John Edwards - Restoring The Promise of America's Schools

by: EVale

Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 10:54:47 AM EDT

But more than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, we still have two school systems that are separate and unequal.  No longer legally separated by race, our children are sorted by economics, often with a racial or ethnic dimension. At the same time, our children are preparing for unprecedented global economic competition.

Follow the jump for new details being announced today...

John believes that for a child to succeed, they must start their education from an early age:

Offer Universal "Great Promise" Preschool to Four-Year-Olds: Edwards will provide resources to states to help them offer universal high-quality preschool programs for four-year-olds.  Great Promise programs will:

o Teach academic skills:  Preschool is much more than babysitting; it is a unique opportunity to teach children the skills they will need in school. Great Promise will help develop children's language abilities and introduce them to early math, reading, and other academic concepts, as well as help develop their social and emotional skills.

o Start in needy communities: The federal commitment will begin in low-income neighborhoods where schools are struggling and expand to serve more communities over time. 

o Be led by excellent teachers:  Research shows that the most effective preschool teachers have at least a bachelor's degree.  Lead teachers in Great Promise will have four-year college degrees and be paid commensurately.

o Involve parents and their families: Research shows that preschool benefits children the most when their parents are involved.  Parental involvement will be essential to Great Promise.

o Be voluntary and universally affordable: Participation would be fully voluntary for families. Tuition would be charged on a sliding scale based upon family income and waived for children from low-income families.

John believes we must also make sure that families have all the resources they need to be involved in all aspects of their kids lives:

Create National Smart Start: North Carolina's innovative Smart Start initiative promotes the healthy development of children under the age of five.  It helps local partnerships make child care higher quality and more affordable, provides health services and supports families. Participating children show better cognitive and language skills and fewer behavioral problems.  Edwards will help other states duplicate Smart Start programs, prioritizing children who are not served by other pre-K programs.  Smart Start will:

o Offer integrated services for young children: By linking together health care, child care, education, and family support services for children under five, Smart Start addresses all aspects of young children's development and helps them begin school healthy and ready to succeed. 

o Perform health care outreach: Smart Start makes it easier for young children to get screening for health problems related to hearing, speech, vision, dental, and learning disabilities.

o Sponsor home visits to new families:  Home visits improve prenatal health and the quality of caregiving after birth. Children receiving nurse visits are cognitively more advanced, have fewer behavioral problems, and are less likely to be abused or neglected. The Smart Start program will fund home visits by registered nurses to 50,000 low-income new parents. [AAP, 2004; RJWF, 2006; NFP, 2006]

Once we ensure that children are in school, John believes they deserve the best teachers possible:

Raise Pay by up to $15,000, more for Teachers in High-Poverty Schools: Two-thirds of states do not offer any incentives of any kind for teachers to work in high-poverty schools, and many veteran teachers choose to teach in other schools.  Edwards will fundamentally change teachers' incentives by helping states pay teachers in successful high-poverty schools as much as $15,000 more a year.  The $15,000 raise includes:

o $5,000 for all teachers in successful high-poverty schools: High-poverty schools with high academic performance, good student behavior, and high parent satisfaction could give up to $5,000 in bonuses to each of their teachers, encouraging a schoolwide culture of success.  Bonuses will grow over time to reward continuing success and give teachers an incentive to stay.  Successful schools will open their doors to share their experiences with other schools.

o $5,000 for teachers with national certification for excellence in high-poverty schools: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certifies excellent teachers, but few of these teachers teach in high-need schools.  Teachers who have demonstrated high effectiveness in a national process, such as National Board certification, will be eligible for the higher pay.

o $5,000 for veteran teachers who serve as mentors in high-poverty schools: Giving veteran teachers the opportunity to mentor new teachers creates opportunities for career advancement for longtime successful teachers, while providing much-needed guidance to new teachers. 

? Create a National Teacher University: While there are some successful education schools, many future teachers graduate without the skills and knowledge they need.  In one survey, more than 60 percent of graduates said their education school did not prepare them.  Because having great teachers is a national priority, Edwards will create a national teachers' university - a West Point for teachers - to recruit 1,000 top college students a year, train them to be excellent teachers, and encourage them to teach where they are needed most.  The school will waive tuition for students who go on to teach in schools and subject areas facing shortages.  It will also lead improvements at education schools nationwide by developing and sharing model curriculum and practices and serve as a forum to promote shared certification and licensing requirements across states. [Levine, 2006]

? Help Teachers in Their Early Years: A third of all new teachers leave the profession within three years. Students in high-poverty and high-minority schools are twice as likely as other students to be taught by inexperienced teachers.  Edwards will help states support teachers during their early years.  He will encourage a transition year for rookie teachers with smaller class sizes, reduced teaching loads, and minimal extra duties.  Resources will support structured mentoring programs pairing new teachers with successful veterans.  Finally, he will support professional development based in actual classroom needs. [Ingersoll, 2003; Ed Trust, 2007; Levine, 2006; NCATF, 2006]

? Reduce Class Sizes: Smaller classes help students learn more by allowing them to get more individualized attention from teachers.  According to a Tennessee study, young students in small classes are less likely to drop out of school and more likely to graduate on time, complete more advanced math and English courses, and receive honors.  Poor and African-American students gain the most from smaller classes.  Edwards will dedicate federal resources to reduce class sizes, particularly for young children who are learning below grade levels.  [Krueger and Whitmore, 2001, 2002; Smith, Molnar, and Zahorik, 2003; U.S. Department of Education, 2000]

In addition to the best teachers, John believes that all schools need to have the resources they need:

? Overhaul No Child Left Behind: The law must be radically changed to live up to its goal of helping all children learn at high levels, accurately identifying struggling schools, and improving them.  Its sole reliance on standardized, primarily multiple choice reading and math tests has led schools to narrow the curriculum.  Its methodology for identifying failing school can be arbitrary and unfair.  And it imposes mandatory, cookie-cutter reforms on these schools without any evidence they work.  Edwards supports:

o Better tests: Rather than requiring students to take cheap standardized tests, Edwards believes that we must invest in the development of higher-quality assessments that measure higher-order thinking skills, including open-ended essays, oral examinations, and projects and experiments.

o Broader measures of school success: Edwards believes that the law should consider additional measures of academic performance.  The law should also allow states to track the growth of students over time, rather than only counting the number of students who clear an arbitrary bar, and give more flexibility to small rural schools.

o More flexibility: Edwards will give states more flexibility by distinguishing between schools where many children are failing and those where a particular group is falling behind.  He will also let states implement their own reforms in underperforming schools when there is good reason to believe that they will be at least equally effective.

