SEDL Celebrates Its History and the ESEA

"My father's hope was that this law would provide students from poor environments, rural and urban, the same passport out of poverty that he had known: a decent education."

—Luci Baines Johnson,
speaking on the passage of the ESEA in 1965

As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, SEDL held a community breakfast on November 3, 2006, at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas. Approximately 200 attendees were entertained with a video of congratulatory greetings from such wellwishers as Senator John Cornyn, Texas commissioner of education Shirley Neeley, and the Biscuit Brothers, an Austin-based band with a popular children's education show on PBS. They also listened to the keynote address given by Sandy Kress, a partner in the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Kress served as senior advisor to President Bush in the development of the No Child Left Behind Act. Kress spoke on the need to stay focused on reform efforts, accountability, and quality instruction. Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who continues the work of her parents at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, followed Kress with a short speech commemorating the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that her father signed into law in 1965.

Old friends catch up. Above: Former CEO Preston Kronkosky, human resources assistant Tracy Hoes, program manager John Westbrook, and accounting specialist Sharon Malmquist.

Former SEDL staff members Donna Beth McCormick and David L. Williams, Jr.

Former CEO Preston Kronkosky, Joan Holtzman, and former SEDL board chairman and UT dean Wayne Holtzman.

"Every single one of the reforms I've talked about—whether it was getting started with ESEA, whether it was the Ross Perot 'no pass, no play,' whether it was the standards and the measurement and the consequences of the standards-based movement, even the ratcheted-up muscularity of No Child Left Behind—every one of these steps over the last 40 years, I would suggest to you, was necessary but not sufficient." —Sandy Kress, speaking on the history of school reform since the passage of the ESEA in 1965

Austin attorney Sandy Kress, who helped draft the NCLB legislation, greets Carol Thompson, president of the Thompson Group, and Jo Pettigrew, former SEDL board chairman.

Next Article: Happy Anniversary, SEDL