Contributor
Sandy Kress, Former Senior Advisor on Education to President George W. Bush, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP
Related Link:
http://www.akingump.com
Biography provided by participant
Sandy Kress' practice focuses on public law and policy at the state and national levels with a strong focus on education matters, including policies, reform and accountability. Kress served as senior advisor to President George W. Bush on education with respect to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. He also previously served as president of the board of trustees of the Dallas Public Schools.
Kress formerly served on the Education Commission of the States, and he currently serves as counsel to the Governor's Business Council. He is also a life member of the board of directors of the Texas Business & Education Coalition.
In 1991, Kress was appointed by Texas Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock to the Educational Economic Policy Center. He was later asked to chair the Center's Accountability Committee. This committee produced the public school accountability system that was later adopted into Texas state law and recognized as one of the most advanced accountability systems in the nation. Lieutenant Governor Bullock also appointed Kress to serve in 1994 on the Interim Committee to study the Texas Education Agency. In December 2007, Kress was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve on the Select Committee on Public School Accountability which was tasked with thoroughly reviewing the public school accountability system.
Governor Perry appointed Kress in April 2007 to chair the Commission for a College Ready Texas. This commission issued recommendations to promote greater college/work readiness among Texas high school graduates.
Kress was also appointed by Governor Perry in December 2007 to serve on the Governor's Competitiveness Council which was launched to identify obstacles to global competitiveness and to seek recommendations on ways Texas can enhance its economic footing for long-term, sustained success.
Prior to joining Akin Gump, Kress was a partner in the Dallas law firm of Johnson & Wortley, P.C. He also served as deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department from 1977 to 1980.
Kress received his A.B. in 1971 from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. with honors in 1975 from the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as president of the student government. He is a member of the Texas and District of Columbia Bars.
Recent Responses
November 16, 2009 01:35 PM
I'm delighted that Easton and Shelton have posed this week's question. It's an important one, and the two of them actually will have a lot to do with how it's answered in the field. It's great that they're open to others' opinions, and the way they pose the various parts of the question suggests that they're on the right track to good answers. The answers, I think, begin with the importance of solid, rigorous research. Continuing to make big spending decisions on innovation and much of everything else without resort to this sort of research is unacceptable. And that's so both for…
Read moreNovember 9, 2009 05:31 PM
I think it will be a very difficult challenge in this environment to get any consensus on reauthorization, much less one anywhere near as strong as the one that birthed NCLB. Having said that, I do believe there are important areas that need legislative attention, and I hope for action that will move solid reform forward. First, there are good policies enshrined in ARRA, particularly in the four assurances, as well as promised Administration policies around RTTT that would make for worthy enhancements to ESEA. Second, the focus on elementary in ESEA and the strategy of continuous improvement should…
Read moreNovember 2, 2009 01:33 PM
Eliza - I think there is no "yes or no" answer to your questions. So, let me answer your question with a question. Will Race to the Top funding be grounded in strong and enforceable expectations that states have and implement turnaround strategies based on the wisdom shared here by Rick, Sherman, and Diane, among others? If so, it could be effective. If, on the other hand, it's more like "revenue sharing" for high hopes and promises in states that have merely used the right words in their proposals, it won't.…
Read moreOctober 26, 2009 10:35 AM
Why not? Private money has long found its way into the public schools in one way or another. Assuming the readers have their own long list from experience or other knowledge, I won't take the time or space to recount the many ways this happens, often and potentially for the good. I have a note of caution, though. School folks ought to be sure of two important things in seeking and taking private resources: 1) Go after funds that principally will help low income students, and 2) Go after funds that are consistent with, and do not divert…
Read moreOctober 19, 2009 06:15 PM
I don't have much to add to the fine comments that have been made. Rather I simply want to praise The New Teacher Project for the wonderful work they've done here. There is groundbreaking work from others as well, including the NCTQ, TFA, and TAP, that deserve tremendous credit. I recall all too vividly my years on a school board when the only data we had on teacher performance was subjective evaluations showing virtually all ratings to be "exceeds expectations" or better. This was so despite the fact that student achievement was pretty universally well below expectations. The…
Read moreOctober 14, 2009 03:02 PM
Steve - obviously the devil would be in the details, but I think you've made a good start. We certainly would want to put a premium on districts and schools that do an especially good job of improving achievement for disadvantaged students, don't you think?…
Read moreOctober 14, 2009 12:18 AM
Well - at the risk of being the skunk at the party - I'll gladly and strongly go against the budding consensus here. I don't particularly want to defend ayp in this comment. Just for fun, I would remind the readers that the ayp provisions of NCLB were universally supported in the Congress by both Democrats and Republicans. Further, I encourage all interested to google a very thorough and interesting article in the New Yorker in the summer of 2001 on the very subject of the ayp provisions. I don't want to take the space here, but you will be fascinated…
