Voices from the Campaign

Gov. Romer Gets Press in Los Angeles

2008-05-01T14:30:11-04:00

Our chairman, Gov. Roy Romer, sat down with one of our funders, Eli Broad, on the KPCC show "Air Talk with Larry Mantle" to talk about why education needs to be discussed more in the 2008 election. Listen to the segment below.

Below, another clip of Gov. Romer on the radio, this time on KFWB

Lastly, here is the segment from KTLA that reported on the ED in '08 campaign.

Question of the Week 2: Impact of Blogs

2008-04-29T10:06:20-04:00

Question of the Week: What impact have blogs had on the education debate?

Guest Answer from Joanne Jacobs, author of "Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the Charter School That Beat the Odds," blogs on education at joannejacobs.com:

This election was supposed to be about Iraq. It's turning out to be about who's more in touch with working-class Americans. In touch, but not clingy.

Education hasn't claimed much serious attention. Everyone's for it but nobody has articulated a clear sense of how they'd change or continue federal education policy, now built around No Child Left Behind, to help students succeed. Barack Obama has been telling black audiences that parents have to push their children to work hard in school. But that's not a federal policy.

So the effect of education blogs has been . . . let's say subtle. There are dozens of wonk blogs discussing national education policy, as well as thousands of blogs by teachers and parents (homeschoolers and public schoolers) looking at education from the classroom and home perspective.

Principals and superintendents are blogging. Students are blogging. I just hope someone's reading.

All these conversations about local, state and national education issues are healthy. Concerned citizens are becoming informed citizens. Certainly, Americans don't want to delegate education to the experts. Everybody has an opinion.

However, I see no consensus on the major issues: testing, teacher pay, maintaining order, federal vs. local control, etc. Education bloggers and blog readers support different ideas about how to improve our schools. A candidate who was reading the blogs wouldn't get much of a sense of where “the people” are. Except for zero tolerance, which almost everyone thinks is idiotic, they're all over the place.

Perhaps the most we can hope is that politicians will come to believe that a lot more people care about education than they've listened to in the past. Education doesn't belong to the teachers' unions, the school board association or even the PTA. A much wider range of voices are being heard.

But I don't expect education bloggers to reach the hallowed status of Soccer Moms or Debt-ridden Dads. Not this year, at any rate.

Gov. Romer on CNN Radio

2008-04-23T13:49:26-04:00

Our chairman, Gov. Roy Romer, appeared on CNN Radio to talk about the 25th anniversary of A Nation at Risk and the ED in '08 report we released identifying the distressing lack of progress in the education reform movement.

Listen to the clip below.

Question of the Week 1: Obstacles

2008-04-17T13:46:11-04:00

Question of the Week: What obstacles will the next administration face in education reform?

Guest Answer from Dan Brown, author of The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle.

With the bipartisan passing of No Child Left Behind in 2002, Washington granted itself unprecedented power over American public schools. Something needed to be done to address the country’s widening achievement gap, and in the bleary wake of 9/11, the egalitarian talking points of NCLB hit all the right political notes.

But the devil was in the details and execution, as the law delivered unfunded mandates and unprecedented emphasis on high-stakes testing. Rep. George Miller, Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee, has said, "No Child Left Behind may be the most negative brand in America."

A scheduled reauthorization in fall 2007 never got out of draft form in committee. Now the 44th president will inherit a fracas of competing ideas on how to provide leadership for fixing this broken law.

Washington can not— and should not— administer all schools by satellite control. However, the president can— and must— use the bully pulpit to push for legislation and initiatives that attend to the root, on-the-ground issues in schools.

