Proposed Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria-Comprehensive Centers Program

This comment letter came in response to the U.S. Department Education’s public request for comment about proposed priorities for the Comprehensive Centers program, which provides training and other supports to states, regional education agencies, school districts, and schools on a host of education matters. The department proposed, among other things, to set up a new “content center,” a national center focused on a specific topic, to strengthen and support the educator workforce.

Wallace made two recommendations:
•    Making clear that the center focuses not just on teachers but school leaders, too. That could be accomplished by replacing the word used in the current draft rule, “educator,” with the phrasing “teachers, principals, and other school leaders.” This more specific language is consistent with the language of a bedrock federal education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and a number of department regulations and guidance documents.

Wallace recommended the change because of strong research evidence, from Wallace-supported and other studies, that school leadership plays an important role in boosting student learning and other school outcomes.

•    Allowing the center to serve teachers, principals, and other school leaders who work in school-based afterschool and summer programs, such as those supported with federal 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding. Wallace-supported research found that high-quality, district-based summer programs improved student outcomes, the letter notes, and a National Academies of Science and Medicine report from 2019 found that summer programming can address disparities and inequities for young people.