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Office of Innovation and Improvement

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Overview:

Located within the Department of Education, The Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) manages various grant programs, ranging from charter schools to dropout prevention, and coordinates the public school choice and supplemental education services that are provided under the No Child Left Behind Act. In managing these grant programs and implementing new educational reforms, OII attempts to improve student achievement, increase parental awareness, and prepare the educational system, both technologically and instructionally, for more advanced learning.

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What it Does:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Office of Innovation and Improvement was created in order to help manage the spending of money created by the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, the OII decides how to distribute the funds of its 28 grant programs (see below). When distributing these funds, their main goal is to improve student achievement, increase parental awareness, and keep the education system up to date. The OII is also responsible for administering earmarks, which are funds allocated by Congress to be spent on predetermined projects.

 

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Where Does the Money Go:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OII Grants and Initiatives
 
Earmarks
In addition, funds from this department are distributed in the form of earmarks. Earmarks are funds that are allocated to certain projects without having to undergo the legislative process. Every year Congress allocates funds to OII with a predetermined use. These Congressional provisions that are to be spent on specific projects are distributed without decision-making from OII. In 2005, for example, there were 709 earmarks totaling $289,230,000. In recent years, earmark spending has gone up dramatically, despite criticism. In 2008, a record $2.25 billion was set aside to fund 2,300 educational earmarks at 920 universities. Most of these earmarks are given to OII or the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE).
 
List of 2005 earmarks:
 
Other earmark references:
Study Finds Record Earmarks (by Alan Finder, New York Times)
Colleges’ Earmarks Grow, Amid Criticism (by Jeffrey Brainard and JJ Hermes, Chronicle of Higher Education)

 

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Controversies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earmarks
As in recent times people consider the United State’s educational system to be substandard, many critics are finding faults in the way the department spends its earmarks. It should be noted, however, that the distribution of earmarks is ultimately a decision made by Congress.
 
Against the current usage of earmarks
Education Notebook: End Wasteful Education Earmarks (by Dan Lips, Heritage Foundation)
Colleges’ Earmarks Grow, Amid Criticism (by Jeffrey Brainard and JJ Hermes, Chronicle of Higher Education)
The U.S Department of Education: Awash in Earmarks (by Gerald Bracey, Huffington Post)
 
Non-bias
A Good Year for Pell Grants, A Great Year for Earmarks (by Jason Delisle, New America Foundation)
Earmarks: Is it pork or bringing home the bacon? (by Sara Kincaid, Bismark Tribune)
$35.7M flows to Rochester area as earmarks in 2007-08 (by Jill Terreri, Democrat and Chronicle)
 
Program Spending
Critics also condemn the way in which money is being spent on certain OII grant programs. Many believe that money is being spent unwisely on ineffective programs. Others believe that funds are being cut from the incorrect problems.
 
For 2008, the President has requested $922,018,000, which is an increase from the previous year. However, these funding increases are at the expense of eliminating 15 other programs. The charts below show the programs that gained and lost funding.
 
(In thousands of dollars)
 
2006 Appropriation
2007 Current Estimate
2008 Request
  1. National Writing Project
21,533
21,533
0
  1. Academies for American history and civics
1,980
1,980
0
  1. School leadership
14,731
14,731
0
  1. Advanced credentialing
16,695
16,695
0
  1. School dropout prevention
4,851
4,851
0
  1. Close Up fellowships
1,454
1,454
0
  1. Star schools
14,850
14,850
0
  1. Ready to teach
10,890
10,890
0
  1. Exchanges with historic whaling and trading partners
8,910
8,910
0
  1. Excellence in economic education
1,473
1,473
0
  1. Mental health integration in schools
4,910
4,910
0
  1. Foundations for learning
982
982
0
  1. Arts in education
35,277
35,277
0
  1. Parental information and resource centers
39,600
39,600
0
  1. Women’s educational equity
2,926
2,926
0
 
 (In thousands of dollars)
 
2006 Appropriation
2007 Current Estimate
2008 Request
1. Teacher incentive fund
99,000
3,899
199,000
2.      Adjunct teacher corps (proposed legislation)
0
0
25,000
  1. Advanced Placement
32,175
32,175
122,175
  1. FIE programs of national significance
11,668
11,668
33,065
 
Against current program spending
Small Steps Toward Smarter Education Spending (by Krista Kafer and Jonathan Butcher, Heritage Foundation)
 
For current program spending
 
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
Instituted only three days after he took office, NCLB was a “cornerstone” of the Bush administration. Every since it was introducing, however, there has been many arguments, both for and against, Bush’s educational reform.
 