? Launch a "Great Schools" Initiative to Build and Expand 1,000 Successful Schools: Across America, there are public schools that are helping children from all backgrounds succeed, including traditional public schools, public charter schools, small schools, and other models.  Edwards will help 250 schools a year expand or start new branches.  Federal funds will support new buildings, excellent teachers, and other needs.  Among the schools he will support are: 

o Small schools: Small high schools create stronger communities, reducing adolescent anonymity and alienation and encouraging teachers to work together.  Some have achieved higher test scores and graduation rates: at 47 new small high schools recently opened in New York City, graduation rates are substantially higher than the citywide average.  Communities can establish multiple schools within an existing facility, build new schools, and reopen old facilities.  [Aspen Institute, 2001; N.Y. Times, 6/30/2007]

o Early college high schools: High schools on college campuses let students earn both a high school diploma and an associate's degree (or two years of transfer credit) in only five years.  In North Carolina, Governor Mike Easley's Learn and Earn initiative raises rigor and aspirations, reduces tuition costs, and relieves overcrowded college campuses.  [American Institutes for Research and SRI International, 2007; Easley, 2007]

o Economically integrated schools: While income diversity is not a substitute for racial diversity, low-income students perform best when in middle-class schools where they are more likely to have experienced teachers and classmates with high aspirations.  States can build magnet schools in low-income communities and create incentives for middle-class schools to enroll more low-income children. [Kahlenberg, 2007; Harris, 2006; NY Times, 7/15/05]

? Create a School Success Fund to Turn Around Struggling Schools: Improving our worst schools is going to take more than federal mandates of unproven remedies; it will require a serious commitment of resources.  A new School Success Fund will:

o Let experts design and implement reforms:  Based on North Carolina's successful reform, Edwards will ask teams of experienced educators to spend a year at struggling schools helping start reforms.  These educators will tailor comprehensive solutions to each school, rather than adopting silver bullets or one-size-fits-all solutions.

o Provide resources to implement them: Some schools need more resources to help their children succeed.  The School Success Fund will target resources to the neediest schools.  Resources will be available to recruit new school leadership and a core of excellent teachers, reduce class sizes, duplicate proven models, strengthen the curriculum, and other reforms.

o Emphasize extra learning time: Due to our 180-day school year, American children spend much less time in class than their foreign competitors.  Many other countries have 25 percent more instructional time, which adds up to more than two years by the end of high school.  When combined with making better use of learning time and designed with educators, longer school days and years create new opportunities for children to master the basics and a broader curriculum.  [ED in 08, 2007; Zimmerman, 1998; CAP, 2006]

o Establish stronger academic and career curricula:  The rigor of high school classes is the number-one predictor of college success.  Even students who do not go to college need strong math and reading skills in the workplace.  Edwards believes that all schools - even those in small, isolated, and high-poverty areas - should have access to challenging Advanced Placement courses.  And he will support partnerships between high schools and community colleges to help high school students get the training they need for the good jobs where skilled workers are in short supply today. [US Department of Education, 1997; ACT, 2006; ED in 08, 2007]

Some final key points in Johns' plan are:

? More Resources for Poor and Rural Schools:  Four out of five urban school districts studied nationally spend more on low-poverty schools than on high-poverty schools.  Rural schools enroll 40 percent of American children - including most children in Iowa, New Hampshire, and North Carolina - but receive only 22 percent of federal education funding.  Edwards will increase federal Title I funding and dedicate the increases to low-income schools and districts and rewarding states that distribute funding where it is needed most to increase learning.  He will also invest in distance education and cutting-edge software to bring the promise of new learning technologies to remote areas.  [NASBE, 2003; Rural School and Community Trust, 2007; Digital Promise, 2003]

? Meet the Promise of Special Education: More than thirty years ago, Congress promised to fund 40 percent of the excess cost of educating children with disabilities, but it provides less than half that amount and George Bush has proposed a $300 million cut.  Edwards opposes the Bush cuts and believes that Washington should get on a path to fully meet its commitment.  [Committee for Education Funding, 2007]

? Raise Graduation Rates: Almost a third of all students drop out of school before earning a high school diploma, and the rates among children of color or from low-income families are even higher.  At nearly 2,000 high schools nationwide - called "dropout factories" - more than 40 percent of students won't graduate.  Edwards will create multiple paths to graduation such as Second Chance schools for former dropouts and smaller alternative schools for at-risk students.  Edwards will also focus on identifying at-risk students early on and support the Striving Readers literacy program and one-on-one tutoring to keep them in school.  Edwards will also fund additional guidance counselors in high-poverty schools.  [Baron, 2005; Alliance for Excellent Education, 2007; Balfranz and Legters, 2004; NCES, 2004]

Phew, that was a long one but figured you guys would be interested!  Check out our  blog later for more details, and pics and video from the speech.

I'll be in and out throughout the day because going to events with Elizabeth, but as always welcome feedback and questions!