46 States, D.C. Plan to Draft Common Education Standards

For a couple of years now, KSN&C has been tracking a relatively small number of school leaders who have advocated in favor of national standards.

Margaret Spelings said "No."

But Arne Duncan says "Yes."

In August of 2007, the National Conference of State Legislatures took a hard line against any form of national academic standards, declaring that any national attempt to unite school curricula across states would be unacceptable until perceived flaws in the federal No Child Left Behind Act are fixed.

Republicans have tended to oppose such moves when federally imposed. (I know. The bush administration's No Child Left Behind legislation certainly intruded into state affairs.) But the idea of states voluntarily agreeing to submit has much broader support.

I'm not sure NCLB has been fixed in any significant way, but the number of folks supporting the idea certainly has. The last I heard, Achieve Inc., had been working with 36 states to develop voluntary standards. The number of states thinking seriously about national standards has now jumped to 46.

The hold outs: three conservative states Texas, Alaska, and South Carolina, plus the more moderate Missouri.

This from the Washington Post:

Forty-six states and the District of Columbia today will announce an effort to craft a single vision for what children should learn each year from kindergarten through high school graduation, an unprecedented step toward a uniform definition of success in American schools.

The push for common reading and math standards marks a turning point in a movement to judge U.S. children using one yardstick that reflects expectations set for students in countries around the world at a time of global competition.

Today, each state decides what to teach in third-grade reading, fifth-grade math and every other class. Critics think some set a bar so that students can pass tests but, ultimately, are ill-prepared.

Led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, the states, including Maryland and Virginia, are aiming to define a framework of content and skills that meet an overarching goal. When students get their high school diplomas, the coalition says, they should be ready to tackle college or a job. The benchmarks would be "internationally competitive."

Once the organizers of the effort agree to a proposal, each state would decide individually whether to adopt it.

Plan to Change Student Lending Sets Up a Fight

This from the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The private student lending industry and its allies in Congress are maneuvering to thwart a plan by President Obama to end a subsidized loan program and redirect billions of dollars in bank profits to scholarships for needy students.

The plan is the main money-saving component of Mr. Obama’s education agenda, which includes a sweeping overhaul of financial aid programs. The Congressional Budget Office says replacing subsidized loans made by private banks with direct government lending would save $94 billion over the next decade, money that Mr. Obama would use to expand Pell grants for the poorest students.

But the proposal has ignited one of the most fractious policy fights this year...

During the Bush administration, a massive student loan scandal exposed student lending companies that were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies. At the time, Education Secretaries Rod Paige and his successor, Margaret Spellings, argued repeatedly that under existing law they were powerless to stop the payments and that it was Congress that needed to act.

Obama apparently disagrees.

For lenders, the stakes are huge. Just last week, Sallie Mae reported that despite losing $213 million in 2008, it paid its chief executive more than $4.6 million in cash and stock and its vice chairman more than $13.2 million in cash and stock, including the use of a company plane. The company, which did not receive money under the $700 billion financial system bailout and is not subject to pay restrictions, also disbursed cash bonuses of up to $600,000 to other executives...

Maggie's Plea to Arne

Dear Arne,

You're so wonderful. Please go easy on NCLB, and let us keep vouchers in DC. You know you're going to need supporters.

Your friend,

Maggie

This from the Houston Chronicle:

Ed Department Releases Guidance to Assist in Establishing Uniform High School Graduation Rate

Last week, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced the release of non-regulatory guidance to implement a uniform and accurate measure of the high school graduation rate that is comparable across States. The uniform high school graduation rate is a critical step toward improving high school accountability.

"The nation can no longer tolerate - much less prosper - with its abysmal graduation rate, particularly among minority students," said Secretary Spellings. "Parents know that a high school diploma is the least their children need to succeed in today's economy. This guidance will help ensure resources are better targeted so that students earn a regular high school diploma."