For NCLB
 
Against NCLB
What Congress needs to hear about NCLB (by Edward J. McElroy, BNET)
What's Wrong With NCLB? (Ohio Education Association)
Government Initiatives: Problems of NCLB (University of Michigan website)
 
Non-bias
No Child Left Behind: An analysis of the controversy (by Thomas Imms, New Foundations)
A guide to the No Child Left Behind Act (by Pamela Karwasinski and Katharine Shek, Center for Public Education)
The good and bad of NCLB (editorial, Washington Times)

 

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Former Directors:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morgan Brown

Morgan Brown became the Assistant Deputy Secretary in July 2006. He was born in Southern California, but grew up in Durham, N.H. His parents were both college professors. Brown graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He then moved to Washington D.C and worked as a research assistant for the National Republican Congressional Committee, where he landed a job as a legislative assistant for Republican Jim Ramstad of Minnesota. Prior to becoming Assistant Deputy Secretary, Brown gained experience working with foreign affair issues, public policy and communications issues, and grant reviewing.
 

From 1999 to 2000, he was the director of the Partnership for Choice in Education, and, from 2001 to 2002 he led the Minnesota Education League. Just prior to serving in the Minnesota Department of Education, Brown became a senior fellow for education policy at the Center of the American Experiment, a conservative Minneapolis think tank.

 

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Comments

Dana McDermott 2 years ago
I am trying to reach Anna Hinton. I came out to a PIRC conference per her request in the past and need to ask her a question but I do not have her email address. Thanks, Dana McDermott Dana R. McDermott, Ph.D., CFLE Associate Professor DePaul University 14 E. JAckson Chicago, IL 60604 312-362-5111 dmcderm2@depaul.edu

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Founded: 2002
Annual Budget: 1,299,000,000 (2008)
Employees: 100 (2002)
Official Website: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/index.html
Office of Innovation and Improvement
Shelton, James
Assistant Deputy Secretary

 

James H. Shelton III has served as assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement since April 2009, putting him in charge of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. In this position, he oversees the $650 million Investing in Innovation Fund. President Barack Obama pledged to prohibit government employees from doing business with former employers. However, Shelton was granted a waiver to deal with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for which he worked for more than five years prior to joining the Obama administration.
 
Shelton holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Morehouse College (1989), as well as master’s degrees in business administration and education from Stanford University (1993).
 
He began his career developing computer systems before joining McKinsey & Company, a major management consulting firm, in 1993, advising CEOs and other executives on issues related to corporate strategy, business development, organizational design and operational effectiveness. He spent four years with the firm, rising up to senior management consultant.
 
Upon leaving McKinsey, he joined Knowledge Universe, Inc., a huge education conglomerate, founded by Mike and Lowell Milken, that operates everything from pre-schools to online colleges. Shelton was tasked with launching, acquiring and operating education-related businesses.
 
In 1999 Shelton co-founded LearnNow, a school management company that later was acquired by Edison Schools.
 
Shelton then worked with Joel Klein, chancellor of New York City schools, leading the planning for his reform strategy known as Children First.
 
He next served as a partner and the East Coast lead for NewSchools Venture Fund, a non-profit that supports companies in the education industry.
 
Prior to joining the Obama administration, he spent more than five years (2003-2009) as a program director for the education division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, managing the foundation’s national programs and work in the northeast region of the United States. Among the programs he oversaw were Next Generation Models, School Replication, and College Access and Scholarships.
 
Shelton and his wife, Sonia, have two sons, Justice and Jameson.
 
James H. Shelton III (WhoRunsGov, Washington Post)
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Mesecar, Doug
Previous Assistant Deputy Secretary
Doug Mesecar was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science Phi Beta Kappa from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. During his time at Hope College, he also played on the school’s basketball team. In 1996, Mesecar pursued graduate studies in education at the University of Denver in Colorado, where he obtained a provisional license to teach. Mesecar went on to teach fifth grade at Witt Elementary in Jefferson County, Colorado, where he beta-tested new district standards and taught special education students.
 
After teaching, Mesecar went to Washington, D.C., to work on federal education policy in the House of Representative. In 2001, he joined the House Committee on Education and the Workforce to work for Chairman John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). In this position, Mesecar was able to oversee the writing of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002.
 
Mesecar first joined the Department of Education in 2003, becoming chief of staff of the Office of Elementary Secondary Education (OESE). From 2004 to 2005, he served as the deputy chief of staff in the Office of the Secretary. He left the department to become the Director of Government Relations and Policy Advisor to Edison Schools, Inc., a company based in New York that contracts with school districts to design and manage their curricula and programs.
 
Mesecar returned to the Department of Education in 2007, serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (OPEPD) and as Acting Assistant Secretary until Bill Evers' confirmation in October 2007. OPEPD plays a key role in the Department of Education’s Budget Service, Performance Information Management Service, Policy and Program Studies Service, and Office of Educational Technology. In this position, Mesecar gained a few months’ experience working with the educational budget.
 
On February 19, 2008, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that Doug Mesecar would lead the OII as Assistant Deputy Secretary and Mesecar formally took the position on March 2, 2008. He served until the end of the administration of George W. Bush.
 
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