New Report from KIPP Charters

KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program, recently released a new report card illustrating the progress of KIPP's schools. The results are encouraging. On average, KIPP students who completed all four years at their middle school jumped from the 40th to the 82nd percentile in math and from the 32nd to the 60th percentile in reading.

Also, according to Jay Mathews from the Washington Post, the college matriculation rate of graduates of KIPP middle schools is now 82 percent. This is of great importance because more than two-thirds of the new jobs created in our economy require students to go beyond high school and acquire college education or technical training.

So, why have KIPP schools seen such success?

One reason could be the amount of time their students spend in the classroom. KIPP students are in the classroom up to 60 percent more than regular public school students. KIPP schools also have clearly defined and measurable high expectations for academic achievement. When our students know that we expect more from them – they readily accept the challenge.

I'm a firm believer in this formula: with more time and support for learning coupled with strong, rigorous standards – we will have success.

Math Awareness Month

Tomorrow marks the end of Math Awareness Month. Dating back to 1986, the goal of Math Awareness Month is to create public understanding of and appreciation for mathematics. The theme for this year's celebration couldn't be more appropriate – Mathematics and Voting.

From the announcement of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics:

In a presidential election year, voting is uppermost on our minds. Candidates vie for attention, polls are taken, debates held, blogs written, primaries conducted, and, ultimately, a general election leads to the naming of the next president of the United States. Some of us are deeply engaged in these processes, and some keep them at a distance. Yet, most people wonder at some point: Does my vote matter? Is the election process fair? Are the votes being counted correctly? The answers to these questions involve great complexity, but fortunately, mathematics and statistics provide the means to deal with such complexity.

Math is part of our lives in places we don't even recognize it.  That's why it is critical that Americans put more emphasis and interest on the mathematics skills of our students. As I've pointed out many times before – compared to 30 industrialized nations, the U.S ranks 25th in math.

Check out the Math Awareness Web site – there are plenty of additional resources to download and you can also test your knowledge of math and voting.

Most importantly - let's make it a priority this year to "vote for math."

Back in Los Angeles

I'm blogging from the road today in Los Angeles where the campaign is participating in the 2008 Milken Institute Global Conference. We'll be participating in a number of roundtable discussions including: "Education Reform: Learning from the Competition in Asia," "Business Leader's Toolkit: How Business Executives Can Influence Education Reform," and "A Nation Paralyzed: Is the United States at Risk of Losing the Education Race Worldwide?"

The Milken Institute Global Conference brings together some of the most extraordinary people in the world - from scientists, business executives and philanthropists to journalists, academics and Nobel laureates - to discuss, debate and deliberate today's most pressing social, political and economic challenges. I'm excited for the event and look forward to sharing some lessons learned over the week.

Also, in case you missed it – ED in '08 was featured on ABC's World News Tonight this weekend. Watch it and let me know what you think in the comments.   

Young Voters Are Thinking about Education

ThinkMTV/CBS released a poll with new results on young voters yesterday.

The results conclude that more young voters see education as a top issue now than they did a year ago. When asked to pick the top issue facing their generation, young voters chose education third, behind the economy and Iraq. When asked what is the "biggest problem your generation will need to address over the next twenty years" – young voters ranked fixing the education system third ahead of terrorism and health care. 

I'm encouraged to see that our nation's young men and women are concerned about education and understand the critical importance of a world-class education for the future of our country.

We’re Still at Risk

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the landmark education report A Nation at Risk and education analysts are offering their own perspective on where America is in regards to education. I wrote about Secretary of Education Spellings yesterday and wanted to mention one other issue from her remarks today. 

She said:

Many of the actions that A Nation at Risk recommended in 1983 continue to be largely ignored: raising standards, making coursework more rigorous, and using classroom time more effectively. These proposals were not unreasonable then, and they’re not unreasonable now.

Our campaign has put together our own analysis of the last 25 years and we’ve concluded similar results with respect to common, rigorous standards, expanding time for learning, and teacher compensation.

The Christian Science Monitor and Seattle Times also agree.

Waiting another 25 years before we act to solve this crisis is unacceptable:

• We cannot afford to fail in our mission to provide students with a world-class education.
• We cannot afford to graduate millions of high school seniors who lack skills in reading and math that they should have learned in middle school.
• We especially cannot afford to continue slipping farther and farther behind the other nations of the world.

Our students deserve better, and our nation’s economic security is at greater risk now than ever before.

