The future belongs to those who best educate their young people. And right now, America has fallen behind. We know that education is key to winning the future and that, in order to compete, we need to challenge ourselves to improve educational outcomes. The countries that best educate their children will be the ones that win in the global marketplace.
This week, hundreds of educators, policy makers, business and community leaders are gathering in Washington, D.C. to discuss this challenge and the way forward. The three-day Building a Grad Nation Summit aims to inspire a national movement to reach the goal of a 90 percent national graduation rate by 2020. With this goal comes the imperative to not just get our students across the stage at graduation, but to ensure those graduates are prepared for future education and 21st century careers.
The single most important factor in supporting that type of student success is the teacher in their classroom. That's why the president's Budget proposes an investment of $100 million to prepare science and math, engineering and technology (STEM) teachers and devotes $80 million to expand promising and effective models of teacher preparation, which will help train 10,000 more effective STEM teachers per year. Additionally, the plan invests $20 million in research that will improve our understanding of how to best recruit and prepare new teachers and retrain current teachers.
Recent results from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that too few of our students demonstrate real proficiency in science -- a subject vital to sparking innovation and ensuring our future competitiveness. The OECD Program for International Student Assessment also found America's educational performance is lagging. While 10 percent of American students perform at the highest levels in reading, twice as many in Shanghai do. And although American students have improved, so have students in other countries -- leaving us ranked 17th in science and 25th in math, far behind countries like China and Korea.
There's a clear link between education and prosperity. The White House Council of Economic Advisors found education was responsible for up to one-third of the productivity growth in the United States from the 1950s to the 1990s. And a McKinsey & Company study concluded that raising U.S. educational achievement levels to those of better-performing nations like Finland and Korea would have lifted our 2008 GDP by 9 to 16 percent.
Looking forward, over the next ten years half of all new jobs will require postsecondary education, and half of today's thirty fastest growing job opportunities require at least a 4-year college degree. Make no mistake, those jobs will be filled -- the question is whether they will be in the United States or elsewhere.
These warning signs all point to the same conclusion: Our prosperity, America's standing in the world and our ability to grow our economy all rise or fall on the quality of education we provide. We simply can't afford to remain in the middle of the pack. So we must be bold, and we must do what's necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.
Education reform is an area where all parties can work together. President Obama, Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress and state houses across the country can make high school graduation and college and career-readiness a top priority. The Obama Administration has already supported state-led efforts, including the Race to the Top competition, to bring together teachers' unions, state school chiefs, the business community, and political and community leaders to spur reform.
But government can't shoulder this challenge alone. That's why over 100 companies, including AT&T, have answered the president's call to action to strengthen STEM education. Through public-private partnerships such as Change the Equation, a new non-profit established by the business community, we can invest in what works and scale up successful STEM programs across the country. AT&T has made the reduction of dropout rates a major focus for its philanthropic efforts through its $100 million AT&T Aspire program -- as have other businesses who recognize that quality education is critical for economic growth.
America can reverse the course to out-educate the world and win the future. We need to confront the challenges and build on the strengths of our education system. Key to that effort will be turning around low-performing schools; building accountability while supporting teachers and giving them the flexibility to spark creativity; placing greater emphasis on critical thinking and collaborative problem solving -- critical skills for tomorrow's workforce; and most important, we must direct resources where they make the most difference and tie them to needed reforms.
The educational successes seen in other countries are achievable here. Schools and communities have demonstrated the importance of a standard of excellence for teachers and students, the value of a more rigorous and engaging curriculum, and the importance of making education a data-driven enterprise to measure progress and mobilize entire communities.
We're making progress, but there's more we need to do. In his State of the Union, President Obama called this is our generation's "Sputnik moment." He couldn't be more right. After our original Sputnik moment more than 50 years ago, bold goals were set, resources were committed and a vital partnership with the private sector was forged. Every level of society was engaged, and public opinion stayed focused and held politicians accountable. The question now is: What will we make of our new Sputnik moment in education? Will we mobilize our nation to make a quality education a priority?
The answer is -- we must. We can't let other nations "out-educate" us today and "out-compete" us tomorrow. Working together, we can transform our schools and once again lead the world in education.
Melody Barnes is President Obama's Domestic Policy Adviser and the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, which coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House. Randall Stephenson is Chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc. Under his leadership, AT&T announced AT&T Aspire, a $100 million philanthropic program to help strengthen student success and workforce readiness.
