Archive for December, 2008
Quality Education as a Constitutional Right
A Joint Policy Statement of The Algebra Project, Young People’s Project, and Quality Public Education as a Constitutional Right as presented by Ryan Mason and Megan Sherman of the Baltimore Algebra Project:
Just as voting rights were required for full citizenship in the United States forty years ago, economic access is required for full citizenship today. In the 21st century, education is the essential pathway for young people to that economic access. Unless young people gain economic access through high quality education and meaningful employment, they and their children will be confined to the margins of life—often the criminal justice system—and caught in a relentless cycle of disenfranchisement.
A recent study [Read more...]
Education Funding
As our military budget becomes evermore bloated and wasteful, our funding for the most fundamental human service of our nation, education, is sad in comparison. The research shows that early childhood education, healthy and affordable school meals, and well-compensated teachers produce more productive and educated citizens in the future. Thank you for reading, and please put education at the TOP of our list of priorities.
This post was submitted by James Tripp.
Gifted Coordinator
Our schools have operated in panic mode for far too long. We can teach all children, if specific pieces are put into place. The neuroscientists must have a voice in what happens next in education. Experts in education and the science community must conbine the expertise of the two fields so that changes in American education will not follow trends or the latest product. We must know what really happens in the brain to both enrich and impede learning. Teacher must become experts in using neurological components in the classroom to best serve students.
There are too many programs out there that promise miracle cures for education, when [Read more...]
Secretary of Education
Kati Haycock!!! Please, please, please. It would change everything to have someone with a real education background.
Thank you.
Linda Katz
Executive Director
Children’s Literacy Initiative
2314 Market St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
This post was submitted by Linda Katz.
Curricula
Beginning with my first article on the subject in the KAPPAN in 1966, in books published by respected publishers, in myriad articles in professional education journals, and in dozens of my Knight-Ridder/Tribune columns, I have argued that the curriculum adopted in 1892 and now in near-universal use in our schools and colleges was poor when it was put in place and grows more dysfunctional with each passing year. By any objective measure, it is simply unacceptable. Sending the young into an unknown future armed with such a crude intellectual tool is unconscionable.
My statements of problems have been very specific, as have been my suggestions for their solution within present bureaucratic [Read more...]
Leadership
1) Promote and implement character education for all students. 2) Teach critical thinking skills in K-post graduate schooling. 3) Actively groom students for leadership positions who demonstrate talent and skills in that area. 4) Recognize and reward honesty, creative thinking, and integrity of leaders and potential leaders. 5) Return to the teaching of history and the patterns of success and failure we have learned from the past.
This post was submitted by Carolyn A. Stewart.
Paying teachers more
I feel every child in America should be able to get an excellent education from a talented high-performing teacher. Those kind of teachers come at a high price to his or her employer. Only in free exchange does desired talent get appropriately compensated.
American education reform that will bring this to pass will be school vouchers. I don’t care what the rich think, schools that parents choose and designate as “good” for their children should be accesible despite their income. As Americans, if we can truly create equal opportunity in education, this in the direction we really need to move before the rest of the world leaves [Read more...]
Nationalize Standards
As a teacher, I have embraced our fairly well designed state standards. They provide a framework for each subject area that lays out in a logical way what students should have mastered by the end of each grade level. I realize that these standards are the floor, not the ceiling, and I know that I can teach the concepts in the way that I feel is most appropriate and best for my kids. Thank you to NCLB for standards, now, lets further benefit kids by making them standard from state to state - one set of standards, and one really USEFUL assessment tool. We have a [Read more...]
English Language Learners
Dear Mr. Obama,
I would love to see additional research into best practices for English Language Learners in the United States. Our school district currently has students that represent 57 different languages. I see children move to the United States in 3/4/5th grade that can not read or write in English. I heard you say that your plan is to focus on Early Childhood. I am wondering if you could invest in resources for teachers to be able to reach these 11-12 year olds that are reading at a Kindergarten level because the sounds of the English Language are new or they don’t have the vocabulary to [Read more...]
Cheaper higher ed & more career/tech ed in high school
I’ve worked as both a teacher and counselor (elementary and high school) and would advise a few things.
1) More career and technical education in middle/high schools: A large percentage of our students aren’t seeing the connection between the “core” subjects (especially math) and the world of work. In most schools, kids simply memorize enough of the material to earn a grade and pass to the next level, never truly grasping the important concepts–what a crime! Education should be exciting! Meeting kids where they’re at by speaking to their interests and tying learning into career and technical programs they might want to enter is one way to hold [Read more...]