Read moreOctober 5, 2009 04:27 PM
I hope Kevin is ok with what I'm about to do. Plus it's truly a rare thing for me to have nothing new to add to a conversation. But I want to align myself entirely with the views of Kevin Carey!…
Read moreSeptember 29, 2009 04:17 PM
As to the quality of the recently released draft of the standards, I don't feel ready to opine. I look forward to studying them carefully and reviewing others' judgments as well. Personally, I'm very curious to see how they square with the college readiness standards we adopted in Texas after a multi-year process established by our Legislature. It'll be interesting to see if we "renegades" in Texas are far off from the "common" direction here. (By the way, I tend to doubt it.) But I want to spend a moment pursuing a few thoughts triggered by Representative Kline's comments.…
Read moreSeptember 21, 2009 06:26 PM
I think Mr. Peha must be unfamiliar with the standards of scientific research at IES. To get a medium level of evidence or even a low level of evidence against IES standards, a practice would be very much worth considering as a response to a problem. Sadly, we have very few high level, "gold" strategies or interventions. Until we do, the "silver" or "bronze" are the best we have and are quite helpful. While the document speaks in terms of "what" to do, many experienced practitioners have been turning those "whats" into "hows." For example, many recipients of…
Read moreSeptember 21, 2009 11:32 AM
We all have our own views and opinions on these various topics. And this forum is a wonderful place to share them. But I want to encourage us where possible to turn to the best research for the answers we seek. There is a marvelous piece of work on dropout prevention that the IES published as a practice guide. Please look at it. It is solid, practical, and easily usable by practitioners. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/dp_pg_090308.pdf…
Read moreSeptember 14, 2009 11:50 AM
There have been many fine points made that I won't repeat. I would stress one of them with which I agree strongly: more students must graduate high school ready to do freshman level work without need of remediation, at least at the level of the community college or regional university. Reauthorization of ESEA should focus tightly and capably on helping push to this goal. Finally, I am very curious to see the details of what the Administration and Congress will ask in return from states and community colleges in return for all the promised new resources. So far,…
Read moreSeptember 10, 2009 11:27 AM
I'll close out my "half of the inning" with Monty with two very brief comments: 1) The issue is not one about locals versus feds; rather, it's about equity, assuring that poor and minority kids are educated to high, common standards, and 2) Whatever else is done to improve assessments, the assessments that are used for accountability must be valid, reliable, aligned to high content and performance standards that are common at least across the state (and, even better, across the country), and common and comparable across the subgroups. If they are not, all this talk about getting ALL students…
Read moreSeptember 10, 2009 08:37 AM
I want to thank Monty for bringing us to the crux of the matter that Checker, too, began to address. We all want improved assessments, assessments with "higher tops," and multiple measures. We do so because folks like Diane correctly want, in simple terms, for teachers to teach and students to learn the canon. We do so because folks like me want to teach students the capacity through socratic dialogue to learn to think through and discuss the important ethical, philosophical, and other issues involved in living the good life. We do so because the 21st century skills folks want students to…
Read moreSeptember 9, 2009 03:09 PM
I think Monty is right: there is a lot of support for improving assessments. But I also assume that this consensus includes the notion that assessments used for accountability will continue to be characterized by the key requirements of NCLB, largely set out by amendments from the late Senator Wellstone. Those essentially are that the assessments be valid, reliable, aligned closely to common content and performance standards, and commonly given both "across the tracks" as well as across the state. If so, we might be on to something!…
Read moreSeptember 8, 2009 08:57 AM
I'm with Jay and Andy on this one. In fact, I'm announcing this morning the formation of a new group, the Partnership for 5th Century BCE Skills. We will be using the teaching methods of Socrates as our basic approach since we believe that they are more relevant for all centuries, including this one, than those of our rival partnership. For those who worry that we're just a bunch of fuddy-duddys, I want to ease your mind. We will encourage the use of the tools of modern technology that, of course, are important to us today but were unavailable in Athens…
Read moreAugust 31, 2009 11:56 AM
I would refer readers to the practice guide on turnaround that was published by the Institute of Education Sciences. It is both practical and, most important, research-based. Here's a link. http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/Turnaround_pg_04181.pdf…
Read moreAugust 28, 2009 04:22 PM
A few comments to finish "my half of the third inning" with Monty Neill, and then I propose we take our continuing battle offline! The opponents of NCLB can't say in the face of all the evidence to the contrary that it's not working to improve student achievement for disadvantaged students. So, instead, they say that the pace of gains has slowed from the preceding period. The problem with this assertion is that it's based on an unjustified sleight of hand in the use of data. You have "to watch the magician's hands closely" to see the…
Read moreAugust 26, 2009 04:07 PM
I'll respond to Monty's latest post tomorrow, reserving today for reflections and memories of Senator Kennedy.…
Read moreAugust 26, 2009 11:03 AM