Justin Snider: How the U.S. Education System Looks to a Leading Expert Abroad
Yes, get ready because the privatization of schools is well under way. The Shock Doctrine ( everyone must read)- create a crisis then move in and do something radical because the people are more apt to accept something if it is in "crisis".
Soon everything for profit, even your military ( Blackwater anyone?).
Groundwater is considered to be nature's hidden treasure because it is a vital resource that couldn't be seen. Here is a link to show you how we sourced groundwater from the air in the infrared spectrum. http://www.thermoguy.com/groundwater.html
The entire United Nation's Members are blind to temperatures discussed on energy reduction, they need to see what it looks like to achieve objectives.
And perhaps instead of intervention and pricey programs of the government, think tanks, and corporations....how about we allow teachers to make a difference, unencumbered? And maybe we ask students their opinions too. Just a thought.... my blog http://3rseduc.blogspot.com
So Obama has decided to blame our economic problems, not on bankers and not on banking deregulation, but on kid's and teachers.
By blaming kid's Obama is able to justify H-1b work visas. And by blaming teachers he is able to defend Wall Street.
Once they have privatized education, they are going to go for Social Security, Medicare, police, water services, fire services, Military ( already starting with groups like Blackwater) basically everything your government does will be turned over to companies "for profit".
Don't say you weren't warned.
Say you run a company. You have 100 employees. You train them to do certain jobs. Lets say it was doing the same thing to make it easy. Ok, now 30 of them don't pay attention, 20 of them just keep telling you they don't understand the way you are showing them. You try different ways, they still don't get it. 30 of them are habitually absent from work. 15% of them actually disrespect you, tell you they don't care what you say and cause disruptions with other employees and are just a general distraction. 50% have IQ's below 100 ( the average). You have rules about absenteeism and behavior but nothing you do seems to matter.
Of course, you would fire them. Teachers can't. Imagine if you couldn't fire them and had to deal with all of those employees as is and your job depended on them learning that skill you are teaching. THAT is the difference.
your analogy is WRONG dude.
Students are NOT employees...They are your customers as well as the products.... Teachers are the Employees....get your analogy correct.
Second, my analogy is spot on.
I have to LOL because what I said completely ( deliberately?) went over your head. Pretend you don't get what I said ( I believe you do). It is crystal clear. If you ran a business where you had employees who acted like this and COULDN'T fire them, you now know what it is like for a teacher.
Where in the business world would you start with all manner of raw materials and expect to produce the same shiny finished product?
Arnie Duncan like Michelle Rhee are not interested in making education better IMO. They are making it exponentially worse. Sadly, Obama, whom I voted for, seems to buy into their destructive ideas.
I have been watching the education debate for awhile and I am alarmed. I don't tell people what I really do for a living but suffice it to say I am highly intelligent and very successful in the private sector. That doesn't blind me to the real problems like it does so many of those I work with.
We even have a media openly pushing this agenda without hardly any scrutiny. It is appalling. I laugh when people say the media is liberal. I tell them, yes they are, on some issues when it suits the corporate interests but the media is owned by big business so all we get from them in propaganda that suits there interests, not ours. Mainly for conservative interests though. No doubt.
We are on a dark path to privatization of everything the govt currently does. A world "for profit" not of the people, by them or for them.
1. at Elementary and Middle school level ...stop hiring teachers who have Language, History and arts major. Even for attrition filling.
2. Start hiring Math and science graduates who had taken AP-English, AP-History and AP-Arts, AP-Government, AP-Psychology etc... int heir high school and gotten 4.0 or more.
At elementary and middle school level AP-level of English/arts/history is enough to teach the kids.
the teacher instead will be math teachers and science teachers who will inculcate a culture of math and science appreciation among children right form 1st grade.
If children have some free time these teachers 9instead of asking the kids to do stupid things like palm printing art or reading Junniebe Jones are something) will ask them to collect leaves and examine them, or throw a stone and teach them gravity or count by 2 and do multiplication or, swing on a swing and teach them pendulum....
This country has enough lawyers, artists, historians, linguist for the next 20 years.....We need more doctors, scientists, engineers, etc....
Otherwise we totally lose to China, India, Singapore or Korea.
Physicians are kept artificially low by not having enough Med Schools.
Corporations bring in foreign workers because they work for a pittance and drive down wages.
We need innovators and creative people more than ever.
Students should be well rounded in the liberal arts as well as the sciences.
All it takes is commitment and $$$$$s.
Those reforms are merely a beginning.