The Department of Education announced last week the 21 members of the negotiating committee that will help write new rules related to standards and assessments under the “No Child Left Behind” Act of 2001. The agency selected participants—who include state and local school administrators, teachers, school board members, and parents—from among more than 100 individuals and groups that submitted comments about the “negotiated rulemaking” process by a Feb. 19 deadline.
In addition, two department officials—Susan B. Neuman, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education, and Joseph F. Johnson, the agency’s director of compensatory education programs—will take part in the negotiations.
Christopher T. Cross, a former president of the Washington- based Council for Basic Education and an assistant secretary of education during the first Bush administration, will serve as facilitator. The department also plans to retain the services of two assessment experts to be available to help the panel. One has been announced: David Francis, a psychometrician from the University of Houston Medical Center. The other, yet to be named, will be a state testing expert.
The members of the negotiating committee:
• Arturo Abarca, teacher, Helitrope Elementary School, Los Angeles Unified School District;
- Rae Belisle, chief counsel, California state board of education;
- Beverly Carroll, Alachua County, Fla., school board;
- Judy Catchpole, superintendent of public instruction, Wyoming Department of Education;
- John R. Clark, assistant superintendent, department of education, Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown, Pa.;
- Alvis Cotton, principal, Dardanelle Middle School, Dardanelle, Ark.;
- Lou Fabrizio, director, division of accountability services, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction;
- Patricia Fischer, Title I teacher, Hooker public schools, Hooker, Okla.;
- Bob Harmon, assistant state superintendent for special programs, Washington Department of Public Instruction;
- Charlotte Harris, senior director of program development, Boston public schools;
- Jim Horne, secretary of education, Florida Department of Education;
- Karl Nichols, parent, Milwaukee;
- Minnie Pearce, parent, Detroit;
- Alexa Pochowski, associate commissioner, Kansas Department of Education;
- Enedelia Schofield, principal, W.L. Henry Elementary School, Hillsboro, Ore.;
- Maria Seidner, director, bilingual education, Texas Education Agency;
- Nelson Smith, charter schools, District of Columbia
- John Stevens, director, Texas Business and Education Coalition ;
- Myrna Toney, director of migrant education, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction;
- Rodney Watson, assistant superintendent, office of student and school standards, Louisiana Department of Education; and
• J. Alvin Wilbanks, superintendent, Gwinnett County, Ga., schools.
—Lynn Olson
