State Of The Union 2011: Obama's Education Reform Agenda

In his State of the Union address, President Obama padded his call for education reform at this critical juncture by imploring Americans to think back 50 years when the Soviets beat the U.S. to space with their Sputnik satellite.

"But after investing in better research and education, we didn't just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs. This is our generation's Sputnik moment."

It's not the first time Obama has used the Space Race metaphor or touted education issues as looming large.

In 2009, he set the goal of America leading the world in college degrees once again by 2020:

Obama also emphasized the need to support quality teachers because of the effect they have on student learning.

"Let's also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child's success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom. In South Korea, teachers are known as 'nation builders.' Here in America, it's time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones."

Education reform is an issue on which both parties have been able to find common understanding. In an op-ed earlier this month, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan previewed this sentiment, mainly regarding No Child Left Behind, which was up for reauthorization last night.

"On many issues, Democrats and Republicans agree, starting with the fact that no one likes how NCLB labels schools as failures, even when they are making broad gains. Parents, teachers, and lawmakers want a system that measures not just an arbitrary level of proficiency, but student growth and school progress in ways that better reflect the impact of a school and its teachers on student learning."

Republicans have also cited the need to find "common ground" with Democrats on education issues.

This past year, Obama has received disapproval on some of his education reform accomplishments, including criticism that Race to the Top was flawed by basing federal funding on competition versus need. The Teachers Union was also critical of the last rewrite of No Child Left Behind, saying it gave teachers responsibility but no authority.

So far, Obama has followed through on 11 of his 48 education promises and made progress on 24, according to PolitiFact.

Comments

[notlieutishia]

03:34 AM on 03/05/2011

I still think that smaller classrooms are the answer. We can only know what a child needs if we can work with him/her one on one. Bad teachers come because administrations don't take the time to observe and give direction, or take the time to get rid of them. I have seen too many bad teachers who were already in the system for ten years or more. Most Boards of Education only want warm bodies who can keep the kids quiet and out of their hair. I brought a child up five grade levels in reading once in only two years because I gave him fifteen minutes a day. That child was in Special Education because he'd already been in school three years without knowing his phonics. One word was the key and he caught on and read even simple books again and again. I motivated that child and it was like a miracle took place before my eyes. You have to spend time and money to create those miracles. I bought and borrowed books as he begged for more. He eventually tested out of SpEd. Teaching Math is fun if you have the materials, but the average teacher can't keep buying them. I knew how to read before entering school because my parents taught me. I love to learn to this day, but it took caring parents and caring teachers to lead me. Time, money, and dedication are the answers. All three are hard to come by.

[Ring of Doom]

11:24 PM on 01/26/2011

Did the education push after Sputnik really lead to the moon landing? The culmination - the moon landing - was only 12 years later. We responded very quickly to Sputnik with our own lauch - and Glenn was in space soon after Gagarin. I think it was focus by existing smart people and the providing of resources to them that got us to the moon. More science and math for 6th graders couldn't have yielded results so quickly. That's just an obvious fiction. After Sputnik, we gave Werner Von Braun the resources and assistance he needed - that was how we caught up with the soviets.

[teacher39years]

08:29 AM on 01/27/2011

Excellent point. Fanned and Faved.

[Angie Sullivan]

11:13 PM on 01/26/2011

I believe in education. I believe in students. I believe that I make a difference as a teacher.

I just listened to the newly elected Republican governor of Nevada as he said with a straight face that he created a budget that would massacre education in our state. $300 per student less, in a state already spending less than every other state in American. The students are left bleeding and we are labeled as failing AGAIN and AGAIN. I wonder why we fail? Cut off our arms and legs next and measure how we walk. Take a pound of flesh from my heart and see if I can come back to life. What else do I have to give to make you see the public schools are important?

[novabird]

09:17 AM on 01/27/2011

Despite all the talk, education and students are really not on the agenda.

What is really important are dollars. When enough public schools fail corporations will take over education, experienced teachers will be fired and replaced by well educated, low paid workers from third world countries and our students will be taught curriculum developed by big business and evaluated by standardized tests.

Students who survive this deliberately dumbed down, so-called education are suited only for the most menial of work, which creates an excellent pool of cheap labour for big business.

[logic-a-go-go]

10:45 PM on 01/26/2011

We all need to keep a sharp eye on the corporate agenda that is permeating education. The CEOs such as Gates, etc., see the dollar signs. Voice out!

[katieandtom]

09:49 PM on 01/26/2011

you are such a FOOL obama!!! sure education sounds great, we all want better education, we all want more education, we all want a quality education for all children - but our school district is cutting $110 million from the educational budget due to decreased tax revenue - closing schools, stopping busing for magnet schools, letting teachers go, discontinuing state subsidized prek for at risk children -

you are such a fool obama - get america back to work and we can utilize the tax revenue to bump up our educational programs.

[Paulb10486]

10:33 PM on 01/26/2011

i think youre more of the fool for actually believing that the president of the united states doesnt know that already

[teacher39years]

09:14 PM on 01/26/2011

As usual, Valerie Strauss had a great synopsis of Obama's Speech.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/poverty/obamas-stran-faulty-educationge.html

[genrel1248]

08:27 PM on 01/26/2011

He has to pitch it as a no brainer cuz the amurcin sheeple gots no brains.

