Headed for Orlando

In preparation for my participation at the Excellence in Action Summit this week in Orlando, my staff passed along an interesting editorial in yesterday's Orlando Sentinel.

The editorial board describes the current education crisis by writing, "Dropout numbers are only part of the equation … [we must not] confuse symptom (dropouts) with cause (lousy high schools) and ignore the substantive changes that high schools themselves badly need."

I tend to agree. When looking at the education crisis in America, we need to look at more than just our stagnant graduation rates. We also need to look at the quality of the teachers in our classrooms and the level at which the school standards are challenging our students.

Ask yourselves: What does a 100 percent graduation rate mean if the students who graduated weren't adequately challenged? How can those students compete with other students in other states that might have set higher expectations of them? I believe the old saying goes something like, "It's not the quantity but the quality."

The editorial continues with this notion, which you can read after the jump:

Celebrating the Anniversary of Brown v. Board

Tomorrow our country marks the 54^th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Even though 54 years have passed since purposeful segregation was ended in our schools, many minority students are still not receiving equal educational opportunities. Too often they are far less likely to attend schools with high expectations and effective teachers. Due to these diminished educational settings, we are not adequately preparing minority students for college, work and life.

A recent study by the Manhattan Institute found that black and Latino students are only about half as likely as white students to graduate from high school prepared for four-year colleges. This means that minority students are more likely to fail college placement exams and have to spend money on remedial classes in college. In 2007, the California State University system reported that two out of three black freshmen who enrolled in fall 2006 had to take remedial courses in English or mathematics.

On the anniversary of Brown v. Board it's imperative that we continue to live up to the promise of giving all students equal opportunities to succeed in college, work and life. To do this, we need to make sure that we are challenging our students, providing effective teachers in every classroom and giving them the time and support for learning that they truly deserve.

Exploring KIPP

I mentioned on Monday that this week is National Charter School week and that I would be highlighting some charter school programs. I wanted to start off by pointing out the positive impact on student achievement attained by the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP). For those of you who are less familiar with the program, KIPP is a national network of charter schools serving low-income and minority communities.

The KIPP Academy in Lynn, Mass. has received a “high” in the categories of English Language Arts and Math for the 2007 State performance Rating. The school has also made some great progress particularly in their 6th and 7th grades, which you can find after the jump:

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.

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.

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.

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.

States Make Progress on Closing the Expectations Gap

Yesterday morning, Achieve, Inc. released its third annual report, "Closing the Expectations Gap 2008." The news is good - a majority of states have committed to raise expectations for high school students, and more than one-third of states have already adopted college and career-ready standards and graduation requirements.

I've blogged before about the need for all states to hold their students to high academic standards, and I'm not alone.

Too Much Math, Too Little Learning

Last week, our policy team attended an event at the Brookings Institute that revealed some thoughtful insights on U.S. math standards and curriculum. In short, there's too much of it. As Education Daily reports, "it covers too many topics in each grade level and it lacks a standard sequence - the order in which students study subjects."

The Atlantic Reports on the Standards Question

In the current issue of The Atlantic, Matt Miller frames the crisis in public education by calling for more national leadership and responsibility for schools, particularly common American standards. He even cites some of our campaign's polling data in support.

Secretary Spellings at the National Press Club

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings spoke about No Child Left Behind and the Administration's K-12 priorities for 2008 at the National Press Club Newsmaker Luncheon in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately I missed the event, but heard that she raised some interesting points. I've since read her remarks and found several things that mirror what we've been saying here at ED in '08.

Grading the Nation... Ed Week Releases Quality Counts 2008

This morning Education Week and the Pew Center unveiled their much-anticipated Quality Counts report, their 12th annual study of the states on education. Ed Week was good enough to come by our offices on Monday to brief us on their findings, which are pretty interesting, and hold many implications worthy of the candidates' attention.