More Education + NY Times

Spot on commentary from Nick Kristoff. In case you're not the op-ed type here's a few key points:
The United States is the only country in the industrialized world where children are less likely to graduate from high school than their parents were, according to a new study by the Education Trust, an advocacy group based in Washington...

Professors [Claudia] Goldin and [Lawrence]Katz crunch the data and conclude that America’s edge in mass education was the crucial competitive advantage that allowed the United States to build wealth while reducing income inequality...

A study by the Hamilton Project, a public policy group at the Brookings Institution, outlines several steps to boost weak schools: end rigid requirements for teacher certification that impede hiring, make tenure more difficult to get so that ineffective teachers can be weeded out after three years on the job and award hefty bonuses to good teachers willing to teach in low-income areas. If we want outstanding, inspiring teachers in difficult classrooms, we’re going to have to pay much more — and it would be a bargain...

Long story, short: schools need to be a priority for President-elect Obama. A strong public school system is truly the foundation of our society - economically, civically, and morally speaking.

Comments

educationbyanymeansnecessary said…
That's cool, it sounds like the Hamilton Project and Malcolm Gladwell are saying a lot of the same things. I've done 8 years in the trenches of CA (much shallower I am the first to acknowledge than yours) and I'm the first to shout for merit pay and longer tenure trial periods. I'm pissed at our CA union for consistently blocking stipends for Title I school teachers and math/science stipends--look guys, if it were the SAME then why are there SHORTAGES? Morons. I was raised a dyed in the wool commie, (I took umbrage with your Obama school choice post, my mom sent me downtown to go to school because she didn't want me going to school with those "lilly white" kids in our university neighborhood where my dad worked--news flash-public schools are broken, and they have been for a long ass time--I'm hella old-36-that puts us at 30 flippin years of dealing with the same old s--- no reason to ruin two beautiful young girls' lives over it, you and me and the rest of your cohort are doing what needs to be done, grandstanding isn't going to make the difference you wish it would) but my point is, despite my upbringing I'm getting a little tired of my union. We don't make cars, we serve people, people in mostly desperate situations, they can't be so focused on us like what we're doing doesn't matter. Obviously, I need to start my own blog. I apologize. It's my first time reading anything like this.
December 23, 2008 at 3:43 AM
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