Uniformity in our Graduation Data

Over the past few months I’ve increasingly written about the dropout crisis facing our nation. One post that I distinctly remember pertains to the lack of uniformity for states reporting their dropout statistics.
Yesterday, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings attempted to fix this problem by issuing proposed federal regulations which, in addition to other things, would create a uniform graduation rate reporting system among states.

The formula that states will now need to use is one that was agreed upon by the nation’s governors in 2005. Spellings also illustrated how the dropout epidemic negatively affects our economy:

Over their lifetimes, dropouts from the class of 2007 alone will cost our nation more than $300 billion in lost wages, lost taxes, and lost productivity. Increasing graduation rates by just five percent, for male students alone, would save us nearly $8 billion each year.

I think it is important that we take steps to solve our nation’s dropout crisis and it’s imperative that all states use the same formula, so we can truly know how the severity of the epidemic. Solving this crisis is going to take a lot of hard work and collaboration with leaders at all levels of government and I commend Sec. Spellings for continuing this dialogue yesterday.

You can read her full remarks at the Department of Education Web site.

Times' Herbert Gets It

Bob Herbert's column in today’s New York Times is right on the money with what our campaign has been talking about for almost a year now. He writes:

[Critical issues facing our country] require an educated populace if they are to be dealt with effectively. At the moment we are not even coming close to equipping the population with the intellectual tools that are needed.

I have to agree with these statements and I echo his sentiments when he concludes his piece with the phrase, “We’ve got work to do.”

Take a look at this op-ed and let me know what you think.

A Stagnant Nation

Today the campaign unveiled an original analysis and report card showing the lack of progress in the school reform movement since the release of the landmark report, A Nation at Risk, written by the National Commission on Excellence in Education 25 years ago.

Our schools have been underperforming for 25 years. America is slipping farther and farther behind the rest of the world academically because we have been unable to enact meaningful reforms or substantially improve student learning in the last quarter century.

We know that the American public supports education reform – the missing piece is leadership – on national and local levels. Without vigorous national leadership, states and schools cannot significantly improve their antiquated education systems. Students in our nation’s schools deserve a robust and world-class education that offers them a pathway towards the American dream.

Our report, A Stagnant Nation: Why American Students Are Still at Risk, explains that few of the National Commission on Excellence in Education's recommendations related to time, teaching and standards have yet to be enacted.  The report also says that America's economic future remains gravely at risk. Here are some of our findings:

• Time: A Nation at Risk urged schools and state legislatures to break the six-hour-a-day, 180-day-per-year calendar and consider seven-hour school days and 200- to 220-day school years. Yet, today only one state has a pilot program to significantly expand learning time and nationwide, the amount of time elementary school students spend learning core academic subjects has increased by only approximately 36 minutes per week, amounting to fewer than ten minutes per day.
• Teaching: The Commission urged policymakers to help recruit the best and brightest to teaching by making the profession more attractive. To that end, the Commission recommended making teacher compensation "professionally competitive, market-sensitive, and performance-based."  Yet today only five states have large-scale programs in place for performance pay or career-ladder incentives. And, only about eight percent of public school districts offer pay incentives to reward excellence in teaching -- a figure that has remained virtually unchanged since 1984.  In 2004, only six percent of U.S. school districts could offer recruitment incentives in mathematics, despite the fact that nearly 30 percent of districts reported great difficulty hiring qualified math teachers to fill vacancies.
• Standards & Expectations: The Commission recommended that states and districts raise standards and expectations so classroom grades reflect actual learning.  Yet 12th grade reading and science scores dropped as average high school GPAs were increasing. Students are earning better grades in "tougher" courses, yet actual learning is stagnant or declining.  In addition, states have failed to set rigorous academic standards in the lower grades. One study found that out of 32 states, not one state had set standards for 4th grade reading that were high enough to meet the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test and 24 had set standards so low they did not reach even the most basic level.

We need to do better; we can't let another 25 years go by without action. Let's stand up and call on our candidates to support real education reform. It's the only way we’re going to fix our schools and better prepare our students for the future.

