Department of Education, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education

Department/Agency: Department of Education

Position:

Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education

Executive Schedule: Executive Level IV - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation

Major Responsibilities:

•  Promote educational excellence, equity and opportunity
• Ensure equal access to schooling for children who are disadvantaged, Native American, in migrant workers' families, or homeless.
• Provide so-called impact aid to local school districts affected by federal facilities and operations that do not pay property taxes
• Foster educational improvement at the state and local level

Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:

• Ph.D. and/or senior level experience as state superintendent or school administrator

Insight:

The Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education develops, implements and monitors federal K-12 policy. With No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) - the central piece of national education policy - due for reauthorization, the next assistant secretary will face a pitched political battle, as President-elect Barack Obama, Secretary of Education-designate Arne Duncan and their lieutenants decide with Congress how to recalibrate a program that was intended to bring accountability and results to schools nationwide.

The assistant secretary runs programs that are the major source of federal help for the nation's schools, including $14 billion in Title I funds for remedial education. (Federal aid provides only a small share, however, of the total costs of public education). Education's elementary and secondary programs serve more than 14,000 school districts and 56 million students attending 97,000 public and 28,000 private schools.

"There are many different forces converging on the reauthorization process and the next Assistant Secretary must be politically astute in his or her ability to analyze the proposals and understand their policy implications," Kerri L. Briggs, assistant secretary since 2007, told the Council for Excellence in Government in response to the survey for this edition of the Prune Book. "NCLB is highly contested, misunderstood and has mixed public support. ... Public reaction is often muddled by the misinformation about the state of affairs and what is possible. For example, the demand by many is to move towards accountability systems that account for student progress. However, the vast majority of states do not have the technical capacity, assessment infrastructure or data system to implement a system. This fact is widely known but rarely acknowledged. This lack of capacity also enables many anti-NCLB groups to drum the doomsday beat."

Funding for NCLB programs rose from $17 billion for 2001 to $24 billion for 2008, a 40 percent increase, the Education Department notes. Nonetheless, the law's critics - including some Democrats who worked with President Bush to enact the measure - claim it has become another "unfunded mandate" that punishes underperforming schools rather than providing enough resources to help them to improve. On the campaign trail, Obama pledged to reform NCLB. According to his campaign Web site: "Obama and [running mate Sen. Joseph] Biden believe teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. He will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama and Biden will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them."

Briggs highlighted the challenges created by the many stakeholders, from education advocacy groups to the Office of Management and Budget, who demand the time and attention of the assistant secretary. "Keeping all the appropriate offices and external stakeholders informed is key to maintaining good relationships and building trust, but you can easily loose track of who needs to be informed about what and when. ... Transparency with internal and external constituents is key but a delicate balance. You also need to preserve the Department's ability to deliberate and make decisions."

She offered several suggestions for surviving the pressure from both internal and external observers:

• Put key policy decisions in writing to avoid misunderstandings. It may be a heavy burden to lift at the time, but you'll be glad you did later.
  
  
• Changes occur at the state level that affect implementation of key programs and you have no control over those changes. ... Being able to distinguish between the real fires and the smoke - that takes time, and even then, you'll get it wrong some times.
  
  
• Get some seriously smart and creative special assistants and deputies quick. ... You need people to challenge your own thinking. ... If you assemble the right group of people, the work will be productive, incredibly rewarding and even fun; without them, you will be miserable.

Briggs warned that the public nature of the job and its often contentious place between state and federal education policymakers "means you will get thrown under the ubiquitous bus." The next assistant secretary for elementary and postsecondary education will need a thick skin and a clear vision to navigate competing pressures.

Key Relationships – Within the Government:

Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Education
Director, National Science Foundation
Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget
Administrator, Administration For Children & Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Secretary and Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Indian Education, Interior

Organizational Chart

Key Relationships – Outside the Government:

Council of Chief State School Officers
American Association of School Administrators
American Educational Research Association
American Federation of Teachers
National Education Association
National School Boards Association
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
The College Board
Council of the Great city Schools
Education Commission of the States
International Reading Association
National Association of State Boards of Education
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of Secondary School Principals
National Parent Teachers Association

Nomination Referred to:

Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Current Position Profile:
1. Dr. Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana (Confirmed: July 24, 2009). Former Superintendent of Pomona Unified School District. Former Program Manager for the Stupski Foundation. Former Deputy Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer, Pomona Unified.

Recent Position Profiles:
2. Joseph Conaty, Ph.D. (Acting). Former Acting Director of the Office of Research at the Department of Education; Former Director of the National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment; and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

3. Kerri L. Briggs, Ph.D. (2007-2009). Former acting assistant secretary for planning and senior policy adviser to deputy secretary. Reviewed state accountability plans for No Child Left Behind Act. Ph.D. in education policy. Program evaluator for the University of Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts. 

4. Henry Johnson, Ph.D. (2005 - 2006). Mississippi superintendent of education. Former associate superintendent for North Carolina. Ph.D. in school administration. One-time math and science teacher.

5. Susan Neuman, Ph.D. (2001 - 2003). University of Michigan education professor and literacy expert. Once an elementary teacher and reading specialist. Helped implement No Child Left Behind. Directed Michigan's Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement and taught previously at Temple University.