‘Mr. President, public education in the U.S. is on the wrong track’
by Valerie Strauss
This is the text of an open letter written to President Obama by Mary Broderick, president of the Arlington, Va.,-based National Schools Boards Association, a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their member districts. The letter, sent earlier this month to the president, asks for a national dialogue about the direction of public education reform.
Here’s the text of the letter:
April 17, 2012
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Obama:
The night of your election, in Grant Park, you said, “I will listen to you especially when we disagree.” We are all committed to the best educational future for the children of America. Yet, as the nation prepares for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), school board members and top educational thinkers overwhelming urge abandoning the current “command-and-control” federal educational oversight. America’s treasure lies in unleashing the creativity of our youth. Though well-intentioned, the
‘Mr. President, public education in the U.S. is on the wrong track’
This is the text of an open letter written to President Obama by Mary Broderick, president of the Arlington, Va.,-based National Schools Boards Association, a not-for-profit organization representing state associations of school boards and their member districts. The letter, sent earlier this month to the president, asks for a national dialogue about the direction of public education reform. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Standardized test security questioned
Tenth-graders in Florida took the state’s standardized test in reading on a staggered schedule because there weren’t enough computers available for them all to take it at the same time, raising concerns that security of test questions could be compromised, the Miami Herald reported. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
Ed Dept seeks to bring test-based assessment to teacher prep programs
The Obama administration wants to expand the use of standardized test scores as an accountability tool from K-12 into higher education. The Education Department just tried — and failed — to persuade a group of negotiators to agree to regulations that would rate colleges of education in large part on how K-12 students being taught by their graduates perform on standardized tests. As part of this scheme, financial aid to students in these programs would not be based entirely on need but, rather, would also be linked to test scores. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [im... more »
Does Congress know reading is fundamental?
This *was written by Carol H. Rasco, president and chief executive officer for the non-profit * * Reading Is Fundamental, * * the nation’s largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization. * By Carol H. Rasco Currently there are 16 million children in our nation living in poverty, thehighest number in two decades, and in low-income neighborhoods, there is only one book for every 300 children. The most recently reported National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students in the United States continue to struggle with the most fundamental educational skill — re... more »
How zoning policies affect student achievement
This *was written by Richard D. Kahlenberg, senior fellow at The Century Foundation. It first appeared on the foundation’s website. * By Richard D. Kahlenberg Americans value equal educational opportunity, but our system has always undercut that goal with housing, zoning, and school assignment policies that consign low-income students to high-poverty schools where they tend to perform worse. A fascinating new study by Jonathan Rothwell of the Brookings Institution outlines how zoning policies that limit opportunities for inexpensive housing in more affluent neighborhoods, and sc... more »
‘Talking pineapple’ question on standardized test baffles students
A question about a “talking pineapple” on a standardized reading test given to eighth-grade students in New York has sparked something of an uproar among students and adults who say it doesn’t make any sense. And because of all the fuss, now the state’s education commissioner says the question won’t be counted in students’ scores. Read full article >> [image: Add to Facebook] [image: Add to Twitter] [image: Add to Reddit] [image: Add to StumbleUpon]