Singapore Math in the American Classroom

I had the opportunity to attend a forum dedicated to understanding the math curriculum in Singapore. From the results of the TIMMS report in 1999 – it is clear that the way Singapore prepares its students in math is extraordinary. The style and content of the textbooks they utilize to teach their students is something that the United States could benefit from. In fact, many schools, like South River Public Schools in New Jersey, have started incorporating Singapore math textbooks into their curriculum and they’ve found the following results:

In the 3rd grade:

• Advanced proficient scores increased by 12.2 percent
• Proficient scores increased by 3.18 percent
• Partially proficient scores decreased by 15.38 percent

In the 4th grade:

• Advanced proficient scores increased by 8.43 percent
• Proficient scores increased by 1.36 percent
• Partially proficient scores decreased by 9.79 percent

(Source: NJ Ask)

The Real Cost of Mediocre Education

Yesterday, millions of Americans across the company scrambled to file their tax returns before the midnight deadline in hopes that they’ll receive a substantial refund from the IRS. It was also a day where Americans really thought about all the money they’ve given up to the government or about the places they might spend their refund check. Besides taxes, Americans should also be thinking about the real cost of mediocre education.

From extra remediation classes and lost opportunities due to inadequate skills, Americans are wasting billions of dollars annually.

It’s shocking to know that the amount of time that college students need to spend in remedial courses is rising. From 1995 to 2000, the percentage of colleges reporting that students had to spend at least one year in remedial courses has increased from 28 percent to 35 percent.

Just at the community college level, families spend an additional $283 million to pay for remedial courses every year, and taxpayers foot an extra $978 million. One group estimates that, counting lost productivity from students who take remedial courses, poor preparation for college costs the United States $2.3 billion annually. (Alliance for Excellent Education. (2006). Paying Double: Inadequate High Schools and Community College Remediation. Washington, DC: Author)

This is a problem that we can solve. By implementing real education reform, including common, rigorous standards, effective teachers in our classrooms and giving more time and support for learning, our students will be better prepared for college and no longer be required to waste time or money on remedial classes.

Previewing the Debate Wednesday

This Wednesday marks another opportunity for the Democratic candidates for president to use a nationally televised debate to share their education reform initiatives with questions regarding the education crisis we're currently facing. If these issues were to come up, Philadelphia, the site of the debate, is the perfect place to do so. According to the latest Education Research Center report, Philadelphia has a 49.6 percent graduation rate. That means more than 50 percent of high school seniors in the Philadelphia school system are facing a life with extremely limited economic prospects.

As I've mentioned many times before, these statistics have a negative impact on our economic competitiveness here at home and around the world. It's going to take real presidential leadership to solve this crisis and reform our education system. It’s imperative that this conversation begin in earnest Wednesday night.

Philadelphia’s Charter Schools

Our team will be leading a discussion of the documentary Two Million Minutes Wednesday at Mastery Charter School in Philadelphia. In gearing up for the upcoming event, I've been giving a lot of thought lately to charter schools. As many of you know, charter schools are founded by parents, educators, community groups or private organizations and they are funded with taxpayer money. Essentially, they operate as deregulated public schools that accept increased accountability in exchange for decreased regulations and requirements.

A colleague of mine came across an interesting working paper published by RAND on "Evaluating the Performance of Philadelphia’s Charter Schools" and I thought I’d share it with you. The paper reports that Philadelphia has seen a dramatic increase in the number of charter schools since 1997. Beginning with only three, the school district now has over 60. The report examines the effects that charter schools have had on student achievement in Philadelphia and its results are quite impressive.

Better Training Needed for Academic Olympics

The big news over the past couple of days has been the controversies surrounding the Olympics. Leaders from around the world are debating whether or not to travel to China for the opening games.

Well, I won’t weigh in on that issue, but I would like to share some thoughts about the academic Olympics that American students compete in daily. I frequently discuss America’s dismal standing in math and science compared to 30 industrialized nations and how policy makers have become complacent with their response to these statistics.

However, I want you to think for a moment: If the United States came in 21st or 25th in any international athletic competition – millions of people, from politicians to editorialist, would be greatly outraged.
Contrary to popular belief, the academic Olympics do count and we aren’t receiving any medals. To fix this it might require us to either practice longer, harder, or even get better trainers, but we’re Americans and we shouldn’t settle for anything other than gold.

2 Million Minutes in the Steel City

Yesterday, in collaboration with the Learning Policy Center at the University of Pittsburgh, ED in '08 kicked off our events in Pennsylvania with a screening of the documentary Two Million Minutes. Rachel Bird, our Senior Policy Analyst participated in a panel discussion about the film with Derrick Lopez, Pittsburgh Chief of High School Reform and Bill Isler, President of the Pittsburgh School Board.