The non-regulatory guidance released today provides States, local education agencies and schools with information about how to implement the uniform graduation rate regulations, including making data public so that educators and parents can compare how students of every race, background and income level are performing. This guidance provides the following information:

• Defines the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate, the extended-year adjusted cohort graduation rate, and the transitional graduation rates that are allowable until States must implement the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.
• Guides States in setting a single graduation rate goal and annual graduation rate targets.
  Outlines requirements for reporting graduation rates.
• Answers questions about how States include the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and any extended-year adjusted cohort graduation rate in AYP determinations, including the use of disaggregated rates for student subgroups.
• Explains how a State must revise its Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook to include certain information and submit its revisions to the Department for technical assistance and peer review.
• Clarifies the timeline for implementing the new graduation rate provisions, as well as the process for how a State that cannot meet the deadlines outlined in the final regulations may request, from the Secretary, an extension of time to meet the requirements.

No news here. Move along.

This from Ed Week:

Potential Obama Pick

Visits Education Department

A potential education secretary, Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan, visited the Education Department Thursday morning on what he said was a purely social call.

Duncan chatted over coffee with outgoing Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. He said the visit had nothing to do with the possibility of being chosen to serve in President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet. Duncan is among a handful of names mentioned as likely candidates for the education post...

ED Announces Final Regulations to Strengthen NCLB

This from the Principal's Policy Blog:

On October 28, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced final regulations to strengthen and clarifyNo Child Left Behind (NCLB), focusing on improved accountability and transparency, uniform and disaggregated graduation rates and improved parental notification for Supplemental Education Services and public school choice. The Secretary made the announcement while speaking to educators, state and local policymakers and business leaders at South Carolina Educational Television in Columbia, S.C.

“NCLB has shined a spotlight on schools,” said Secretary Spellings. “It is compelling grown ups to do the right thing by kids. And it’s working. According to the Nation’s Report Card, since 2000, more kids are learning reading and math. Since this law was passed, nearly one million more students have learned basic math skills. Children once left behind are making some of the greatest gains, but more work needs to be done. That’s why I’ve taken a responsive, common sense approach to implementing the law with today’s announcement.”

The Secretary noted that these new regulations reflect lessons learned over the past six years since NCLB was enacted and builds on work that states have made with their assessment and accountability systems. One area that there is broad public consensus around is the need for a uniform graduation rate.

Recognizing that the nation can no longer tolerate - much less prosper - with its abysmal graduation rate, particularly among minority students, the final regulations establish a uniform graduation rate that shows how many incoming freshman in a given high school graduate within four years.

“As far back as 2005, governors from all 50 states agreed to adopt a uniform, more accurate graduation rate. But so far, only 16 states have done so,” said Secretary Spellings. “Parents know that a high school diploma is the least their children need to succeed in today’s economy.”

Under the new regulations, all states will use the same formula to calculate how many students graduate from high school on time and how many drop out. The final regulations define the “four year adjusted cohort graduation rate” as the number of students who graduate in four years with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of students who entered high school four years earlier, adjusted for transfers, students who emigrate and deceased students. The data will be made public so that educators and parents can compare how students of every race, background and income level are performing....

Spellings Creates Education Index

This from Education Week:

The latest unemployment rates, inflation rates, and other economic indicators are staples of TV and radio newscasts.

If Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has her way, newscasters will be giving annual updates on leading education indicators.

Ms. Spellings has created a composite index of five important data points of student performance: overall achievement; the size of the gap in achievement between minority and white students; the high school dropout rate; the college-readiness rate; and the college-completion rate...

Edu Sec Spellings to Consider Federally Mandated Spanking

There are only about 1,500 US schools out of 100,000 that are in a chronic state of underperformance. But what should be done?

Colbert gets Spellings to think about a good old fashioned spanking - but questions the effectiveness of sanctions under NCLB.

"Hasn't the Bush administration shown us that sanctions don't work. It's much better just to bomb these schools and then occupy them."

Nice.

Stephen Colbert v Margaret Spellings Tonight

What happens when an irrestable personality runs into an immovable personality?

Of course, I'll be asleep by 10... but you can watch the trains wreck tonight on Colbert at 11:30 pm, on Comedy Central.

You may recall US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings appeared on Comedy Central's Daily Show with John Stewart back in May 2007. She was the first Bush administration official to do so.

Unfortunately, Stewart lobbed softballs and appeared to want to avoid anything controversial.

He gave Spellings an apple, got out his #2 pencils and a Lunchable. Nothing about the Reading First scandal...scant little on the student loan scandal.

