Roy E. Barnes, Co-Chairman

Contact: Jennifer W. Adams
Phone: 202/736-3858

Commission to Offer Recommendations to
Congress and Administration for Reauthorization

Washington DC- On Monday former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson and former Georgia Governor Roy E. Barnes, Co-Chairs of the Commission on No Child Left Behind, along with the newly appointed members of the Commission convened for their first organizational meeting. Congress is scheduled to begin reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2007. The bi-partisan independent Commission will conduct a high level, analysis of NCLB over the next 12 to 18 months. "We have a crisis in American education," said Secretary Thompson. "U.S. students are not keeping pace with their peers in foreign countries and this is no longer acceptable. We must do everything in our power to increase student achievement and close the achievement gap in our education system to ensure our competitive position in the world."

"Education is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it is an American issue,” said Governor Barnes. "This Commission represents a vast cross section of America's key education stake holders. With out this representation we can not effectively offer recommendations on how to close the achievement gap."

Commission members include:

• Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation
• Dr. Christopher Edley, Jr, Dean, University of California, Berkeley School of Law
• Dr. Eugene Garcia, Dean, School of Education, Arizona State University
• Dr. Judith E. Heumann, Advisor on Disability and Development, the World Bank Group
• Mr. Thomas Y. Hobart, Jr., Former New York State United Teachers President
• Ms. Jaymie Reeber Kosa, Middle School Teacher, West Windsor-Plainsboro School District, Princeton, New Jersey
• Ms. Andrea Messina, Vice Chairman, Charlotte County Schools, School Board, Florida
• Dr. J. Michael Ortiz, President, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California
• Dr. James Pughsley, Former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Superintendent, Charlotte, North Carolina
• Mr. Edward B. Rust Jr., Chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Companies
• Dr. John Theodore Sanders, Executive Chairman Cardean Learning Group and Co-Chair of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future
• Ms. Jennifer Smith, Executive Director, Principal's Leadership Institute, District of Columbia Public Schools
• Dr. Ed Sontag, Senior Advisor and Acting Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities

The Commission will hold its first hearing in late March/ early April in Los Angeles, CA and focus on Teacher Quality. Continuing each month through June there will be three additional hearings (locations are being finalized) that will focus on assessments, accountability, including AYP and alternative AYP model discussions, and turning around struggling schools – interventions and consequences. The final hearing of the commission will be in September in Washington, DC and will focus on general NCLB issues.

The Commission on No Child Left Behind is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Spencer Foundation. This document is published to communicate the results of the Commission’s work. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in the Commission’s documents are entirely those of the author(s) and should not be attributed in any manner to the donors.