Campaiging at the NEA Convention

This week, ED in '08 is exhibiting at the annual National Education Association Convention. We've had many visitors at our booth and they are extremely interested in the campaign.  The momentum that we are building is evidenced by the amount of support we continue to receive from students, teachers, former teachers, and education leaders.

In addition to hundreds of exhibitors, there are many NEA internal votes on resolutions and leadership, activities for members, and awards ceremonies. I'm particularly pleased to see that the NEA is recognizing governors who are playing a key role in education reform in their states.  Leadership at every level is fundamental to education reform, and I applaud the NEA for recognizing the efforts of governors who are committed to education.

Governors must take a larger role in the education system in their states, as they are critically important to the improvement of our schools.  Governors have played a huge role in education in the past, such as they did in the Education Summit of 1989, where reforms were proposed in response to reports that our education system was falling behind other nations and many of our students were not receiving an adequate education.  Many of the challenges set forth in 1989 have not been met and we are still falling behind. Now, as in the past, our education system is in need of serious reform and all of our nation’s governors must meet the challenge of devising and implementing reforms in response to a new set of challenges we and our students face.

I hope to see more recognition and support for governors who take on the challenge and responsibility of reversing the stagnation we have seen in our global competitiveness and our national progress in the classroom.

I hope you all enjoy your July 4th holiday weekend. I'll be back posting in this space next week. Until then, Happy Independence Day!

Celebrating the G.I Bill

This weekend marks the 64th anniversary of the passing of the G.I Bill which provided returning World War II veterans with either a college education or vocational training. This landmark bill helped strengthen the U.S. economy by sending Americans to college and improving the skills of the country’s workforce.

As Alan Greenspan mentioned in his book The Age of Turbulence, "34 years after WWII we had the highest skilled workers and the G.I. bill allowed us to increase our skilled labor force."

This bill serves as an example of successful federal participation in effective education reform. As we celebrate the anniversary of this success – we should be mindful that the United States needs another great call for innovation and reform and take this historical moment to focus the countries' attention on education.

As in the late 1940s, we have a historic opportunity to renew the skills of both our veterans who are returning home from service and our civilians who are competing in the global economy. However, to fully reform our education system and provide our students with the adequate skills to compete, we're going to need presidential determination and leadership to succeed.  Just as President Roosevelt inspired education reform after World War II, we need a leader willing to step forward and lead us into a new era in education.

Bringing Equity to the Education System

Today I joined with New York City Schools' chancellor Joel Klein, the Rev. Al Sharpton and a host of other civil rights leaders, elected officials, and education reformers to announce the launch of the Education Equality Project. The new project will challenge politicians, public officials, educations, union leaders, and others to view fixing public schools as the foremost civil rights issue of the early 21st century.

Too often many minority students still do not receive equal or adequate educational opportunities. For example, only about half of the nation’s black and Latino students graduate on time from high school and just one out of ten black eighth graders reads at a proficient level. Additionally, only half have been taught to read at even the most basic level.  By the time they near graduation, black and Latino teenagers have math and reading skills that are no higher than those of white middle school students.

Moreover, minority students are far less likely to attend schools with high expectations and effective teachers. One study found that almost 5 million of the nation’s Latino students attend schools in states that have set proficiency standards in fourth grade reading so low that they fall below even the most basic level on a national assessment

Our nation’s economy and individual family income is tied to improving our skills through education. Americans cannot afford to sit back and watch its schools fail our students. We need to raise expectations and opportunities for every single student, regardless of race, color, creed or income. We need strong leaders to take the initiative and we need this issue to be on the minds of every voter in November.

2008 Governors Education Symposium

Gov. Jim Hunt, a great leader for education and a good friend of mine, is hosting the 2008 Governors Education Symposium this weekend in North Carolina. I'm honored to attend the program and I'm excited that this year's event will focus around the topic of increasing the number of students who are college and career-ready, international benchmarking of state standards, and improving state capacity to effectively support teachers and students.

An event like this is very important for reforming our educational system. 

Governors are the leaders in their states, and they are critically important part of improving education for our nation’s students.  They have the ability to rise above local parochial interests and think about all the students in their state.  They can serve as the conduit between national leaders and local school boards.

In the past, many governors have played a critical role in the creation of the current standards, assessment and accountability systems we now have in place.  But what we have done in the past is not good enough for today.  If we do not address our education system’s challenges, we will fall even further behind our international competitors.  The next generation of governors must take more responsibility for the education challenges our nation faces and must commit themselves to work with the next President to dramatically reform and improve our nation’s schools.

When I return, I'll be sure to share with you some of the best practices that I hear during the symposium.

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.

Same Message, New Urgency

Last week, at the Yale School of Management's Education Leadership Conference, my colleague, ED in '08 executive director Marc Lampkin, had the opportunity to do just that. ...

At the conference, Marc spoke about the need to apply urgency that education reform feels toward political activism. Despite the commitment many in the education community share toward reform, I often notice that relatively few consider themselves to be politically relevant, or use their voices to make education more of a priority for policy makers.

Narrowing the Field

And then there were five…

In the past two weeks, we’ve seen a handful of competitive candidates and a few relatively minor ones hang up their spurs and call it quits. Last night, overt the course of an evening of “too close to call” primary races, the five remaining presidential hopefuls made it clear that it may still be some time yet until we have a definitive nominee in each party.

State of ED

This evening, President Bush will deliver his seventh and final State of the Union address to congress and the nation. I, like many Americans, will be watching with interest to hear him reminisce on the past year and reveal the agenda the administration has planned for his final months in office. I am similarly looking forward to hearing Congress's reactions to President Bush's statements, and their own take on our nation's progress and priorities.

Who's the Real Economic Leader?

Last week, I touched upon the economic and business implications that arise from a struggling educational system. Turns out, I wasn't the only one with the economy on my mind. The next day, The New York Times described the new economic message being played out among politicians and candidates. The Times writes, "The specter of recession, raised by the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernake on Thursday, seems likely to dominate the presidential contest for some days, if not longer."

Taking Hold of Change

There is a wave of excitement working in New Hampshire and across America. The desire for substantial change is being echoed by voices in both parties. We've seen it on the campaign trail, and the candidates are talking about it at almost every turn.

A New Year's Resolution from the Candidates

At the debates in Iowa last week, the presidential candidates were asked about the New Year's resolutions they had for each other. While for the most part they recited thoughtful responses, it was clear that the candidates just wanted to take the time to talk about themselves. None of them really offered what I was hoping to hear - a New Year's resolution to become a leader for America's schools.