So the bar is set low. Let's hope Colbert clears it by a mile.


Thanks 2 Alexander Russo.

Audit Finds Abuse of Education Dept. Credit Cards

I was once sat in on a petty theft case where a poor man who stole a $ .99 pack of potato chips and got a few months in jail. Occasionally you'll see bookkeeping types do time for kiting schemes - where government money is used "on the float" to pay personal expenses. They were going to pay it back....

This from The Washington Post:

U.S. Department of Education employees inappropriately used government credit cards to purchase $49,500 worth of goods and services, including meals, items at clothing stores and rental cars, for personal use, according to a review by the department's inspector general.

Auditors examining a sample of business travel expenses for fiscal 2006 found $18,256 in inappropriate charges made by 34 employees. The charges included payments to clothing retailers and restaurants near their homes or office.

Twenty-nine people used bank cards to withdraw about $17,600 more than allowed under the department's travel allowance for meals and incidentals. Four department workers made $13,570 in bank card withdrawals when they weren't on business travel. One logged 44 withdrawals totaling $8,560.

It could not be determined yesterday whether employees paid for the personal expenses they charged. The cards are issued to individual employees who are responsible for paying the bills but then seek reimbursement.

The July 1 report calls on the department to improve oversight of travel charge cards, which are only to be used for official travel, including to schools, conferences and training. "Inappropriate use of the travel card . . . represents abuse of a Government-provided resource, and compromises the integrity of the Department," the report says....

...The inspector general's office said the department failed to follow recommendations it laid out in a 2002 inquiry of the travel card program that also found lax controls. The new report noted that some employees who made inappropriate charges six years ago were flagged for problems this time.

..."We concur with the IG's findings and have a corrective action plan in place to address the IG's concerns," said Samara Yudof, spokeswoman for Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings....

It is unclear if the department's corrective action will include criminal charges for theft by unlawful taking.

States move toward uniform graduation rate reporting

This from USA Today:

SEATTLE (AP) — Comparing graduation rates from one state to the next or even one school to another can be as difficult as trying to help your children with their math homework: everyone has their own way of coming up with an answer.

That challenge is expected to go away within the next five years, but not without more pain, aggravation and money.

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced in April proposed new rules that would require states to assign each student a unique ID number to facilitate tracking from the time a student enters 9th grade until he graduates or drops out of school.

Spellings' call — which mirrors an agreement from the National Governors Association — will force every district to face up to the reality of a more scientific graduation rate, and quit hiding behind more positive estimates.

Washington state assigned a unique ID to every student four years ago, so this year's senior class will be the first with four years of data, so the 2008 graduation rate will be based on the method Spellings wants to mandate for all states.

State officials don't know if the new method will help or hurt Washington's steady 70% on-time graduation rate, said Joe Willhoft, director of assessment for the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

But, Willhoft adds, the point of the effort is to come up with a number that tells the truth...

A formula for all

This from the Daily-Independent:

Standards for reporting high school dropout rates needed

Not waiting for Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush has directed Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings to establish by edict a common formula for schools in all 50 states to use to calculate high school graduation and dropout rates. Such a formula is long overdue because using data released by different states and different school districts within the states makes it currently impossible to determine just how many students are not graduating from high school.

Nationwide, the graduation rate is assumed to be 70 percent, with as few as half the students completing high school in many urban areas. But to read the numbers reported by individual schools, the graduation rate is much higher than that.

The Southern Regional Education Board reports that when the number of graduating seniors reported by Kentucky high schools in 2003 is compared with the number of high school freshmen four years earlier, Kentucky’s graduation rate was 73 percent, or just below the national average of 75 percent. However, at the same time individual high schools in the state were reporting very low dropout rates.

Why the discrepancy? Well, some school systems count only the percentage of seniors who graduate, omitting everyone who dropped out in the ninth, 10th or 11th grade. Some states count GED recipients as graduates, and others counted as graduates are dropouts who only promised to get a GED.

Suppose a student informs his high school that he is transferring to another school, but he never enrolls in the new school. Instead, he drops out. But his old school counts him as transferring to a new school instead of dropping out, and his new school doesn’t count him as a dropout because he never enrolled there.

