New Poll Shows Continued Interest in Education

Over the weekend Rasmussen released their latest issue polling data and for the second month in a row, nearly 90 percent of voters believe that education is important, ahead of health care and immigration. The poll also shows that roughly three out of five voters called education "very important"

My colleague Marc Lampkin issued the following statement regarding the poll results:

Given the uncertain economy, the emergence of education as a consistent top-tier issue signifies Americans recognize the future of the country depends on its ability to prepare our children to compete within a global economy.

Voters realize the struggling education system must be fixed in order to safeguard the economic future of American students and guarantee they are ready for college, work, and life.”

Last month, Pew Research Center revealed that education is the number 2 priority for Americans, trumping taxes and Iraq. Strong American Schools celebrates the success of our grassroots outreach, including ED in ’08, informing Americans of the importance of building a world-class education system to ensure American students remain competitive in the global marketplace.

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:

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.

Montana and South Dakota

Today, voters in both Montana and South Dakota head to the polls to cast their votes in the last two remaining primary states. During this extended primary season I've enjoyed sharing the state educational facts with you as each state went to the polls. Now as we get ready to enter the next phase of the campaign, I look forward to hearing more about plans for education reform.

Montana Facts:
Student Performance:                
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2007):

% 4th graders proficient in reading: 39
% 4th graders proficient in math: 44

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 39
% 8th graders proficient in math: 37

According to the state’s own assessments (2007):
% 4th graders proficient in reading: 80   
% 4th graders proficient in math: 68   

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 79   
% 8th graders proficient in math: 60   
(Sources: National Center for Education Statistics; U.S. Dept. of Education)

High School and Beyond:

% 9th graders who graduate from high school on time: 76
% high school graduates who go right on to college: 58
% college freshmen who earn a diploma within six years: 45
(Sources: Education Week; The NCHEMS Information Center)

South Dakota Facts:
Student Performance:

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2007):
% 4th graders proficient in reading: 34
% 4th graders proficient in math: 41

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 35
% 8th graders proficient in math: 36

According to the state’s own assessments (2007):
% 4th graders proficient in reading: 88   
% 4th graders proficient in math: 78   

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 78   
% 8th graders proficient in math: 72   
(Sources: National Center for Education Statistics; U.S. Dept. of Education)

High School and Beyond:

% 9th graders who graduate from high school on time: 76
% high school graduates who go right on to college: 69
% college freshmen who earn a diploma within six years: 48
(Sources: Education Week; The NCHEMS Information Center)

Oregon and Kentucky

For the past several weeks, I've been highlighting the education stats in the remaining primary states. We've only got a few left to go and today Oregon and Kentucky are voting. Also, the campaign is screening the documentary Two Million Minutes in Richmond tonight at the Byrd Theatre in Carytown. The event is free and open to the public, if you're around -- stop on by.

Oregon Facts
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2007)
% 4th graders proficient in reading: 28
% 4th graders proficient in math: 35

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 34
% 8th graders proficient in math: 35

According to the state’s own assessments (2007)
% 4th graders proficient in reading: 79   
% 4th graders proficient in math: 71   

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 68   
% 8th graders proficient in math: 70   
(Source: U.S. Dept. of Education)

High School and Beyond:
% 9th graders who graduate from high school on time: 71
% high school graduates who go right on to college: 46
% college freshmen who earn a diploma within six years: 55
(Sources: Education Week; The NCHEMS Information Center)

Kentucky Facts   
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2007):
% 4th graders proficient in reading: 33
% 4th graders proficient in math: 30

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 28
% 8th graders proficient in math: 27

According to the state’s own assessments (2007):
% 4th graders proficient in reading: 73   
% 4th graders proficient in math: 60   

% 8th graders proficient in reading: 64   
% 8th graders proficient in math: 49   
(Source: U.S. Dept. of Education)

High School and Beyond:
% 9th graders who graduate from high school on time: 70
% high school graduates who go right on to college: 57
% college freshmen who earn a diploma within six years: 44
(Sources: Education Week; The NCHEMS Information Center)

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.

Education statistics from West Virginia

Last week, I shared with you some of the education statistics in Indiana and North Carolina. Today, as primary voters head to the polls in West Virginia, I wanted to highlight some similar statistics in the state:

Student Performance:                
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (2007):
% 4th graders proficient in reading:    28
% 4th graders proficient in math:    33

% 8th graders proficient in reading:    23
% 8th graders proficient in math:    19

According to the state’s own assessments (2007):
% 4th graders proficient in reading:   
% 4th graders proficient in math:    79   

% 8th graders proficient in reading:   
% 8th graders proficient in math:    71   

High School and Beyond:
% 9th graders who graduate from high school on time:     76
% high school graduates who go right on to college:        53
% college freshmen who earn a diploma within six years.     44
(Sources: U.S. Dept. of Education; The NCHEMS Information Center)

Cost to the State:
Approximately 6,700 students did not graduate from West Virginia’s high schools in 2007; that cohort of West Virginia students forfeited $1.7 billion in lifetime earnings by dropping out.

