In many ways, the success of educational policies in the United States depends greatly on the success of state education agencies.
States—traditionally through state education agencies, or SEAs—monitor districts and schools to ensure that students are safe in school and that their education meets minimum quality standards. But the space occupied by SEAs is also an ambiguous one.
Under mounting federal pressure to be more involved in improving schools, SEAs have seen the scope and breadth of their work significantly increase in recent years. SEA staff are now tasked with a long and growing list of responsibilities, including teacher licensure, distribution of funding, technical assistance to educators, the management and administration of end-of-year tests, and maintenance of state-level student and school databases. Because of this wide scope of duties, those who lead SEAs serve an important role in the future of our country as schools are pivotal to our global competitiveness.
In this paper, Robert Hanna, Jeffrey Morrow, and Marci Rozen of the Center for American Progress explore the red tape that binds state education leaders as they seek to make today’s ambitious reforms a reality.
The paper includes the following recommendations for federal and state policymakers:
- Federal policymakers should improve and streamline compliance monitoring and reporting requirements.
- State leaders should reexamine their states’ legal requirements and identify areas for agency improvement.
- State policymakers—legislators and state employee organizations—should streamline civil service processes to improve state agency operations.
For more information, please visit:
http://americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2014/06/13/91187/cutting-red-tape/