Rachel tells me it was a full house with around 70 attendees including faculty, students, educators and other education community leaders. I was pleased to hear that there was a lot of discussion around raising expectations and the need for comprehensive K-12 education reform. I was also pleased to hear the audience understood that global competitiveness and the economic security of our nation depend on the education of our nation’s youngsters.

Likewise, without a strong education system, we can’t fix the problems of global warming or healthcare, and without a top-notch education system, we can’t come close to competing for jobs with other countries that spend more time studying and have more rigorous standards. 

Check out today’s coverage of the event in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

TFA Alumni Have the Right Ideas

Over the weekend, Teach for America held their DC-metro area meeting. The event brought together leaders in education including Prince George's County Superintendent John Deasy and District of Columbia Chancellor Michelle Rhee. A few of our staff are Teach for America alumni, and they participated in the conference by handing out information about our campaign, talking with current and former teachers, and recruiting 60 additional supporters to our effort.

Aaron Seligman, our field director, attended the opening panel that featured Superintendent Deasy and Chancellor Rhee. He told me that they were asked, "What is the most important thing that would make your schools better?"

I'm encouraged by their answers. They both said that having outstanding teachers and being able to retain them in the classroom is the most important element to improving our schools.

Reflections on Slate

This past Wednesday, I blogged about the importance of tackling dropout prevention in a comprehensive manner. While I was thinking about the new America’s Promise report and the new NAEP writing results, a colleague of mine gave me a copy of a recent article on educational reform from Slate magazine. From the looks of it, the writer and I have some things in common.

First, we both agree that we need to raise our education standards. By having rigorous common standards, we will be able to guarantee that our children are receiving a world-class education. Currently, students and their parents are being misled about the skills students will need after graduation, and they are being given a false sense of security about how well prepared they really are. For example, although every state requires high school students to take tests, only a handful make sure those tests measure readiness for college and work. With standards like that, it should come as no surprise that the United States is currently ranked 25th out of 30 industrialized nations in Math and 21st in Science.

NAEP Results Still Show Need for Systemic Change

Sam Dillon's headline grabbed my attention this afternoon. He writes, “Students Lack Writing Skills in Test." After reviewing the results myself, I tend to agree.

Today the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released the results of the 2007 writing assessment. In an analysis of the results, Dillon wrote, "The test, administered last year, showed that there were modest increases in the writing skills of low-performing students since the last time a similar exam was given, in 2002. But the skills of high-performing eighth and 12th graders remained flat or declined."

This morning I offered the following statement in regards to the NAEP results:

Today’s test results offer a sobering look at student achievement in writing America’s schools are simply not preparing its students to compete in a global economy.  According to the results released today by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 24 percent of 12th graders are proficient in writing. What's more, a report released earlier this week revealed that nearly half the students in the 50 largest urban school districts are not graduating on time with a regular diploma.

We must not be complacent. We need to raise expectations for all of our students and we need leaders who will make education reform a national priority. If we continue to fail our students, Americans will increasingly get beat for the best jobs, negatively impacting the nation's economy.

Disturbing News on Dropouts

Yesterday was a busy day for the campaign. In the morning, I was on a panel at America's Promise's dropout prevention summit. The event focused around a new report that the Education Research Center released on high school graduation rates. The report details that only about one-half of the students in the 50 largest cities graduate with a high school diploma.

It is these school districts that account for nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of the 1.2 million students nationwide who fail to graduate with a diploma each year. As all eyes are on Pennsylvania – I wanted to point out that the Philadelphia City School District has a 49.6 precent graduation rate – 20 points below the national average.

This number is disturbing.

We're the Fools If We Don't Fix Our Schools

Over a year ago, we set out on a mission to elevate the discussion amongst America's leaders about the need for education reform. In this year, we have made substantial progress -- not only have we had the presidential candidates start talking about the education crisis, but they’ve also began to offer solutions for teacher recruitment and higher education standards.

We've communicated with thousands of people from Iowa to Texas to California and New Hampshire on the need for education reform. We're going strong and we're ready to re-launch our campaign for the general election.

Traditionally, today is a day for pranks and jokes -- however the global economic crisis the United States is currently facing due to our mediocre educational system is not a joke. It's time for all of us to put our heads together, roll up our sleeves and get back to work delivering a world class education. Only then will our students reach their potential and America will truly prosper.