After a period of public comment, Spellings plans to announce a common formula for calculating graduation and dropout rates that all schools must implement by the 2012-13 school year. Of course, by that time Spellings will no longer by secretary of education and the formula her department devises may be long forgotten. Nevertheless, we commend her for belatedly attempting to establish a universal formula.

A common formula will make for transparency, a reliable database and state-by-state comparisons. And it is hardly a new idea. In 2005, the National Governors Association endorsed a common formula and proposed the relatively simple measure of dividing the number of graduating seniors by the number of ninth-graders who entered the school four years earlier.

In some ways, No Child Left Behind encourages school districts to fudge on graduation rates in order to look good. However, in an era in which those without high school degrees are not even likely to qualify for the most basic of jobs, it is important to know just how serious the nation’s dropout problem is. If we can’t even define the size of the problem, we are not likely to solve it.

Spellings Pens Regulatory Changes Without Congress

"Graduate" = leave on time with a regular degree

This from the Associated Press:

No Child Left Behind faces changes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unable to push education fixes through Congress, the Bush administration is taking its own pen to the No Child Left Behind law.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says she plans to make a host of changes to the education law through regulations being unveiled Tuesday.

Among the biggest changes will be a requirement that by the 2012-13 school year, all states must calculate their high school graduation rates in a uniform way.

States currently use all kinds of methods to determine their graduation rates, many of which are based on unreliable information about school dropouts, leading to overestimates.

States will be told to count graduates, in most cases, as students who leave on time and with a regular degree...

...While states will no longer be able to use their own methods for calculating grad rates, they will still be able set their own goals for getting more students to graduate. Critics say that allows states to set weak improvement goals.

...Lawmakers recently tried but were unable to pass an updated version of the law due to disagreements over how to judge schools and teachers, among other things. Without a renewal, the existing law stands.

Spellings has been taking steps in recent months to make changes from her perch. However, the proposed regulations amount to the most comprehensive set of administrative changes she has sought so far.

"The Congress, I guess because of the political and legislative climate, has not been able to get a reauthorization under way this year," Spellings said in an interview. "I know that schools and students need help now, and we are prepared to act administratively." ...

...The administration is seeking public comments before finalizing the regulations in the fall...

Kinda like the way Kentucky Landed Toyota

This from Kevin Carey at The Quick and the Ed:

Lawless Policymaking

...Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that she would allow 10 states to change what they do with schools that fail to make "adequately yearly progress" under NCLB.

...This is not, in the strictest sense of the word, legal.

The black-letter law is pretty clear: If you want federal money, you have to implement an accountability system that works as follows.

There are no sections or subparagraphs that say The Secretary of Education may at her discretion alter or ignore the previous subparagraphs if people seem to agree they're not written well and Congress doesn't get around to reauthorizing the law on schedule.

But this is nothing new; Sec. Spelling did the same thing with a "growth model" pilot project a few years ago, which allowed states to rate schools based on year-to-year improvement, rather than absolute levels of performance.

Sec. Spellings can do this for a simple reason: nobody objects.

She's using what amounts to an extra-legal, consensus-driven process of amending the law without going through the whole hassle of introducing bills, havings votes, getting lobbied, etc. etc.

The check on this method is that anyone with standing can derail it simply by saying so: If Senator Kennedy, Representative Miller, Representative Boehner, or any of the major interest groups hated the idea, it wouldn't be happening. But since the
only real objections have been "it doesn't go far enough," the process goes ahead. It's actually a pretty efficient when you think about it....

Little Ol' Maysville: Spellings then Clooney then Clinton

This from the Enquirer.

MAYSVILLE - First George Clooney, then Bill Clinton.

The Hillary Clinton campaign today announced President Bill Clinton will campaign for his wife's presidential campaign in Maysville Tuesday. He will also be in Frankfort and Morehead.

Clooney is scheduled to be in Maysville Monday for the premier of his new movie,"'Leatherheads."

But Don't Forget Maggie!

U S Education Secretary Margaret Spellings visited Maysville earlier in the week.

