Skip to main content

Home/ ADMS707/ Group items tagged federal

Rss Feed Group items tagged

REL N

Jack Jennings: Get the Federal Government Out of Education? That Wasn't the Founding Fa... - 0 views

  • the answer isn't to eliminate federal involvement in education. That would be a wrong-headed move that ignores our country's history and would contribute to the decline of the United States. It's also a battle that has been fought and lost before because the stakes are simply too high.
  • Federal involvement began more than 225 years ago, even before George Washington was president, when Congress passed two laws -- the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 -- to create and maintain public schools in the expanding United States.
  • The specifics of federal land grants were outlined in each of the federal acts for admitting these states.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • the achievement gap narrowed between adolescent white and black students. And the percentage of children with disabilities who attended public school rose from only 20 percent in 1970 to 95 percent in 2007.
  • three-fourths of all college student aid comes from federal sources, whether through the tax code, direct grants or subsidized loans.
  • These indirect subsidies of education through the federal tax code total at least $21 billion for post-secondary education, and at least $17 billion for elementary and secondary education. These amounts are almost as significant as the direct grants made by the federal government to support education.
  • "Getting the federal government out of education" would endanger the progress made by -- among others -- children with disabilities, African-American children, and women and girls
  • The achievement gap between U.S. students and their international peers deprived the national economy of as much as $2.3 trillion in 2008, according to the McKinsey Quarterly.
  • How can the country raise academic achievement if 14,000 local school districts are each making their own decisions on most key aspects of education?
  • Over the course of American history, the national government has aimed to better educate the citizenry as a basis for democracy and economic prosperity. Today, our nation must act with greater, not less, unity to improve schools.
  •  
    Those who can afford to pay for all private K-12 and college expenses for their children may not care if the Federal government is involved in our education system. All the rest of the country needs to take heed and acknowledge the need for continued and expanded federal involvement. Without sounding flippant... do you suppose that those who might be leading the charge to get the Federal government out of education and make draconian cuts in social programs under the guise that tax burdens are too high and individualism trumps social justice are the same millionaires and billionaires who fund the tea party et al.? Sadly, the "regular folk" who are falling for that rhetoric do not recognize that they are paving their own way to..... [let's just say poverty].
REL N

Americans Support Federal Involvement in Education - 1 views

  • Forty-three percent of U.S. adults want the federal government to be more involved in education than it is currently and 20% want it to keep the same level of involvement,
  • Parents of school-aged children are particularly supportive of expanding the government's role in education, with 56% favoring more involvement.
  • Americans are, at a minimum, content with the current level of federal involvement in education. Still, views on this are highly partisan. Sixty percent of Republicans favor less federal involvement in education while 63% of Democrats want to see more. By 44% to 33%, independents tend to favor more involvement over less.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • 54% of Americans dissatisfied with the quality of K-12 education in the United States today, the highest Gallup has recorded since August 2000.
    • REL N
       
      More than 50% of Americans feel that the public school system is failing yet 80% of American parents are completely or somewhat satisfied with the quality of education their children are receiving.
  • By contrast, American parents have remained largely satisfied with the quality of education their own children are receiving. The 80% currently saying they are either completely (35%) or somewhat (45%) satisfied is the most positive assessment Gallup has measured since the question was first asked in 1999.
  •  
    "A combined 63% of Americans want the federal government's role in education either maintained at its current level or increased. The figure is 72% among parents of K-12 schoolchildren. The fact that a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the status of education today may give added support to an expanded federal role."
  •  
    Gallup poll results reported Sep-2010 r.e. role of the federal government in education.
  •  
    This surprised me. Interesting find...
REL N

Broken Promises: What the Federal Government Can Do To Improve American Education - Bro... - 0 views

  •  
    Ratvitch/Loveless identify 4 principles: (1) fix existing federal programs, (2) bring mandates in line with the revenues required to meet them (3) send federal education money to schools and not to support bureaucracies (4) resist the temptation to regulate curriculum, instruction, teachers etc
Georggetta Howie

Obama seeks to make No Child Left Behind more flexible - 1 views

  •  
    "Some Republicans are so skeptical of the federal role in education that they want to abolish the Education Department." Obama wants to replace the federal metric of adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, with more flexible measures that reward student growth. Yet it remains unclear how the government would force improvement of low-performing schools while getting out of the way of those that excel. Obama wants to replace the federal metric of adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, with more flexible measures that reward student growth. Yet it remains unclear how the government would force improvement of low-performing schools while getting out of the way of those that excel.
Georggetta Howie

Ed.gov take on Federal Govt Role in Education - 0 views

  •  
    I just wanted to see what would pop up when I Googled role of federal government in education. At the top of search list was link for ed.gov
Angela Winston

"The Equitable Powers of the Judge": The Conflict - 1 views

  •  
    Local (US District Court) vs. NCLB legislation (US Dept. of Education): A case study/policy analysis examining how federal law plays out on the local level. A school system in Richmond County, Georgia found difficulty implementing NCLB because of conflict between NCLB and school desegregation policy. This was the cause for the federal-local political disagreement.
mirabilecp

