The US government has generated a document titled “Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement” The document is intended “to spark ideas about how districts and schools might use ARRA funds.” Districts generally have up to two years to obligate these funds. While many school districts may need to use a portion of their ARRA funds to save jobs, every district and school should be considering how to use these funds to improve student outcomes over the next two years and to advance reforms that will have even longer-term impact.
Over the next week or two, the CLM blog will be looking at all five of the, “Framing Questions for Decision Making” contained within the document found here. Because the government website is constantly changing, you may have to search for the original article by title on the US Department of Education website.
In considering how to best spend ARRA funds, decision makers should consider whether they can answer “yes” to these five questions:
1. Drive results for students? Will the proposed use of funds drive improved results for students, including students in poverty, students with disabilities, and English language learners?
YES! The CLM contains “Competent Learner Repertoire Assessments” or CLRAs for Learners. Primarily, the CLRA is used to determine the repertoires that are ‘missing’ and to track the learners’ progress through the CLM Curriculum. The CLRAs assist educators to appropriately place a learner in validated curricula by providing a profile of the learner’s strengths and weaknesses across seven key “learning-to-learn” repertoires. The CLRA has been shown to have concurrent validity with the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, be sensitive to change in learner behavior, and have high inter-observer agreement among educators using it to assess their learners.