Leatherheads trailer:

Spellings: Press Release on Kentucky Visit

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings

Highlights No Child Left Behind in Kentucky

Joins Rep. Geoff Davis in Hosting Two Education Policy Roundtables

with Educators and School Administrators in Maysville and Newport

FOR RELEASE:March 19, 2008
Contact: Public Affairs(202) 401-1576

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings highlighted progress toward No Child Left Behind goals during visits today with Rep. Geoff Davis (KY-4) to Mason County Intermediate School in Maysville, and Fourth Street Elementary School in Newport. They participated in two education policy roundtables with educators, students, college presidents, and business and community leaders.

Tim Moore, Superintendent of Mason County Schools, took part in the Maysville roundtable, and Jon Draud, Commissioner of Education, Commonwealth of Kentucky, and Michael Brandt, Superintendent of Newport School District participated in the discussion at Fourth Street Elementary.

Secretary Spellings applauded Kentucky's progress in raising student achievement in both reading and math and at all levels, especially noting improvements among low-income students. "We can be proud of the progress made under No Child Left Behind in Kentucky and across the nation," said Secretary Spellings. "And Kentucky also deserves credit for its leadership in developing high quality assessments, including tests in seven subject areas."

"It is an honor to have U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings here in Kentucky to learn more about the academic successes of Mason County and Newport," said Rep. Davis. "Her visit provided our educators the opportunity to discuss the local impact of federal education law in Kentucky and the improvements that can be made. Improving our educational system is a critical factor for developing a competitive 21st century workforce."

She challenged the state to keep working to increase the number of students who receive supplemental educational services (SES), noting that only 8.5 percent of Kentucky's eligible students participate in SES, compared to the national average of 14.5 percent; and to increase the percentage of students taking Advanced Placement exams (19.6 percent of Kentucky students, compared to 24.9 percent nationally).

Secretary Spellings also discussed a new pilot program she announced yesterday that will help states differentiate between underperforming schools in need of major interventions and those that are closer to meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind. "We've built an appetite for change, and we've done a good job of framing the problem, "she said. "The next step is to use this knowledge to customize our efforts to improve."

In addition, Spellings also discussed a new tool recently released by the U.S. Department of Education, Mapping Kentucky's Educational Progress 2008, which provides a look at the state's No Child Left Behind comparative indicators.

To view Mapping Kentucky's Educational Progress 2008, please visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress/kentucky.pdf

Not So Fast: Draud Wants to Look at NCLB Flexibility

Education Commissioner Jon Draud may want to take a swing at gaining flexibility in Kentucky to amend NCLB's accountability measures.

In Newport and Maysville yesterday as part of her tour of the states promoting NCLB reauthorization, Spellings praised Kentucky for having a "strong assessment system."

"You're asking more of your kids who are graduating high school and you're moving the bar up," she said. But she also said there's work to be done, including lowering the dropout rate and the number of students needing remediation.

Spellings told the Cincinnati Enquirer she believes those areas could improve through this new program.

And, apparently it's not as late as it seemed. The program was originally announced in December leading some (including KSN&C) to conclude that it might be too late for Kentucky to consider. But Spellings is treating it as a fresh offer she "unveiled Tuesday."

In response Draud said he likes the idea and will take it to his planning committee next week for discussion.

"I've been planning to focus on these schools that haven't made progress in a long time," Draud said. "When (Spellings) gave this to me, I started thinking that this might just blend in with what we want to do here."

Yes!

In Kentucky, math and reading scores from the Kentucky Core Content Tests (administered in the spring) are taken by students in grades 3-8, and at least
one high school grade in each subject, to satisfy No Child Left Behind requirements.

Those scores are then broken down by groups that include black, white, low-income and disabled students. A certain percentage of students in each group is required to reach a goal in each subject.

If one group misses a goal, an entire school or district can be classified as failing and face consequences, including the mandatory offering of tutoring or allowing students
to transfer to another school. Schools do not face consequences if they do not receive Title I funding, which is federal funding for schools with a large number of low-income children.

Schools and districts that have not missed their goals at least two years in a row also do not face consequences. On the flip side, those that face consequences must meet their goals two years in a row to get off the "consequences" list.

Being classified as a failing district because a small group of students fails to meet a goal has upset local superintendents since the inception of NCLB six years ago.