Federal Funding Cuts From This Week - 1 views

  •  
    Reading Was Fundamental.....The 8% that comprises the federal part looks like a lot of money right now...
Victoria Schnettler

Charter Schools: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education - 1 views

  •  
    From the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, a think tank, a group of researchers review the accessibility of data on charter schools and the federal government's recent push towards this growing trend.
REL N

House GOP Looks to Slash Education Spending - 2 views

  •  
    GOP proposes numerous cuts in federal education spending. Significantly reduces or eliminates programs that the President proposed in his recent State of the Union speech.
Roger Mancastroppa

For-Profit Schools: Large Schools and Schools that Specialize in Healthcare Are More Li... - 0 views

  •  
    In 2008-2009, nearly $24 billion in loans and grants went to about 2k for-profit schools under federal student aid programs. About 20 years ago there was some concern by the Fed that the schools were recruiting students not ready or capable for higher education. A lot of the students were not prepared for the jobs they were supposedly trained for and so they never got jobs in those areas. In turn many of them defaulted on their student loans. Congress put the 85/15 rule in place - meaning that the for profit schools would have to raise 15% of their student aid from other sources. That was reduced to 10% in the late 90s under Clinton.
REL N

Charles Kolb: Educational Success: America's New Industrial Policy - 1 views

  • And we need to approach our education investment as we approach infrastructure or industrial policy.
    • REL N
       
      NOOOO! We need to better define the type of success we can achieve given that individuals are in different places at different times in their lives. We need to support people where they are and help them move forward in areas and at a pace that is right for them. If a 16-year old is able to perform well in a college program then that is where s/he should be. If a student is gifted in math and abhors and does poorly in history, then we should nurture her/his strengths and stop holding them to their social grade level in math and wasting their time and their passion drilling them in history. Ultimately, they will be happier, more productive, and more willing to contribute to society in a math-related endeavor.
  • "define success up." Our new industrial and competitiveness policy as a nation should be focused relentlessly on those talented young children and adolescents who show educational promise. We should double, perhaps triple, federal, state, and private sector resources that support gifted-and-talented programs in our schools. We should nurture this talent the same way some institutions nurture athletic talent. This approach is not elitism; it is smart commonsense.
    • REL N
       
      Yeah... I think we all saw what happened when we had a leader who was proud of getting "C's" in college. And, then we are not really sure if a "C" actually meant a "D-" but was given to ensure social promotion. I would not go to a surgeon who either did not want to go to medical school or was not able to succeed in her/his training. That is not elitism. It is more than simply common sense. It is effective data-driven/evidence-based decision-making. A person might be terrific and funny and caring (and perhaps rich and attractive too) but they should not be given a role beyond their knowledge and capabilities.
  • If such an exam cannot be developed within six months, then perhaps we really have wasted a lot of time over the last 30 years. Algebra in New Hampshire is not different from algebra in California. Reading skills and reading-level assessments should be the same in each state. Grammar doesn't vary across state borders, and gravity tends to work the same way everywhere. The governors are well-positioned to lead a national discussion about what our high school graduates should know and be able to do -- and then devise a test that measures the success of our young people in mastering what they need to know to be successful. The National Governors Association is already doing excellent work in this area -- but it has to move faster.
    • REL N
       
      f we stopped the gaming in elementary and middle school testing and relied on the teachers and administrators to implement effective local testing and take appropriate actions to ensure learning, we would have more resources (time, money, people) to develop appropriate and resonable assessments at the high school level. These must be based on higher order thinking and include essays, video-taped dialogues/presentations, and some simple answer tests. The evaluation should be done by humans outside the local area and care must be taken to ensure inter-rater reliability. This is done in other countries as well as in the states with the IB diploma programme. It is do-able and the graduates will be well prepared and confident that they can move forward. Our initial pass rates may not be as high as we would like, and we need to be prepared to accept that some students may take more than 12 years or choose to take a less rigorous set of exams; however, we will have a higher level of success overall and our students will be much better prepared as citizens and workers.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • We need to change our approach from preventing failure to promoting success.
  • In late December 2010, the Education Trust reported that nearly 25 percent of high school graduates taking the U.S. Army entrance exam cannot answer basic questions in math, science, and reading. Some of the questions were pretty basic: "If 2 plus x equals 4, what is the value of x?"
  • all children can learn, not all children are ready to learn at the same time. If some of our classrooms have disruptive students, these students should attend other classes until they become serious about learning.
  • And finally, we should learn from the French, who for decades have had a baccalaureate exam that is a prerequisite for advancing to post-secondary education. In France, the "bac" exam is typically taken by 17- and 18-year-olds, but if a student fails the exam, he or she can take it again -- even later in life. The "bac" serves two purposes: it sets a standard for what French high school graduates know and can do, and it serves as a moment of consequence for French young people: they cannot move forward until they have proved their proficiency.
  • In several states, where testing has been adopted, we find large discrepancies between how the states report their children's performance on "No Child Left Behind" tests and the often much lower performance found by the objective National Assessment of Educational Progress.
  • resources we've squandered. We need a more tough-minded and focused approach that identifies, nurtures, and rewards success
  •  
    I'm not sure how I feel about this blog. Part of me says "Oh no!" while the other part says that we need to make education accessible but we would be better served to go with a more individualized approach. Right now it feels as though we often cater to the lowest common denominator which is not fair to anyone. Can we learn something from the operations concept of mass customization? Educators--feedback please!! I'd love to hear what your experience tells you r.e. these issues.
  •  
    I am intrigued if not in full agreement with this piece by Kolb. He makes good points about a national baccaulaureate exam...it's true, algebra is algebra, grammar is grammar, in all 50 states. Some of our colleagues would disagree that we need primarily focus on the best and the brightest and that those who are not ready to learn should be sequestered until they are (paraphrasing here). He says, "We really aren't serious as a nation when it comes to education," but I think that we are fast approaching a time when (I hope) it becomes a primary focus of our political debate (from Candy).
stephlennon