Thank you, Eliza, for turning our attention to Senator Kennedy. I know he's on all our minds today. I could fill up more than my share of space with memories of the unforgettable time I was blessed to spend with this extraordinary man during negotiations over NCLB. But I will try to be disciplined in leaving just a few impressions. He cared so deeply about making a difference for poor children. Like no legislator I've ever known, he spent tremendous amounts of his own time and energy and wisdom in the work, though he had the best staff…
Read moreAugust 25, 2009 05:52 PM
Monty Neill wants the evidence of academic gains since 1999. Here it is. I encourage readers to read this data very carefully. It's a lot easier to read prose than a long recitation of numbers, I realize. But, in this case, the numbers tell all. They are powerful evidence of the success of the standards based reform movement in producing significant gains in academic achievement for poor students and students of color in the elementary and middle grades. Monty and I have discussed elsewhere the issue of NCLB's impact. We disagree on it, and I'll spare the reader…
Read moreAugust 24, 2009 10:44 AM
I won't spend any time with the silly and gratuitous comments of Diane and Monty. Poor and minority students are far closer to grade level in the earlier grades today, as measured by NAEP, than they were in 1999 when the poilcies of these "experts" were in place. NCLB, as Checker says, was largely geared, as have been most of the reforms of the past decade or so, to the earlier grades. We need a major initiative to move from the current and stronger foundation we have in place to getting youngsters from adolescence to a meaningful credential. …
Read moreAugust 17, 2009 04:39 PM
Either the new spending will be done in accord with the lessons of research as described below, or else it will be no more effective than the myriad of other early childhood programs that have been established over the years. We keep multiplying the programs instead of making existing programs more pervasively and enduringly effective. So, yes, I doubt the new program. Why? It is so much easier to pass and appropriate for programs than it is to make them work. http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/27149734.html…
Read moreAugust 10, 2009 12:11 PM
My instinct is to favor it. Others may be inclined to oppose it. Perhaps the better approach is to ask: does scientific research show that the practice, whatever it is, boosts student achievement over time on a cost effective basis? Let's structure all of ours concerns into the scientific study. For example, we should test whether gains continue after the rewards cease. Do students "need" the rewards to continue striving? Or does better performance build intrinsic desire? Rather than deciding these things on the basis of our biases or "feelings," let's test them out and make decisions on…
Read moreAugust 4, 2009 02:42 AM
The President and the Secretary are right to insist that there be teacher-student links for states to receive rttt funds. They're not saying teachers should be fired solely on the basis of student scores. They're simply saying that until we understand the patterns in teaching and learning and do something on the basis of those patterns to improve learning there is no such thing as real reform. It's that simple. And they're right on this point. i hope they really follow through on it. We'll see. What worries me, though, about fairness and rttt is how all the criteria will…
Read moreJuly 27, 2009 10:17 AM
Updated at 5:11 p.m. on July 28. The first step to doing more to close the achievement gaps is to recognize the progress we've made. With respect, your account of where we are is inaccurate. Since we have made progress, I would suggest that knowing the dimensions of the progress and understanding how and why we made it may offer clues about what our next best steps might be. That we need to do much more, as Kati writes, is incontestably right. The gaps are large and unjustifiable. But let's understand the gains first. Here is a link to the…
Read moreJuly 20, 2009 03:51 PM
I've been a life-long student of government, and, yet, I'm totally confused by the idea on the table this week. A state currently reports, or allows to be reported, "X" as education data. If this proposal is adopted, and the same state hires someone other than the current source and who is supposedly "independent" to report the data, do we seriously think the state will then, all of a sudden, report "Y" or "Z"?…
Read moreJuly 13, 2009 02:37 PM
Many community colleges do a good job at preparing their students for the workforce. But, with a new direction and help, they could do much more. First, we must better align k-12 goals and output with college expectations. This will require, in part, much clearer messages from the colleges as to the specific knowledge and skills that are required to do freshman level work without remediation. Community college leaders and other business and civic leaders in their communities must then place greater leverage on, and provide more effective help to, k-12 to deliver to these expectations. Second, colleges must…
Read moreJuly 6, 2009 09:49 AM
To put it in inelegant terms, there ain't any magic bullets in this business. And simply going to mayoral control is no magic bullet. Having said that, I would say that mayoral control seems to have been a positive factor in improvement in New York City and Washington, D.C. But that may simply be a function of the fact that there are two capable mayors in those cities who made two very daring and strong picks of superintendents. Would other mayors do as well, if given the authority over their school systems? Yes, they would be subject to…
Read moreJune 30, 2009 10:00 PM
Maybe i'm hopelessly idealistic or unforgivably naiive, but I believe that the only purpose of spending public dollars on education is to educate students effectively, that is, by manifesting high levels of student achievement. I have my doubts about whether funneling dollars through federal education spending channels is a very good way to stimulate the economy, but that argument is not mine to make, certainly not here. I do like the strategies the Congress and the Administration have endorsed through the four assurances and believe that, if well implemented, this Race to the Top spending could help improve student achievement. Yet, as…
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