[teacher39years]

08:12 PM on 01/26/2011

I haved been hearing the same themes over and over again since Federal "Reform" started in the 1980's. Things have gotten worse, not better, since then.

http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/features/hottopics/opinion/451950/Why_US_school_reform_isn_t_working.html

[teacher39years]

08:21 PM on 01/26/2011

Sorry about the typo. I meant have not haved.

http://www.america-tomorrow.com/bracey/EDDRA/EDDRA8.htm

http://www.azsba.org/static/index.cfm?contentID=121

[PoliticalRockChick]

06:03 PM on 01/26/2011

You guys over at HuffPost call yourself journalist when you have an Education section and have not even mentioned the story on the Ohio mom Kelly Williams-B olar:

http://abc news.go.co m/US/ohio- mom-jailed -sending-k ids-school -district/ story?id=1 2763654

Her father was paying taxes in that district.

[eric14]

05:56 PM on 01/26/2011

Where is the money? Rich elite under-taxed and talk is of education reform? Try tax reform.

Where do new ideas come from? The market economy which is destroying the planet. Great.

[umbrarchist]

05:36 PM on 01/26/2011

Why don't we try killing two birds with one stone? Do reading and science. Plenty of science fiction from the days of Sputnik contains ideas that plenty of kids don't encounter until college. "A Fall of Moon Dust" by Arthur C. Clarke mentions Plato's allegory of the cave even though it is about a rescue mission on the Moon. You have to be careful giving post-70s sci-fi to grade school kids though. Things have gotten much more sexually explicit since the 60s.

But some of the olde-time SF has gotten real cheap due to space technology.

All Day September, by Roger Kuykendall
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24161/24161-h/24161-h.htm

Wait! Water on the Moon? Didn't NASA bomb the Moon for water in 2009? LOL.

[deebles]

08:49 PM on 01/26/2011

I tried to fan you but I think I did it wrong. I remember Sputnik--I was worried about the dog. So, I'm too old for all these bells and whistles. But, I love anyone who mentions Clarke, Plato and Kuykendall in the same comment. Science Fiction is how smart people can write about today and not offend the sensibilities. I grew up with SF. And I agree nothing teaches like reading SF. I learned history from Poul Anderson. Can you imagine a kid today knowing that the one thing that could change everything was to kill Scipio Africanus? I learned humanities from Assimov and Shakespeare. He was the greatest Shakespeare scholar. I learned religion from The Earth Abides. King used it to write The Stand and I used it to learn pupose. The Forever War, The Last Battleship, Stranger in a Strange Land and Hyperion. That's about all you need. And that dog did die.

[Eric Mann]

05:18 PM on 01/26/2011

Obama plainly said "this starts at home" and "next to the parents, the teachers have the most influence." FAMILIES need to move forward before us teachers can do much. Not nothing, but much. In China, for example, the kid is beaten to an inch of his life if he fails in school. Not that I agree with that strictness, but you get the idea. Some kids have families that value education not just in word, but in deed. Maybe its time for those people to become the teachers of other parents about how to do it.

[katieandtom]

09:51 PM on 01/26/2011

private school.....its worth every penny and worth every bit of sacrifice.

[logic-a-go-go]

10:49 PM on 01/26/2011

And most Americans can't afford private schools no matter how much they try. Instead, let's make our public schools outstanding again. Here's a novel idea: Fund schools appropriately. Quit cutting taxes so we can provide a decent education to ALL American kids. This is patriotism at its finest.

[jwalker13]

04:59 PM on 01/26/2011

Instead of assuming teachers must be erring, we need to consider our system. We churn out as many people as humanly possible with a cookie cutter educational system that forces the student into a set form. This ignores individualized learning styles, specialized interests, and the role of the parent on education.

We can continue to throw more money at lower education, but it won't fix the system. It will merely fund some schools (likely those already steeped in funding) while ignoring the systemic cause. Our system is flawed, not everyone is interested by or wants to invest in a specific subject area outside of generalist gradeschool education. If we're going to be a nation obsessed with the individual, then let's really allow for it with specialized subject pools of greater areas of interest much like colleges do and let's implement this after grade school. I believe we'd be impressed with what happens when we allow those interested in sciences to start early with their love instead of allowing a handful of "elective" hours.

And instead of trying to standardize the courses they must take, standardize the courses allowed for their choosing.

[MG Metiva]

04:04 PM on 01/26/2011

Without the intercity problems solved, the education reform will just get the rich richer and the poor poorer after the Education Reform.

[Sarim Ngo]

03:23 PM on 01/26/2011

The Campaign for High School Equity (CHSE), a coalition of leading civil rights organizations, applauds President Obama for putting education front-and-center on the national agenda in his State of the Union Address last night. He is right on the money in calling for meaningful public education or else we will have another Sputnik moment and be surpassed by the rest of the world. Without vigorous federal leadership and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, our nation’s schools will be ill-prepared to provide every student with the high-quality education needed to succeed and compete in the global economy. President Obama asked Congress to swiftly revamp current federal education policy, but to be effective; we must engage communities of color from the start of the reform implementation process. Since students of color represent the fastest growing population in many of the nation’s largest school districts, these students must succeed in the classroom for the nation to create the highly skilled workforce necessary to ensure the nation’s future prosperity.

The choices we make today will determine the future of the young people in whose hands we will place America’s prosperity tomorrow. For more information about what’s needed to effectively transform our education system so students will thrive in the 21st century workplace, read http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/education/139421-investing-in-tomorrows-workforce

(On Behalf of the Campaign for High School Equity)
-Sarim Ngo