A Preview of the Next NAEP Report

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will be releasing the 2007 writing assessment this Thursday at the Library of Congress. This report will provide information on the performance of our nation's eighth and twelfth-graders and include comparisons to performance in 1998 and 2002. Results will also be available for 45 states, 10 large urban school districts, and the Department of Defense schools. Dr. Peggy G. Carr, Associate Commissioner, Assessment Division, NCES will be discussing the results on an online chat following the release of the findings and I encourage you to pre-submit a question for the discussion at the NCES Web site.

Voices from the Campaign

I'm always amazed by what our staff accomplishes on a daily basis. We've held numerous events in states all around the country spreading the word and elevating education to the top of the list of our nation's priorities. As my schedule has me on the road most days, I don't often have a chance to update you on all the projects our staff is undertaking.

To give you a more in depth look at the campaign, they've launched a staff blog – "Voices from the Campaign."

This will provide you with a unique opportunity to hear directly from our staff, see photos from our events and they even tell me you'll be able to watch some of our rallies live as they happen.

Be sure to check it out today and let them know what you think.

Lack of Skilled Workers Affecting U.S Companies

AT&T is experiencing first hand how the decline of our education system is wreaking havoc on job growth and the American economy. Chief Executive Randall Stephenson reported that AT&T is "having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India."

States' Data Obscure How Few Finish High School

What if every year the equivalent of the entire population of Rhode Island dropped out of school?  That is what’s happening and it’s rarely being talked about. Every day the front page of our nation’s newspapers are filled with news about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and current state of the economy. I also may not have blogged about dropout statistics recently but this New York Times story had me thinking about the 1.2 million students who drop out yearly in America.

Think about that – 1.2 million!

That’s the equivalent of 6,000 students a day or one every 26 seconds.

Comparing States to Nations

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you’ve heard me say many times that America’s youth are falling behind in terms of education on the international stage as compared to other countries like Japan, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Finland and China. The American Institute for Research (AIR) confirms this in their recent study, “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: Mathematics and Science Indicators for Comparing States and Nations.”

The main finding in this report is that the highest achieving states in the United States are performing significantly below the highest achieving countries.

As ED in ‘08 prepares to bring our message to the remaining primary states, I wanted to take a moment and share with you the reports findings as it evaluated Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina.

With a score of 38, Pennsylvania’s math performance fell behind countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands.  Indiana’s math performance fell behind Hungary and Estonia with their score of 35. Finally, North Carolina received a score of 22, which puts them behind Slovenia and Russia.

These results should wake America up as to the steps we need to take to get our education system back on track. We need comprehensive education reform that will increase our current education standards, provide our children with effective teachers in every classroom, and finally give our youth more time and support for learning.

Increasing Standards

Yesterday I participated in a panel at the National Research Council's Workshop Series on State Education Standards. Joined by Julie Bell from the National Council of State Legislatures and North Dakota State Representative Rae Ann Kelsch, we engaged in a very lively discussion around standards and one thing was clear - the need for common standards in our education systems is critical.

Traditional School Structure Needs Improvement and Innovation

Today, Ted Kolderie, a senior associate at the Center for Policy Studies, commented about the increased need for innovation in education. He says that, "To meet its goals, this country must next undertake a serious effort to develop new forms of school and schooling. It is time to redirect k-12 policy toward innovation." I happen to agree.

America's schools are not keeping pace with the demands of today's world.  Our schools are failing to prepare all students for college, for careers, and for life.  And they are failing to prepare our nation to compete in today's high-tech global economy. As I've mentioned previously, we need to move beyond the traditional schooling method that was instituted over a hundred years ago to a system that will do more to increase and inspire children's learning potential.

Talking to the State Boards of Education

This week ED in 08 has been all over Capitol Hill. We had Bill Gates yesterday, and this morning, executive director Marc Lampkin sat on a panel with education policy experts for a panel discussion at the National Association of State Boards of Education's (NASBE) annual legislative conference to discuss the future of school reform. Yesterday, the NASBE conference featured members of Congress from the House Education Committee, the superintendent at Miami-Dade Public Schools, and of course, NASBE executive director Brenda Welburn.

A High-Powered Hill Appearance

One of our campaign's funders, Bill Gates, was on Capitol Hill yesterday testifying before the House Committee on Science and Technology. He spoke about how a strong economy needs a strong educational foundation, "While America's innovation heritage is unparalleled, the evidence is mounting that we are failing to make the investments in our young people, our workers, our scientific research infrastructure, and our economy that will enable us to retain our global innovation leadership."

GOOD Video Makes Good!

Not that long ago, I mentioned that ED in '08 was releasing a new promotional video in partnership with GOOD Magazine. Well, it turns out that the video has been getting around. Our web editor tells me that the video has been viewed nearly 300,000 times on YouTube, and has received over 2,000 comments. I've also been seeing the video embedded on various education blogs and websites, helping to spread the word about ED in '08 and the need for national attention to our schools.

Growing the GDP

Building on the recent discussions on skills-based learning we've been seeing, I wanted to highlight these new findings from the education research journal Education Next - it seems even more research shows that the weak cognitive skills of U.S students are harming our economic growth.

We've heard many times now that in the most recent PISA tests U.S. students again trailed the average international scores achieved by students in 30 other developed nations, scoring 21st in science and 25th in math.

Math and Money in the Wall Street Journal

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal caught my attention while I was traveling this past weekend. A presidential panel on math education is cautioning that a "broken" system of mathematics education threatens U.S. competitiveness, and that what is needed is a "renewed focus on the essentials."

Teaching and Learning Celebration in NYC

I have a busy day ahead of me in Los Angeles, but I'm already looking ahead to tomorrow in New York City. I will address channel Thirteen's Teaching & Learning Celebration conference during the panel discussion "Where We Stand: America's Schools in the 21st Century." The panel will examine where American schools stand in the world, global competitiveness in science and math, and what we can do to strengthen American education.

Keeping Finland in Perspective

Last October, I had the opportunity to speak about ED in '08 at the Microsoft World Summit in Helsinki, Finland. While I was there, I was struck by the interest people from around the world took in education, and the seriousness of purpose with which they discussed innovations and accountability. While I was questioned often about U.S. schools and No Child Left Behind in particular, many people there were more interested in what was happening in Finnish schools than American ones.

Two Policy Panels, Two Takes

It's only Tuesday, and already this has been a week filled with policy discussion. Yesterday, ED in �08's executive director Marc Lampkin was part of a panel at the American Enterprise Institute called "Education as a Presidential Issue: Historically and in 2008," talking about some of the particular challenges that we've seen in this election around the issue of education. He touched on some of the factors that we at ED in '08 have been facing, including a cynical national media, the dominance of the Iraq war early in the primary season, and the shadow that NCLB casts over the education debate and ongoing governance issues.

Staying Busy - ED Hits Texas, Arizona, California, and New York!

The presidential candidates aren't the only ones crossing the nation to spread their messages. This week, ED in '08 has events from coast to coast, from press meetings in California to film screenings and panel discussions in New York. We'll be campaigning in Texas for the busy primary tomorrow, and speaking in Washington, DC today, all in order to raise awareness of the critical role education plays in future of our nation. More and more people are asking about education in this election, and we're working hard to make sure those questions get answered.