Contributor
Gary Huggins, Executive Director, Commission on No Child Left Behind
Related Link:
http://www.nclbcommission.org
Biography provided by participant
Gary Huggins is the Director of the Commission on No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan, independent effort dedicated to improving the No Child Left Behind Act. The Commission has spent the last year traveling across the country, listening to the experiences of students, educators, parents, administrators, state and district officials, experts and policymakers in order to develop specific and actionable recommendations for establishing a high-achieving education system.
Huggins has more than fifteen years of experience in leading education and environmental policy organizations. Prior to joining the Commission, he served as Executive Director of the Education Leaders Council and the Education Leaders Action Council, organizations that represented Governors, state education chiefs, state education boards and others officials focused on improving K-12 education systems. Prior to these positions, Huggins served as Executive Director of CSCV, a coalition of corporations, small businesses, consumer and environmental groups that promoted market-based environmental solutions. Huggins also served on the 1988 Presidential Campaign and Inaugural Committee for George H.W. Bush.
Huggins holds a B.A. in Political Science and Communications (double major) from Texas Christian University and studied the British political system and history at the University of Kent at Canterbury, England.
Recent Responses
October 21, 2009 06:08 PM
Everyone knows that effective teachers are one of the most important factors in student success. And yet only four states require that student learning be the primary criterion in teacher evaluations, and only two states require that teacher effectiveness be considered as part of tenure decisions, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality. As a nation we spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year on teacher salaries, benefits, and professional development, but do very little to ensure that we attract, prepare, support, and retain effective teachers who help students to make the most progress, and remove those who do…
Read moreOctober 9, 2009 09:42 AM
We will never be able to consistently improve student achievement and maximize our use of time and money in schools if we don’t have reliable data to inform our decisions. Some of the most sought-after NCLB reforms, such as the ability to measure student growth or teacher effectiveness, are impossible without sophisticated data systems to organize and sort information. That is why the Commission recommended that all states develop high-quality longitudinal data systems with increased federal funding support. These systems should be crafted to illuminate student and teacher performance and inform key policy questions, but also to maintain privacy rights guaranteed…
Read moreOctober 2, 2009 05:45 PM
Having recommended the creation of voluntary national standards and tests in 2007, the Commission agrees with other commenters that adopting, teaching to, and measuring against well-designed common standards will improve the quality and equity of education not only across state lines, but also economic and racial lines. Research shows that the differentiation among state standards can result in a gap as large as an entire grade level of student achievement. Low and uneven standards are putting students at an incredible disadvantage. In far too many states, it is possible for students to meet expectations on state assessments, only to find themselves…
Read moreSeptember 25, 2009 04:25 PM
Civic Enterprises’ fascinating 2006 report about the dropout crisis, The Silent Epidemic, allows us to hear directly from high school dropouts about why they dropped out. Through focus groups, these dropouts tell a compelling story that we could immediately learn from if we chose to pay attention. First, the majority of dropouts are NOT leaving school because of significant academic challenges. Though many feel that they were not adequately prepared for high school by their earlier schooling, the major factor leading to their decision to drop out was that classes were not interesting. Two-thirds of the former students say they would have worked…
Read moreAugust 31, 2009 08:50 AM
Progress is being made and greater attention paid to several key reform areas-thanks in part to requirements in the stimulus-including placing a sharper focus on teacher effectiveness, developing more sophisticated data systems, and creating common academic standards. But to date, not nearly enough effort has gone into figuring out what to do with chronically low-performing schools. As Education Week recently noted, the research base on effective turnarounds is thin. There aren't many examples of successful, sustained turnarounds in education, and as those who have tried it attest, this work is exceedingly difficult and not for the faint of heart.…
Read moreJuly 31, 2009 03:13 PM
Earlier posts in this week’s discussion eloquently lay out the moral imperative for closing the achievement gap—something that has long troubled hearts and consciences. While that alone should spur the nation to act, we now have something potentially more powerful in creating demand for change—data that prove that achievement gaps matter to all of us. McKinsey & Company’s recent study documents the tragic consequences of the gaps not only for individual students, but also for our collective standard of living, finding that the persistence of achievement gaps imposes the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession on our country. Findings like this…
Read moreJune 29, 2009 05:49 PM
Albert Einstein said that “in the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” Many states and districts are wrestling with gaping holes in their budgets—but they should resist the temptation to use the unprecedented $100 billion in new federal education funding to simply plug those holes. Instead, they should seize this (admittedly difficult) opportunity and these resources to take an honest look at how effectively their resources are being used and as cover to make bold—and sometimes uncomfortable—changes to ensure that every dollar supports student achievement. It’s worth noting that some needed reforms such as legislative and certain policy changes can be accomplished at…
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