Here are three big ones where the president must jump in the fray:

Strengthening teacher recruitment and retention.
- Half of teachers leave the profession within their first five years on the job, and the stats are even worse in urban settings. This rate of turnover is costly in dollars and student achievement. The president can push to make teaching a more attractive and sustainable profession by supporting teacher salary raises, student loan forgiveness, and the establishment of more first-rate teacher preparation programs. When our country values teachers more, we will see the fruits in our students’ achievement.
Expanding student assessment beyond high-stakes testing.
- Our kids are getting tested to death (or apathy), with many students beginning rigid test prep curricula as early as kindergarten. There are myriad ways to measure student achievement that are far more accurate and far less reductive than one be-all, end-all test. Implementing a range of progressive assessments would involve trusting schools and teachers more, a trust that should be regularly earned via local oversight and independent quality reviews.
Providing for students’ needs in order to meet standards and soar beyond them.
- Many students need more from their schools than several hours of daily classes. As budget cuts sweep the country, after-school programs, arts education, and smaller classes are on the chopping block. The president can address the importance of making schools inclusive places by funding a range of extracurricular expenses. This would include early childhood education (taught by certified teachers), school-based healthcare, lower student-to-teacher ratios, athletics, student mentoring, and academic tutoring. Students need these things, and are too often forced to go without them. This investment can stem other problems like the dropout epidemic, teen pregnancy, child obesity, juvenile delinquency, and the cradle-to-prison pipeline.

Addressing these needs will require a lot of will; the status quo isn’t cutting it. The next president needs to face these challenges head-on in order to help make the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness a reality—not a political illusion— in every American school.

Dan Brown can be reached at danbrownteacher@gmail.com.

Announcing the 2008 Blogger Summit in Washington DC!

2008-04-17T13:45:41-04:00

We are excited to announce the two-day 2008 Blogger Summit on May 14-15, to be held at the Hotel Palomar in Washington, DC. Join fellow opinion leaders as we discuss the future of education in the U.S. and the surprising impact bloggers have made thus far. Conference details include:

An opening reception on the evening of Wednesday, May 14. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served before the screening of a new documentary film on education, Two Million Minutes. A Q&A session with the filmmakers is scheduled to follow.
An all-day conference on May 15. Nowhere else will you have an opportunity to meet and network with fellow education bloggers, participate in panels, attend workshops, and help tackle tough questions that will help shape the future of the American education system. Highlights include a speech from keynote speaker Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Register today—the Blogger Summit is free and space is limited!

To register for a spot today, click here.

View the Summit’s full agenda.

Be sure to return periodically to check for updates on this year’s summit, as well as for exciting guest blog posts from our conference panelists.

A 21st Century Process in Education

2008-04-10T13:38:11-04:00

Big Think, a newish site, recently posted a great interview with Joel Klein, the Chancellor of New York City Dept. of Education. I really love Big Think's mission:

This is a digital age, one in which a wealth of accessible information empowers you, the citizen-consumer. But where is the information coming from? How accurate and unprocessed is it, really? Ask yourself this: how empowered do you feel debating a television screen or a newspaper?

Our task is to move the discussion away from talking heads and talking points, and give it back to you.

And as long as they keep featuring interviews such as the one with Klein, I look forward to seeing what else they produce.

Klein is a controversial figure in education reform, but we love what he's done so far in working with the teachers unions to bring more effective teachers to the classroom. We're always looking for leaders to take strong action to help our schools, and Klein's a great example of that.

One great quote from the video:

"In math, in science, in engineering, in technology, we are not doing the kind of work that we need to do. And in transforming the educational process to a 21st century process, we're not doing the work we need."

What We're Up To

2008-04-08T16:36:34-04:00

As we head into the final weeks before the Pennsylvania primary – the campaign has a busy couple of weeks ahead of us. I thought I’d take a moment and recap two of our events.

Over the weekend, my colleague Aaron attended the DC Teach for America Alumni Summit. At the event he passed out information regarding the campaign and also sat in on panel sessions featuring former presidential adviser David Gergen, and representatives from the DC and Prince George’s County education department. Gov. Romer provided some of his thoughts regarding the event over on his blog.

Today, the campaign hits the University of Pittsburgh with a screening of Two Million Minutes and a panel discussion led by my colleague and policy wonk Rachel Bird. We'll will be discussing the education crisis with college students and the Pittsburgh community.

Have you seen Two Million Minutes? Share your thoughts about the movie in the comments or watch the movie trailer: