From: Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-fg-nujood20-2008sep20,0,7766653.story?track=rss
By Delphine Minoui and Borzou Daragahi
SANA, YEMEN -- Still groggy, the schoolgirl brushed her hair, struggled to pull on her socks and snuggled into her school uniform: a green gown and a white head scarf.
By the time she gathered up her books and strapped on her backpack she was smiling and enthusiastic, her nervousness eclipsed by anticipation of the first day of class.
Like children across the world, 10-year-old Nujood Ali went back to school this month after a lengthy break. But Nujood hadn't been lazing about or playing hide-and-seek with her friends during the summer.
Instead, after she was pulled out of the second grade by her father earlier this year, she was married off to a man three times her age, who beat her and sexually abused her.
For many girls in this traditional society, where tribal custom and conservative interpretations of Islam dominate, that would have been the end of the story. But Nujood was outraged. She gathered up her courage and on the advice of an aunt went to court in April. She got the help of a lawyer and filed for divorce.
A judge quickly granted it.
And on Tuesday morning, the divorcee, possibly the world's youngest, once again became a schoolgirl.
"I'm very happy to be going back to school," she said, waiting in her ramshackle home for her younger sister Haifa to get ready. "I'm going to study Arabic, the Koran, mathematics and drawing. I will do that with my classmates and I will definitely make friends there.
"Nujood's unusual story of rebellion made her an international celebrity. Since The Times wrote of her in June, CNN, Elle magazine and other international media have come to this mountaintop capital to chronicle her tale.
Hordes of nonprofit organizations offered to help her get back to school, some even willing to foot the bill to send her abroad or to a fancy private academy, though they ignored Haifa, Nujood's little sister and best friend.
In the end, Nujood opted for a small, government-run public school relatively close to her home. She would begin where she left off, starting the second grade again.
Even then, it wasn't easy. One teacher said she worried that Nujood might disturb other students by talking about her sexual experiences.
The night before she went to school, Nujood said she dreamed of notebooks, drawings and new friends.
"When I left school, I learned how to count from one to 100," she said. "Now, I am going to learn how to count until a million."
Nujood said she wanted to study hard, to be able to attend university and become a lawyer like Shada Nasser, the well-known Yemeni human rights advocate who helped her get her divorce.
The girl's experience, and her ambition, have even served as an inspiration to her parents, uneducated rural people who moved to the capital's outskirts a few years ago and say they married her off to protect her from the dangers of the city.
"We were never asked if we wanted to go to school when we were children," said her father, Ali Mohammed Ahdal, who has two wives and 16 children.
"If we had a choice, we would have loved to study like Nujood."
On Tuesday morning, Nujood and Haifa climbed into a yellow taxi paid for by an Italian aid group and drove through the capital's smog-choked streets, passing vendors of the mildly narcotic khat leaves and the occasional shepherd.
Outside the schoolhouse, Nasser stood waiting, eager to share a day she had anticipated. "I can't believe we finally made it," said the attorney, who agreed to drop the rest of her caseload to take up Nujood's cause after the girl showed up alone in a Sana courthouse in April.
Nujood and Nasser were welcomed by Njala Matri, the principal of the school in Rawdha, a lower-middle-class neighborhood along the road to the city's international airport.
"You are welcome here. You can feel at home," she said, smiling at Nujood.
Only about half of Yemeni girls attend primary school. Last year, one of the school's 1,200 girls, a 13-year-old, dropped out to marry, though the legal age of consent is 15. "Now, she's a mother," Matri said in dismay.
Women's rights activists say child marriage is part of a vicious circle. Girls drop out of school and bear too many children, contributing to Yemen's high female illiteracy and exploding birth rate.
But on Tuesday, Nujood stepped through the school's gates into a vast courtyard, disappearing into a swarm of noisy classmates. Some paid her no mind, while others approached the girl who had become a local and international media star.
"I am so excited," she said, playing nervously with her hands.
A bell sounded and the students quieted down, forming lines for roll call before shuffling into classrooms of about 50 students each.
Nujood took a seat in the third row, neither at the front nor the back of the classroom.
The teacher, dressed in an all-covering black abaya, hushed the students and began the day's lesson by asking them to recite the national anthem as well as passages from the Koran.
Small hands shot into the air.
"Who can recite the Surat al-Hamd?" the teacher asked, referring to the first chapter of the Koran.
She saw Nujood's hand, and called her name.
"Nujood?" she said.
Nujood stood up and began, ending with: "Show us the straight path. The path of those whom You have favored. Not the path of those who earn Your anger nor of those who go astray."
"May God bless you," said the teacher.
"Let's give her a round of applause."
The others clapped as Nujood sat down, a little girl once again.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Case for PEDs
From: Teacher Magazine
http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/section/first-person/2008/09/17/tm_mcdaniel_web.h19.html?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mrss
By Jennifer McDaniel
For the first time this year, my entire 9th grade class is on-task. Raina and Evan have stopped their awkward dance of first love, which for them involves one incessantly trying to stab the other with a pencil. Brittany has traded her lip-gloss for a pen and is intently filling out my graphic organizer. The group of boys in the back have stopped fidgeting. No gossip is being exchanged by the breathless girls who’ve claimed the large corner table. Everyone is, miraculously, working on the same thing at the same time. The room is almost silent.
Almost, because as I peer over each of my students’ shoulders to check their work, I can oh-so-faintly hear whatever they’ve cued up on their iPods. Sometimes the tinny beats are clear enough that I can guess the song; others are so quiet as to be indistinguishable. A few of the kids bop their heads. But none has to be reprimanded to quit goofing off and get their work done. When I tell them to wrap it up, about two minutes before the imminent bell, several look like they’ve been roused from a deep reverie.
My school does not allow the wearing of headphones in order to listen to a portable music player. I have to admit I wasn’t aware of this policy until that day, when I tried to allow my students to listen to my radio—while they worked—as a Friday afternoon treat. I’d never tested this cheap piece of equipment out, and unfortunately, my second floor corner classroom got hideous reception. I shrugged and apologized for getting their hopes up.
“Can we listen to these?” Nearly every kid in the room held up one of those shiny, sleek rectangles.
“I don’t know.” Even as a first-year teacher, I should have known better than to waver. They smelled weakness. Begging, groveling, and promises of stellar work ensued. I relented, with a few stipulations: Only one ear bud allowed, during independent work only, as a privilege that could easily be revoked if I decided a student wasn’t working diligently enough. I thought it would be a one-time incidence of rule tweaking, but it worked so effectively that it became a Friday ritual that we all looked forward to. I appreciated the tranquil environment and productivity of my students during a time that could easily be lost to early weekend syndrome; my students simply enjoyed listening to their music. But still, I knew I was opening myself up to a potential problem. A veteran teacher confirmed my suspicions when I asked for her consult.
“It’s a distraction, and you can’t control what they’re listening to. PEDs are not allowed.” She spoke with an urgency usually reserved for much more threatening acronyms, like WMD or SARS. She sighed at my apparently blank expression. “A personal electronic device?”
And that was apparently that. I stopped letting my students listen to their i-Pods, grudgingly, because I think the arguments against what I’d been doing are pretty flimsy. I grant that some people need absolute quiet to work their best, those that discover the library as a haven for study in college. But there seem to be just as many of us who can’t “enjoy the silence,” as the old Depeche Mode song would have us believe. Plenty of productive people work best with background noise, and as adults who can decide what’s best for us, we create such noise in a variety of ways: the radio during our morning commutes, the evening news as we cook dinner, the cozy chatter that envelopes us as we work or read at our favorite coffee shop. And how can anything be a bigger distraction than the 27 other warm bodies each of my students must avoid engaging with all day, every day, in order to stay on task? I can guarantee that iPods don’t talk back, no matter how much you harangue them.
The argument that allowing kids to listen to their iPods means relinquishing control of the content they’re taking in is admittedly a thornier one. Just as I cannot hear and censor my students’ thoughts, I cannot respond to an errant expletive or drug reference if I can’t hear it. But, since no one else can hear it, either, I feel this becomes a sort of tree-falling-in-the-forest argument. Again, I’m sure there’s some pretty explicit stuff rattling around in my students’ heads when they’re in my classroom, but as long as they’re not shouting it out for all to hear, they’re well within their rights. And despite all the hand-wringing about whatever musical styles the next generation adopts to shock us geriatrics, most kids listen to pretty innocuous, if obnoxious, stuff: top 40 pop, rock, and rap, mostly. And what’s the more pressing issue, anyway? Should I give up what has proved to be that most effective and elusive of rewards for good performance, one that my students actually care about earning, to safeguard against the chance of them hearing the same kind of language they already utter in the halls, the parking lot, and the restrooms?
The death of iPod Fridays saddens me. I’ve had to return to the old management standbys: cajoling and threatening. I’ve tried other rewards (granola bar, anyone?), but none hold the same allure that just thirty minutes of the freedom to listen to the music of one’s choice did. And ironically, without this music, Fridays haven’t been as quiet since.
http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/section/first-person/2008/09/17/tm_mcdaniel_web.h19.html?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mrss
By Jennifer McDaniel
For the first time this year, my entire 9th grade class is on-task. Raina and Evan have stopped their awkward dance of first love, which for them involves one incessantly trying to stab the other with a pencil. Brittany has traded her lip-gloss for a pen and is intently filling out my graphic organizer. The group of boys in the back have stopped fidgeting. No gossip is being exchanged by the breathless girls who’ve claimed the large corner table. Everyone is, miraculously, working on the same thing at the same time. The room is almost silent.
Almost, because as I peer over each of my students’ shoulders to check their work, I can oh-so-faintly hear whatever they’ve cued up on their iPods. Sometimes the tinny beats are clear enough that I can guess the song; others are so quiet as to be indistinguishable. A few of the kids bop their heads. But none has to be reprimanded to quit goofing off and get their work done. When I tell them to wrap it up, about two minutes before the imminent bell, several look like they’ve been roused from a deep reverie.
My school does not allow the wearing of headphones in order to listen to a portable music player. I have to admit I wasn’t aware of this policy until that day, when I tried to allow my students to listen to my radio—while they worked—as a Friday afternoon treat. I’d never tested this cheap piece of equipment out, and unfortunately, my second floor corner classroom got hideous reception. I shrugged and apologized for getting their hopes up.
“Can we listen to these?” Nearly every kid in the room held up one of those shiny, sleek rectangles.
“I don’t know.” Even as a first-year teacher, I should have known better than to waver. They smelled weakness. Begging, groveling, and promises of stellar work ensued. I relented, with a few stipulations: Only one ear bud allowed, during independent work only, as a privilege that could easily be revoked if I decided a student wasn’t working diligently enough. I thought it would be a one-time incidence of rule tweaking, but it worked so effectively that it became a Friday ritual that we all looked forward to. I appreciated the tranquil environment and productivity of my students during a time that could easily be lost to early weekend syndrome; my students simply enjoyed listening to their music. But still, I knew I was opening myself up to a potential problem. A veteran teacher confirmed my suspicions when I asked for her consult.
“It’s a distraction, and you can’t control what they’re listening to. PEDs are not allowed.” She spoke with an urgency usually reserved for much more threatening acronyms, like WMD or SARS. She sighed at my apparently blank expression. “A personal electronic device?”
And that was apparently that. I stopped letting my students listen to their i-Pods, grudgingly, because I think the arguments against what I’d been doing are pretty flimsy. I grant that some people need absolute quiet to work their best, those that discover the library as a haven for study in college. But there seem to be just as many of us who can’t “enjoy the silence,” as the old Depeche Mode song would have us believe. Plenty of productive people work best with background noise, and as adults who can decide what’s best for us, we create such noise in a variety of ways: the radio during our morning commutes, the evening news as we cook dinner, the cozy chatter that envelopes us as we work or read at our favorite coffee shop. And how can anything be a bigger distraction than the 27 other warm bodies each of my students must avoid engaging with all day, every day, in order to stay on task? I can guarantee that iPods don’t talk back, no matter how much you harangue them.
The argument that allowing kids to listen to their iPods means relinquishing control of the content they’re taking in is admittedly a thornier one. Just as I cannot hear and censor my students’ thoughts, I cannot respond to an errant expletive or drug reference if I can’t hear it. But, since no one else can hear it, either, I feel this becomes a sort of tree-falling-in-the-forest argument. Again, I’m sure there’s some pretty explicit stuff rattling around in my students’ heads when they’re in my classroom, but as long as they’re not shouting it out for all to hear, they’re well within their rights. And despite all the hand-wringing about whatever musical styles the next generation adopts to shock us geriatrics, most kids listen to pretty innocuous, if obnoxious, stuff: top 40 pop, rock, and rap, mostly. And what’s the more pressing issue, anyway? Should I give up what has proved to be that most effective and elusive of rewards for good performance, one that my students actually care about earning, to safeguard against the chance of them hearing the same kind of language they already utter in the halls, the parking lot, and the restrooms?
The death of iPod Fridays saddens me. I’ve had to return to the old management standbys: cajoling and threatening. I’ve tried other rewards (granola bar, anyone?), but none hold the same allure that just thirty minutes of the freedom to listen to the music of one’s choice did. And ironically, without this music, Fridays haven’t been as quiet since.
Teaching Secrets: What Kids Wish Teachers Knew
From: Teacher Magazine
http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/09/17/02tln_wasserman.h20.html
By Laurie Wasserman
I was in our building a few weeks before school began, setting my room up for the new year. My friend and colleague was doing the same in her room, accompanied by her daughter Talia, now a high school sophomore, who enjoys helping Mom get ready for her new students.
Talia looked on as we freshened up our classrooms and began to reflect on her own middle school memories. We soon sat down for a spontaneous chat, and I asked her to talk from a student’s perspective about what middle school had been like for her. With those years still fresh in her memory, Talia offfered some candid insights from the other side of the teacher’s desk.
Talia adored her 8th grade U.S. history teacher, who engaged each of his classes in creating a classroom constitution during the first weeks of school. They wrote laws that needed to be followed and created ways to amend them as needed. Talia talked of his dedication to making learning fun and interesting by creating hands-on learning opportunities. Then she shared some other stories—about the foreign language teacher who put so much effort into her lessons, demonstrating a deep dedication to her subject, and the memorable science teacher who set up intriguing labs and projects that made Talia eager to come to school each day.
She also related sad stories about other teachers who often showed up late for class, or made cutting remarks about students’ intelligence and abilities. She poignantly recalled how such comments hurt her fellow classmates and lingered long after the teacher’s thoughtless outbursts.
As we continued our chat, I asked Talia to tell me what she wished teachers would know about their students. Here are some of her pointers:
http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/09/17/02tln_wasserman.h20.html
By Laurie Wasserman
I was in our building a few weeks before school began, setting my room up for the new year. My friend and colleague was doing the same in her room, accompanied by her daughter Talia, now a high school sophomore, who enjoys helping Mom get ready for her new students.
Talia looked on as we freshened up our classrooms and began to reflect on her own middle school memories. We soon sat down for a spontaneous chat, and I asked her to talk from a student’s perspective about what middle school had been like for her. With those years still fresh in her memory, Talia offfered some candid insights from the other side of the teacher’s desk.
Talia adored her 8th grade U.S. history teacher, who engaged each of his classes in creating a classroom constitution during the first weeks of school. They wrote laws that needed to be followed and created ways to amend them as needed. Talia talked of his dedication to making learning fun and interesting by creating hands-on learning opportunities. Then she shared some other stories—about the foreign language teacher who put so much effort into her lessons, demonstrating a deep dedication to her subject, and the memorable science teacher who set up intriguing labs and projects that made Talia eager to come to school each day.
She also related sad stories about other teachers who often showed up late for class, or made cutting remarks about students’ intelligence and abilities. She poignantly recalled how such comments hurt her fellow classmates and lingered long after the teacher’s thoughtless outbursts.
As we continued our chat, I asked Talia to tell me what she wished teachers would know about their students. Here are some of her pointers:
- “Tell your stories about when you were our age.” Talia explained that when teachers share their own middle school stories—including some of their blunders or embarrassing moments—it makes them more human. Her mother, my colleague, told us she did this in her own classroom because she realized how much it meant to her students to hear about her own mistakes as a kid.
- “Teachers underestimate what kids can do, and what they know.” Often, Talia explained, teachers assume kids can’t tell if a teacher is unprepared for class. But of course they can. Students also appreciate good teaching, exciting lessons, test review games, and activities. Years later, the kids remember which teachers lacked respect for themselves or their students. They remember the sarcastic comments, as well as the kind and caring ones.
- “We love to see our work hung up on the board.” Talia shared how much it meant to come into a classroom and see her diligent efforts and those of her classmates prominently displayed. It meant the teacher was proud of you and willing to take the time to show off your hard work.
- “Read aloud to us. You’re never too old to be read aloud to.” Simply put, it strengthens the bond between teacher and students. It’s a gift from the teacher that students recognize.
- “Get us out from behind our desks.” Kids this age need to move around, and they love it when you’ve taken the time to plan opportunities for movement into your lessons. “We need to get physical,” Talia is saying. “It keeps us learning.”
- “You have to want to be around people, otherwise you make us miserable.” The kids know whether you’re a “people person” and enjoy the company of kids. And sadly, they know if you aren’t. Talia told us stories of some of her “hands off, impersonal teachers,” as well as the warm, friendly teachers that made a difference. They will always be remembered.
Most States Have Technology Standards for Teachers
From: EPE Research Center
http://www.edweek.org/rc/articles/2008/09/17/sow0917.h27.html
By Alexis Reed
http://www.edweek.org/rc/articles/2008/09/17/sow0917.h27.html
By Alexis Reed
In the 21st century, innovation in the classroom aims both to boost achievement on standardized examinations and to prepare students for life after graduation. That is a life in which technology plays an increasingly vital role. The Enhancing Education through Technology Act, part of the omnibus federal No Child Left Behind Act, seeks to raise student academic achievement by encouraging educators to integrate technology into the curriculum. Proponents have argued that teachers who are themselves competent users of instructional technology can deliver more innovative lessons in the classroom, increase the capacity of their students to use technology, and ultimately facilitate student learning. In Technology Counts 2008, the EPE Research Center found that 44 states have established standards for teachers that include technology. In most of those states, such standards are aligned with the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers, developed by the International Society for Technology in Education.
For more state-by-state data on technology policies and other topics, search the EPE Research Center's Education Counts database.
Technology Standards for Teachers (2007-08)
Monday, September 15, 2008
McCain, Obama Spar on Education
From: Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/17/04prez_ep.h28.html?tmp=1593041305
By David J. Hoff
Vol. 28, Issue 04, Pages 1,20-22
In TV Ads on School Issues, Campaigns Reach Back Years to Question the Opposition
The campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama engaged in a sharp and testy exchange on education last week, making the topic the center of debate for the first time since the long race for the presidency began.
Neither candidate changed course on the policies he is promising to pursue. But Sen. Obama sought to distinguish himself from Sen. McCain in two public appearances, trying to portray himself as a bipartisan problem-solver for schools. Each campaign also released a hard-hitting TV ad attacking the other candidate’s record on education.
The attention to education in the first week of campaigning after the back-to-back Democratic and Republican conventions was heartening to some observers. But it’s unlikely that a substantive debate will emerge from the week’s activities, one political scientist said, because the campaigns appear to be focusing on the opposing candidate’s character and personality.
“As for [education] being a centerpiece, I don’t think that’s going to happen with just two months to go” before the election, said Paul Manna, an assistant professor of government at the College of William and Mary, who studies politics related to education. “It’s hard to see how it’s going to gain traction.”
Still, some tweaks to each candidate’s policy proposals have emerged in the wake of the conventions.
In what the Obama campaign called “a major policy speech” on Sept. 9 in Riverside, Ohio, Sen. Obama essentially summarized the proposals from his Democratic primary campaign, but added a notable new plank: He would double federal aid for charter schools, to $400 million a year.
“I will lead a new era of accountability in education,” Sen. Obama said in the speech. “But I don’t just want to hold our teachers accountable. I want you to hold our government accountable. I want you to hold me accountable.”
The next day, the Illinois Democrat visited Granby High School in Norfolk, Va., where he met with 9th graders and answered their questions on such topics as choosing a college and his experience as a community organizer in Chicago.
The Obama campaign also released a television commercial asserting that Sen. McCain “doesn’t understand” what it will take to improve schools. The McCain campaign responded quickly—by the end of the same day—with an ad of its own, which charged that Sen. Obama’s only legislative accomplishment on education was a Illinois bill mandating sex education for kindergartners. Many independent evaluators questioned the accuracy of the ad, which quoted from Education Week and other newspapers.
One Democratic activist said the timing of Sen. Obama’s speech and the depth of its content suggest that education issues may get a serious debate in the 2008 election. For much of the primary and general-election campaigns, economics and foreign policy have been the central focus of the candidates.
“It says something that [Mr. Obama is] talking about education fewer than 60 days before the election,” said Robert Gordon, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington think tank with ties to the Obama campaign and other Democrats.
“McCain sounds pretty good on education, but when you scratch even a little bit beneath the surface, there’s no there, there,” said Mr. Gordon, who has provided advice to Sen. Obama’s campaign.
An adviser to Sen. McCain took issue with that appraisal, saying that the Arizona Republican’s school choice proposals are a serious attempt change the existing education bureaucracy and would result in better schools.
“Senator McCain ... is interested in empowering families and speaking directly to the educational needs of Americans, as opposed to the system,” said Eugene W. Hickok, a former deputy secretary of education under President Bush who is advising the McCain campaign. “Whereas Obama, beyond his mantra of more money, more money, is really just supporting these traditional approaches to the system.”
Shift to Other Topics
In their speeches accepting the nominations of their respective parties, Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain pointed to their education policy proposals.
In his Aug. 29 speech in Denver, Sen. Obama promised to “meet our moral obligation to provide a world-class education.” He outlined an agenda to recruit new teachers and hold all educators accountable for meeting higher standards. ("Top-Notch Education 'A Moral Obligation,' Obama Tells Throng," Sept. 3, 2008.)
One week later, Sen. McCain called for increasing parents’ ability to choose schools for their children, especially those who attend schools with low student achievement. ("McCain Promises to 'Shake Up' Schools," Sept. 10, 2008.)
Sen. McCain reiterated the education themes from his convention speech early last week in an appearance on the cbs News show “Face the Nation.”
“Everyone has equal access to a school. But what’s the point of access to a failed school or a failing school?” Sen. McCain said. “We’ve got to give them more choice, more opportunity—all Americans.”
The substance of the candidates’ speeches played almost no role in last week’s dueling advertisements.
Such attack ads are common in presidential politics, but it’s rare that they hinge on the candidates’ education positions.
The dueling ads helped raise the profile of education in the campaign, but only temporarily. Soon after Sen. Obama’s speech and the debut of the ads, campaign coverage in the news media focused on allegations of personal slights.
The candidates did, however, address the subject of community service. On Sept. 11, the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama appeared separately at a televised forum and discussed how such service efforts could help schools.
Adding Charter Schools
The events of the week didn’t significantly change the substance of the candidates’ positions on education.
Speaking at Stebbins High School in suburban Dayton, Sen. Obama tried to position himself as the candidate with the ability to bridge the partisan debates on education issues.
“For decades, they’ve been stuck in the same tired debates over education that have crippled our progress and left schools and parents to fend for themselves,” he said of policymakers in Washington. “It’s been Democrat versus Republican, vouchers versus the status quo, more money versus more reform. There’s partisanship and there’s bickering, but there’s no understanding that both sides have good ideas that we’ll need to implement if we hope to make the changes our children need.”
In arguing how he would move the debate forward, Sen. Obama listed the pieces of his education platform that have been in place since voters started casting ballots in the primaries. In addition to recruiting and training new teachers, Sen. Obama would experiment with new ways of paying them. He also would seek to spend $10 billion a year to expand access to prekindergarten programs, and he would create $4,000 tax credits for college tuition.
The Democratic nominee said he would aim to change the federal No Child Left Behind Act to improve the quality of tests and the way the law holds schools accountable for student performance. The senator also said he would fully fund the law, which is something that Democrats in Congress have long said President Bush has failed to do. In the current fiscal year, the nclb law’s programs are receiving $24.7 billion—or $14.7 billion less than the law authorizes for spending on them.
In Ohio, Sen. Obama added one new piece to his plan with his promise to double the funding for the federal program that supports the development and expansion of charter schools, which are publicly funded but operate independently. The program now receives $200 million a year.
Although a fresh addition to Mr. Obama’s agenda, the proposal wasn’t surprising, Mr. Gordon said. Sen. Obama has been a supporter of charter schools in his hometown of Chicago and has mentioned his support for them in speeches throughout the campaign.
Embracing Choice
The proposed new level of support for charters also appeared to be an attempt to counter the emphasis Sen. McCain put on school choice in his Sept. 4 acceptance speech.
But it was an incomplete response, said one policy analyst who supports programs that allow parents to choose among public and private schools.
“Charter schools are not full choice,” said Lance T. Izumi, the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute, a Sacramento, Calif., think tank. “There are still things that block charter schools from forming.”
Sen. McCain’s extended remarks on school choice, which constituted one of the most detailed policy discussions in his acceptance speech, deviated slightly from the campaign proposals he had outlined in earlier speeches and policy papers.
In those statements, the Republican nominee’s only mention of school choice was his support for expanding the 4-year-old federal pilot project offering vouchers for District of Columbia students to use at private schools.
“I think he does want school choice for everybody in this country, but where he can implement school choice broadly is primarily in the District of Columbia,” Mr. Hickok said.
Even though Sen. McCain’s convention speech implied he would offer broader choices than his policy positions suggest, Mr. Izumi said the issue deserved the amount of time Sen. McCain gave it because it was an example of his promise to scale back the government’s role in people’s lives. “It fit into his whole campaign theme of trying to bypass the government elites and to reach out to the common person,” Mr. Izumi said.
To deliver on the promise of school choice, Mr. Izumi added, Sen. McCain will need to produce a detailed explanation of the policies he would pursue. “He needs to assure people that he’ll have a practical plan at some point,” he said.
Although the profile of education in the 2008 campaign rose last week—even if only briefly—neither candidate has addressed the most significant issues facing federal education policy, said Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based think tank that supports standards and accountability.
NCLB Focus Sought
The next president must negotiate ways to solve the current problems with the nclb law, which requires states to assess students in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school, and requires states to intervene in schools that aren’t on track to reach the goal that all students be proficient in those subjects by the end of the 2013-14 school year.
“Everybody would like to talk about the wonderful way they could make education better,” said Mr. Finn, a former assistant secretary of education under President Reagan.
But, he said, neither candidate’s education plans address how to improve the rigor of states’ standards, how to improve interventions in schools that aren’t meeting the law’s goals, how to ensure that all classrooms have highly qualified teachers, and several other issues that have been difficult to implement under the bipartisan, 6½-year-old law, which was one of President Bush’s biggest domestic-policy initiatives.
With the law overdue for reauthorization, the next president needs to have a concrete plan to solve those problems, Mr. Finn said.
“It would be irresponsible not to,” he said. “These, after all, are the programs through which the lion’s share of federal money for education flows.”
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/17/04prez_ep.h28.html?tmp=1593041305
By David J. Hoff
Vol. 28, Issue 04, Pages 1,20-22
In TV Ads on School Issues, Campaigns Reach Back Years to Question the Opposition
The campaigns of Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama engaged in a sharp and testy exchange on education last week, making the topic the center of debate for the first time since the long race for the presidency began.
Neither candidate changed course on the policies he is promising to pursue. But Sen. Obama sought to distinguish himself from Sen. McCain in two public appearances, trying to portray himself as a bipartisan problem-solver for schools. Each campaign also released a hard-hitting TV ad attacking the other candidate’s record on education.
The attention to education in the first week of campaigning after the back-to-back Democratic and Republican conventions was heartening to some observers. But it’s unlikely that a substantive debate will emerge from the week’s activities, one political scientist said, because the campaigns appear to be focusing on the opposing candidate’s character and personality.
“As for [education] being a centerpiece, I don’t think that’s going to happen with just two months to go” before the election, said Paul Manna, an assistant professor of government at the College of William and Mary, who studies politics related to education. “It’s hard to see how it’s going to gain traction.”
Still, some tweaks to each candidate’s policy proposals have emerged in the wake of the conventions.
In what the Obama campaign called “a major policy speech” on Sept. 9 in Riverside, Ohio, Sen. Obama essentially summarized the proposals from his Democratic primary campaign, but added a notable new plank: He would double federal aid for charter schools, to $400 million a year.
“I will lead a new era of accountability in education,” Sen. Obama said in the speech. “But I don’t just want to hold our teachers accountable. I want you to hold our government accountable. I want you to hold me accountable.”
The next day, the Illinois Democrat visited Granby High School in Norfolk, Va., where he met with 9th graders and answered their questions on such topics as choosing a college and his experience as a community organizer in Chicago.
The Obama campaign also released a television commercial asserting that Sen. McCain “doesn’t understand” what it will take to improve schools. The McCain campaign responded quickly—by the end of the same day—with an ad of its own, which charged that Sen. Obama’s only legislative accomplishment on education was a Illinois bill mandating sex education for kindergartners. Many independent evaluators questioned the accuracy of the ad, which quoted from Education Week and other newspapers.
One Democratic activist said the timing of Sen. Obama’s speech and the depth of its content suggest that education issues may get a serious debate in the 2008 election. For much of the primary and general-election campaigns, economics and foreign policy have been the central focus of the candidates.
“It says something that [Mr. Obama is] talking about education fewer than 60 days before the election,” said Robert Gordon, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a Washington think tank with ties to the Obama campaign and other Democrats.
“McCain sounds pretty good on education, but when you scratch even a little bit beneath the surface, there’s no there, there,” said Mr. Gordon, who has provided advice to Sen. Obama’s campaign.
An adviser to Sen. McCain took issue with that appraisal, saying that the Arizona Republican’s school choice proposals are a serious attempt change the existing education bureaucracy and would result in better schools.
“Senator McCain ... is interested in empowering families and speaking directly to the educational needs of Americans, as opposed to the system,” said Eugene W. Hickok, a former deputy secretary of education under President Bush who is advising the McCain campaign. “Whereas Obama, beyond his mantra of more money, more money, is really just supporting these traditional approaches to the system.”
Shift to Other Topics
In their speeches accepting the nominations of their respective parties, Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain pointed to their education policy proposals.
In his Aug. 29 speech in Denver, Sen. Obama promised to “meet our moral obligation to provide a world-class education.” He outlined an agenda to recruit new teachers and hold all educators accountable for meeting higher standards. ("Top-Notch Education 'A Moral Obligation,' Obama Tells Throng," Sept. 3, 2008.)
One week later, Sen. McCain called for increasing parents’ ability to choose schools for their children, especially those who attend schools with low student achievement. ("McCain Promises to 'Shake Up' Schools," Sept. 10, 2008.)
Sen. McCain reiterated the education themes from his convention speech early last week in an appearance on the cbs News show “Face the Nation.”
“Everyone has equal access to a school. But what’s the point of access to a failed school or a failing school?” Sen. McCain said. “We’ve got to give them more choice, more opportunity—all Americans.”
The substance of the candidates’ speeches played almost no role in last week’s dueling advertisements.
Such attack ads are common in presidential politics, but it’s rare that they hinge on the candidates’ education positions.
The dueling ads helped raise the profile of education in the campaign, but only temporarily. Soon after Sen. Obama’s speech and the debut of the ads, campaign coverage in the news media focused on allegations of personal slights.
The candidates did, however, address the subject of community service. On Sept. 11, the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama appeared separately at a televised forum and discussed how such service efforts could help schools.
Adding Charter Schools
The events of the week didn’t significantly change the substance of the candidates’ positions on education.
Speaking at Stebbins High School in suburban Dayton, Sen. Obama tried to position himself as the candidate with the ability to bridge the partisan debates on education issues.
“For decades, they’ve been stuck in the same tired debates over education that have crippled our progress and left schools and parents to fend for themselves,” he said of policymakers in Washington. “It’s been Democrat versus Republican, vouchers versus the status quo, more money versus more reform. There’s partisanship and there’s bickering, but there’s no understanding that both sides have good ideas that we’ll need to implement if we hope to make the changes our children need.”
In arguing how he would move the debate forward, Sen. Obama listed the pieces of his education platform that have been in place since voters started casting ballots in the primaries. In addition to recruiting and training new teachers, Sen. Obama would experiment with new ways of paying them. He also would seek to spend $10 billion a year to expand access to prekindergarten programs, and he would create $4,000 tax credits for college tuition.
The Democratic nominee said he would aim to change the federal No Child Left Behind Act to improve the quality of tests and the way the law holds schools accountable for student performance. The senator also said he would fully fund the law, which is something that Democrats in Congress have long said President Bush has failed to do. In the current fiscal year, the nclb law’s programs are receiving $24.7 billion—or $14.7 billion less than the law authorizes for spending on them.
In Ohio, Sen. Obama added one new piece to his plan with his promise to double the funding for the federal program that supports the development and expansion of charter schools, which are publicly funded but operate independently. The program now receives $200 million a year.
Although a fresh addition to Mr. Obama’s agenda, the proposal wasn’t surprising, Mr. Gordon said. Sen. Obama has been a supporter of charter schools in his hometown of Chicago and has mentioned his support for them in speeches throughout the campaign.
Embracing Choice
The proposed new level of support for charters also appeared to be an attempt to counter the emphasis Sen. McCain put on school choice in his Sept. 4 acceptance speech.
But it was an incomplete response, said one policy analyst who supports programs that allow parents to choose among public and private schools.
“Charter schools are not full choice,” said Lance T. Izumi, the senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute, a Sacramento, Calif., think tank. “There are still things that block charter schools from forming.”
Sen. McCain’s extended remarks on school choice, which constituted one of the most detailed policy discussions in his acceptance speech, deviated slightly from the campaign proposals he had outlined in earlier speeches and policy papers.
In those statements, the Republican nominee’s only mention of school choice was his support for expanding the 4-year-old federal pilot project offering vouchers for District of Columbia students to use at private schools.
“I think he does want school choice for everybody in this country, but where he can implement school choice broadly is primarily in the District of Columbia,” Mr. Hickok said.
Even though Sen. McCain’s convention speech implied he would offer broader choices than his policy positions suggest, Mr. Izumi said the issue deserved the amount of time Sen. McCain gave it because it was an example of his promise to scale back the government’s role in people’s lives. “It fit into his whole campaign theme of trying to bypass the government elites and to reach out to the common person,” Mr. Izumi said.
To deliver on the promise of school choice, Mr. Izumi added, Sen. McCain will need to produce a detailed explanation of the policies he would pursue. “He needs to assure people that he’ll have a practical plan at some point,” he said.
Although the profile of education in the 2008 campaign rose last week—even if only briefly—neither candidate has addressed the most significant issues facing federal education policy, said Chester E. Finn Jr., the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington-based think tank that supports standards and accountability.
NCLB Focus Sought
The next president must negotiate ways to solve the current problems with the nclb law, which requires states to assess students in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school, and requires states to intervene in schools that aren’t on track to reach the goal that all students be proficient in those subjects by the end of the 2013-14 school year.
“Everybody would like to talk about the wonderful way they could make education better,” said Mr. Finn, a former assistant secretary of education under President Reagan.
But, he said, neither candidate’s education plans address how to improve the rigor of states’ standards, how to improve interventions in schools that aren’t meeting the law’s goals, how to ensure that all classrooms have highly qualified teachers, and several other issues that have been difficult to implement under the bipartisan, 6½-year-old law, which was one of President Bush’s biggest domestic-policy initiatives.
With the law overdue for reauthorization, the next president needs to have a concrete plan to solve those problems, Mr. Finn said.
“It would be irresponsible not to,” he said. “These, after all, are the programs through which the lion’s share of federal money for education flows.”
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