She concurred that sometimes things seem to
move very slowly, but she has seen some progress here. She
explained that the Teacher Education Plan, with the deadlines
and commitments that have been included, will be a good
measurement for the board. She noted that the Center for Alaska
Education Policy Research will also be helpful.
9:01:19 AM
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON asked if each of the three main
campuses will have an advisory program available to new
students.
PROVOST CAULFIELD replied that UAS is committed to mandatory
advising and are moving in that direction. He noted that in the
Teacher Education Program the faculty is very involved in the
advising of each student that comes through their program. Both
the mandatory advising and courses being made available in a
timely manner in on the university's radar and is committed to
it.
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON asked about the Anchorage and Fairbanks
campuses.
9:03:19 AM
MICHAEL DRISCOLL, Provost, University of Alaska Anchorage, said
there is strong support from all three provosts for mandatory
advising, which is a key to student success. He explained that
it is a matter of putting the right resources in at the right
time and UA is moving in this direction.
9:04:39 AM
There being no further business to come before the committees,
Co-Chair Thomas adjourned the meeting at 9:04 a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| caepr documents for legislature (2).pdf |
SEDC 2/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |
|
| FY11-SB241 REPORT V9.pdf |
SEDC 2/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |
SB 241 |
| Teacher Prep PlanJ.pdf |
SEDC 2/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |
|
| ScholarsAKPerformanceSheet-2-4.pdf |
SEDC 2/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |
|
| Pre-K Handout.pdf |
SEDC 2/23/2011 8:00:00 AM |