Photo by Terry Prather of the Maysville Ledger-Independent.

More from the Courier-Journal.

Spellings Road Show Comes to Kentucky

Since President George W. Bush's State of the Union Address in January, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and Deputy Secretary Raymond Simon have been on tour promoting the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind.

Illinios; Florida; Washington; Oregon; California; Louisiana; Mississippi; Rhode Island; Kansas; Missouri; Oklahoma; Texas; North Carolina; West Virginia; New York; Arkansas; Colorado; New Mexico...and Wednesday, Spellings will bring the show to a couple of Kentucky towns; Newport and Maysville.

On the tour Spellings has been holding roundtable discussions with top leaders and touting state and national gains, crediting NCLB, and introducing a new tool from the U.S. Department of Education, "Mapping Kentucky's Educational Progress 2008," which reports student demographics, achievement trends and the percentage of Kentucky schools reaching AYP; 78%.

The plan is:

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will join Congressman Geoff Davis to discuss progress made in Kentucky and across the nation under No Child Left Behind at events in Maysville andNewport, Kentucky, on Wednesday, March 19.

Beginning at 8:45 a.m. EDT, Secretary Spellings and Congressman Davis will hold an education policy roundtable with educators, studentsand community leaders at Mason County Intermediate School, 720 Clarks Run Road, Maysville,
Kentucky. Mason County Schools Superintendent Tim Moore will also participate.

Then, at noon EDT, Secretary Spellings and Congressman Davis will visit with students and teachers during classroom visits at Fourth Street Elementary School, 101 East Fourth St., Newport, Kentucky.

At12:30 p.m. EDT, Secretary Spellings and Congressman Davis will host an education policy roundtable to answer questions about the No Child LeftBehind Act. Jon Draud, Commissioner of Education, and Michael Brandt,superintendent, Newport School District, will participate in the roundtable discussion along with college presidents, business leaders, and other community leaders.

Spellings told the National Press Club,

"Agree or disagree with this law, without NCLB, we wouldn't even be talking about how to get every student on grade level. "

In Kentucky, which was ahead of the nation on that score, we know better.

SOURCE: KDE press release

Taking it to the Streets

Fordham Foundation demands investigation

into real Reading First scandals

Calls for Secretary Margaret Spellings, Rep. David Obey

and ED's Office of the Inspector General

to account for their actions

Washington--At a press conference held outside the U.S. Department of Education headquarters today, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute demanded an inquiry into scandalous efforts by the executive and legislative branches to sabotage the Reading First program.

Designed to help poor children learn primary-reading skills, Reading First is the only program among the many contained in the No Child Left Behind act to receive stamps of approval from both the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Yet, Reading First's funding has been slashed by two-thirds, the Bush Administration has gone AWOL on this once-loved program, and its first director, Christopher Doherty, was forced to resign--all purportedly because of a "scandal" uncovered by the Education Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

Fordham's latest report, Too Good to Last: The True Story of Reading First, written by City Journal contributing editor Sol Stern, reveals the real scandals that have yet to be brought to public attention...

Maggie's one good story ...again

This from US News and World Report:

Spellings to Rove: Let's Just Be Friends

He can be blunt when addressing his enemies, but there was a time that former Bush political adviser Karl Rove had difficulty expressing himself. Just ask Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

She appeared on NPR's popular Wait, Wait. Don't Tell Me and was grilled about the time 25 or 30 years ago that Rove asked her out on a date. Asked if she rejected him, she deadpanned: "Well, have you met Karl Rove?"

Then Spellings explained that it wasn't until Rove later talked about being rejected that she even knew he'd asked her out.

To host Peter Sagal, she said, "It was a little bit awkward all the way around, and I wasn't even sure that that was what he was asking."

Rove has since joked that it took a decade to get over the rejection. "He tells the story after the fact," says Spellings. "I'm like: Is that what's going on here?" She once even called his approach "inept." She summed up their relationship this way: "We're very good friends and both happily married."

As for the show, Spellings won, answering two of three multiple-choice questions about Dungeons and Dragons correctly even though she confessed, "I don't know anything about that."

Besides, she was already sweet on someone else.