I am often asked my views about what the federal government should do to improve education.
The one thing it should not do is to foist unproven ideas on the schools across the nation.
Whatever policies it supports should be amply supported by evidence and experience, such as class size reduction and early childhood education.
The more I travel, the more I recognize the enormous diversity of this great nation.
It is the height of arrogance to believe that there is one set of reforms that will work in every school in every community, be it urban, suburban, rural, or something in-between.
No one person in this nation is wise enough to tell everyone else how to teach and how to evaluate teachers and how to run schools.
No district has all the answers.
There are specific roles that the federal government should play. In this interview, I describe what I think is most important.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here is an excellent piece about the effects of neoliberal policy on education:
http://www.alternet.org/can-democratic-education-survive-neoliberal-society
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Yes, that’s it. You’ve laid out a sweeping vision of what drives the real defenders (and real reformers) of public education.
The Obama administration is trying now to triangulate on a message that can be read as support for such a vision. Just two or three points, with no specifics about what a great teacher might be, or what his administration’s role has been in the wreckage of the past four years.
Here’s the new effort, what do you think?
I never got that form response to my letter to him, by the way. No answer whatsoever.
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In the last debate, he spoke of the importance of science and research to the economy, and said math and science were improving due to his ed reforms. The youtube looks like more promises waiting to be broken–where will the money come from?
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From the debate transcript (cf return from increased ed spending):
“I think it is very important to understand that the reforms we’ve put in place, working with 46 governors around the country, are seeing schools that are some of the ones that are the toughest for kids starting to succeed. We’re starting to see gains in math and science. …
“f we’re not training engineers to make sure that they are equipped here in this country. Then companies won’t come here. Those investments are what’s going to help to make sure that we continue to lead this world economy, not just next year, but 10 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now.”
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Twenty minutes into Meet the Press this morning, David Axelrod hypes the President’s quest for an “education system second to none.”
Interesting to parse that phrase…
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Diane — Excellent analysis; I agree with everything you said.
I’d add a suggestion for closing the achievement gap (to be pursued by local school systems, not the feds with the feds perhaps performing a data clearinghouse function) —
o address the low-achievement in low-SES-area schools, survey teachers/principals in these schools re the major school-based (as opposed to purely societal) obstacles to effective instruction, survey the teacher/principals re possible solutions to these obstacles, test the suggested solutions in pilot projects, and implement system-wide (in the low-SES-area schools) the ideas that are proven in the pilot projects.
As I’ve noted in previous comments, these teachers/principals — writing in first-person books, in ed blogs, and on newspaper websites — frequently cite students reading far below grade level, minor but endemic classroom misconduct, chronic absenteeism, and chronic tardiness as major obstacles to effective instruction in the low-SES-area schools. These problems exist in the higher-SES-area schools, but to an exponentially less degree. And, the on-going school reform debate does not try to solve these low-SES-area school problems — focusing instead on generic issues such as teacher quality (which applies to all schools) or charters/vouchers (which apply to low-SES-area schools but which address the low-SES-area school problems by allowing some students to escape the problems rather than by solving the problems).
In other words, the main problems with US public schools are in the low-SES-area schools; to solve these problems we must acknowledge that the problems in the low-SES-area schools are different than the problems in the higher-SES-area schools, and we should implement reforms in the low-SES-area schools specifically addressing the problems in those low-SES-area schools.
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Can you comment on ERWC? Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2012 13:00:57 +0000 To: rke25@hotmail.com
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The Feds should create a website to help us find, “What Works.” The site would gather and rate research-based ideas. This way, local schools and districts could look to the national leaders in education for help selecting what would be best for them. It would be a “Clearinghouse” for useful ideas that we could depend on for help solving local educational problems. They should stay out of the one-size-fits all approach.
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Indeed. A “What Works” “Clearinghouse” …
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/
… instead of a nationwide education takeover:
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What is the role of the federal government in education? Interesting question. Here are some thoughts:
* Ensure equal protection under the law. This was the basis of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The final arbiter of this is the Supreme Court. For those who think Obama is just as bad as Romney, consider who nominates justices and what positions they will take on this issue.
* Since poverty strongly affects educational achievement, the federal government should do its utmost to address the food, health care, and housing needs of children and families living in poverty. I would love to hear a national political figure call for a “War on Poverty”. LBJ was wrong about many things, but right about this.
* Support the arts and libraries so access to these tremendous resources are not denied to any member of society.
* Act to support environmental and health and safety regulations. These are not excessive governmental interference as the right-wing would have it. They cut down on asthma and other illnesses that affect children’s (and adult’s) health.
* Support developmentally appropriate early childhood education programs.
* Support higher education grant and loan programs to allow more students to go to college. My own father was educated by way of the V12 program during World War II. He was the first member of his family to make it out of the coal mines and earn a college degree.
* Initiate sensible and compassionate immigration reform so that children in families whose immigration status is not regularized will have a chance to be educated in and contribute to the only country they know as home.
* Prevent the private taking of public lands and facilities by private for-profit entities. Do not allow funds meant to be used for public purposes to be funneled to corporate entities. So-called parent triggers are undemocratic.
* Protect the fairness of the political process which will shape public policy in all of these areas. Efforts to suppress voting undermine the public’s right to have a say on these issues. So does the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision which has threatened the integrity of the electoral process and public institutions. No, corporations are not people, and flooding elections with money from billionaires and profit-seeking entities means that democracy itself is threatened.
These are my primary concerns. In my opinion there are compelling differences between the two parties on each of these issues.
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… Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision …
Any sympathy for retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s concerns regarding “pervasive civic ignorance?”
Anyone?
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