Beyond Access: An Analysis of the Influence of the E-Rate Program in Bridging the Digit... - 0 views

  •  
    This seems fitting as it deals with connectivity as a learning process and federal programs.
Phil Riddle

It May Be A Sputnik Moment, but Science Fairs Are Lagging - 0 views

  •  
    This article describes the disconnect between federal education policy focused on math and reading (and rote memorization in other subjects) and Obama's calls for greater emphasis on science education.
Roger Mancastroppa

School Administration in the Federal Republic of Germany and Its Implications for the U... - 0 views

  •  
    Germans do not use lay governance - This paper presents findings of a study that explored the governance and administration of elementary and secondary schools in Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. The sample included 12 Bavarian schools--3 each of the following 4 types of schools--elementary (Grundschulen) and secondary (Gymnasien, Realschulen, and Hauptschulen). Data were gathered from interviews with school principals or headmasters and some administrative staff, observation, and document analysis. Findings showed that the selection process for teachers in Germany is much more rigorous than in the United States. Principals are experienced classroom teachers with proven ability who continue to teach. In addition, the entire district apparatus is missing; there are no superintendents, lay boards of education, and so forth. Bavarian schools appear to function extremely well within a framework of fairly tight external control, while enjoying strong professionalism among educators and freedom from the micromanagement that all too often plagues their American counterparts. Findings underscore the need for fundamental and systemic reform in the United States; high student achievement must be preceded by advances in teacher professionalism.
Roger Mancastroppa

Federal, State, and Local Roles Supporting Alternative Education - 0 views

  •  
    This paper examines the roles that various levels of government play through legislation, policy, and other initiatives that support quality alternative education program store connect youth to education and the workplace ..It raises issues for policy makers at all levels to consider in facilitating the development of expanded alternative education pathways, which reduce the number of students dropping out of school and provide well-lit reentry points for those who leave school before obtaining a diploma.
Victoria Schnettler

First, Kill All the School Boards - 0 views

  •  
    An interesting, an extreme, point of view in the historical creation of school boards and the current desire to federalize programs for greater consistency in standards alleviating the need for school boards altogether.
  •  
    Extreme in every sense of the word, but especially after thinking about this issue over the week, I am not sure I disagree!
  •  
    Did you read the article on how the Germans form policy? Check out Professionalism & Receptivity to change?
Roger Mancastroppa

Aligned instructional policy and ambitious pedagogy: Exploring instructional reform fro... - 0 views

  •  
    The authors conduct a study to see how teachers actually implement teaching requirements when they are enacted through policy reform by federal, state and local leaders.
REL N

Education cuts coming, but fewer than GOP wanted - Washington Times - 1 views

  • Striving Readers, a program to boost literacy rates among middle- and high-school students, takes a $250 million hit,
  • some programs not only were spared but will get more money than the administration was looking for. The Teaching of Traditional American History, designed to help fund classes devoted to U.S. history, will lose $73 million from 2010 levels but will get $46 million more this year than the administration requested.
  • Adult education will be cut by $31 million
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • But the GOP is looking for bigger cuts and wants to reduce Pell Grant spending to “pre-stimulus levels,” cutting the annual federal allocation by about half while blaming Democrats for doubling the size of the program since Mr. Obama took office.
Georggetta Howie

Education Equality Webpage - 2 views

  •  
    Ed Equality is a great website of the latest information, videos, and new findings on education reform. It allows you to sign up and receive "daily news roundups". There are several signatories who include, Corey Booker the Mayor of Newark, NJ and Iris Chen; I have a Dream Foundation, CEO. Insightful, inspirational, and lots of resources!!
Roger Mancastroppa

A Battle Begun, Not Won - 0 views

  •  
    These discussions are interesting. Mr. Finn and company seem to only see things through a particular paradigm. It is surprising, but it is interesting.
1 - 20 of 36 Next ›
Showing 20 items per page