If West Virginia’s high schools graduated all students ready for college, the state would save almost $3.8 million a year in community college remediation costs and lost earnings.
(Source: Alliance for Excellent Education)

As the primary season is winding down, it is time for the candidates in both parties to talk more about their plan to bring about real education reform. All Americans deserve to know how we are going to fix our schools, recruit and retain quality teachers and provide more time and support for learning.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day

We all have them -- those special teachers from school that we'll always remember. It might be the teacher that taught you how to read, or the one that mentored you in choosing which college to attend. Whoever it may be -– teachers affect the lives of our students everyday. We know, and research even shows, that teachers have the biggest impact on student learning.

Over the next eight years, the United States will need to recruit nearly 3 million new teachers due to teacher turnover, retirement and increased student enrollment. However, this task will be nearly impossible if we don't start to treat teachers like the professionals they are. As we celebrate National Teacher Appreciation day today, there are three major approaches we need to take to successfully recruit and retain our teachers:

• We need to give teachers the same opportunities for advancement and better pay that other professionals enjoy.
• We need to offer higher salaries to compete with other professions for adults who have strong math and science backgrounds.
• We need to pay teachers more when we ask them to take on harder jobs.

It's imperative that we have an effective teacher in every classroom and to do this we need to start appreciating our teachers more than one day a year. Take some time today to use the comments section of the blog to tell me about your favorite teacher.

Education makes a difference in key primary states

Tomorrow is a big day in Indiana and North Carolina, and many voters will head to the polls with the state of the economy on their minds. With the economy in peril, it's no wonder why voters in both states are worried about the increasing costs to consumers coupled declining wages and outsourcing of their jobs.

We cannot fix the economy without focusing preparing our next generation of workers with adequate skills and knowledge to succeed in the global marketplace. Recent data in both Indiana and North Carolina has shown that our traditional public schools need reform. Below is overview of education statistics in these two states:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

ED in '08 on NBC Nightly News

NBC Nightly News says of education, "in a globalized world, it's increasingly [an issue] of national importance," and I couldn't agree more.

ED in '08 Senior Policy Analyst Adam Thibault appeared on the NBC Nightly News last night. The report discusses the role of education in the election and why such a weighty issue hasn't played a more prominent part of the campaign dialogue.

Generation Next Knows All About ED

As a part of the Youth Outlook Media blog-a-thon, in which youth media bloggers from around the country discuss those issues that are important to the younger generation, I asked the ED in '08 Web Editor, Brian Wolly, to write about why education is such an important issue to young voters:

Our organization, ED in '08, is a nonpartisan public awareness campaign aimed at elevating education to the top of the list of our nation's priorities. We are also calling for a vigorous and thorough discussion of the issue by the candidates for president in 2008.

TIME Magazine on Teachers and the Candidates

The cover story of this week's TIME Magazine is a must-read piece, "How to Make Great Teachers," which takes a long hard look at some of the challenges facing the teaching profession, and features a guide about the election and education, detailing where the presidential candidates stand on issues such as teacher pay, and a longer school day or year.
TIME also promotes the efforts of ED in '08 in the sidebar, "A Voter's Guide to Education," referring to us a "nonpartisan group [that] is a clearinghouse for potential solutions to persistent problems in U.S. education."

Missing the Point

I was surprised and disappointed to read Jay Matthew's column on international competitiveness in The Washington Post yesterday. Now Matthews is a guy who really cares about our schools, and recognizes that we need some drastic reforms to fix the persistent problems plaguing America's education system. That's why I was taken aback by his opinion that we needn't worry about American students losing ground.

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.

ED in the Super Tuesday States, Part II

Yesterday, I started to lay out the state of public education in each of the twenty-four states that are in the midst of presidential primaries and caucuses today. Our ED in ’08 interactive map is a great way to look at the education figures in your state.

ED in the Super Tuesday States, Part I

Well, tomorrow is Super Tuesday, a day that has most political pundits jumping up and down in excitement and the rest of us holding our breath to see which candidates will rise above the fray to win voters and delegates. With such a diverse group of states in play, tomorrow will be a day that really starts to give a sense of the national election, rather than a series of state-specific contests.

Vote for ED Questions in the LA Debates

Later this week, as the presidential campaigns shift focus to new territory in anticipation of Super Tuesday, both parties will debate in Los Angeles, the Republicans on Wednesday, January 30, and the Democrats on Thursday, January 31.

For those of us who have been calling for more media and candidate attention to education in the primary debates, Politico, a sponsor of this week's debates, is giving voters a chance to choose the questions that will be asked of the candidates. You can also submit your own questions. Just go to the debate website, and vote on the questions you most want to hear asked.

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.

CNN Says 89 Percent Want More Talk on ED

Yesterday morning, my colleague Marc Lampkin was watching CNN and caught the results of a poll showing that 89 percent of respondents don't think the candidates are doing enough to address problems in education.

89 percent!

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.

Marching in Memory

This weekend, I'll be heading down to South Carolina to join some of our ED in '08 staff on the ground there - I have been invited by the NAACP of South Carolina to speak at their annual Martin Luther King Jr., Day celebration in Columbia. The event will begin with a service honoring Dr. King, followed by a march from the church to the South Carolina state house.

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.

Let's Get Education on the Party Platforms in Iowa

Things are continuing to heat up here in Iowa.

Last night the ED in '08 staff and teams of Iowa ED in '08 supporters were out in full force, attending the candidates' last minute caucus rallies and raising awareness of ED in '08. You can take a look at some of the pictures they took on our Flickr page.