The Year in Review and The Year Ahead

It was a great year for NCTAF - steps were taken towards moving our nation's education system into the 21st century...

-NCTAF and Bob Wehling released the book Building a 21st Century Education System, which provided policymakers and practitioners with recommendations towards changing the factory-era education model.
-We challenged our state partners to go deeper with the KnowledgeWorks "Map of Future Forces," resulting in cutting-edge initiatives in with our state partners like South Carolina and West Virginia.
-NCTAF addressed "The Future of Teaching" in four MetLife Foundation forums that called attention to the most pressing issues in teaching quality in Georgia, Colorado, Massachusetts and Oregon.
-We held our largest symposium to date, which opened with a challenge and call to action from Education & Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-CA) and former Secretary of Education Richard Riley.
-NCTAF partnered with Georgia State University and Wachovia Foundation to develop a model for induction of new teachers with outcomes that included higher retention rates and increased student achievement.
-We continued to raise awareness by placing op-eds and opinion pieces in Education Week and USA Today.

...there is so much more to highlight from 2008. But there is even more work to be done in 2009. We must urge our nation's education leaders and stakeholders to come together to work to ensure that every child has a caring, qualified teacher in the classroom. We must work together to create schools that are genuine learning organizations, close the gap between teacher preparation and practice, provide teachers with careers that reward collaboration & expertise, and develop assessments where educators are held collectively accountable for improving student achievement.

We hope you will join us in our pledge on what matters most for student learning: quality teaching in schools organized for success.

We Want Your Ideas: Education Stimulus Package

"Why are we bailing out Wall Street and not our nation's public schools and colleges? Partly because the crisis in financial capital is immediate while our human capital crisis is unfolding gradually. Headlines scream what's happening to our money but not to our kids."

-Robert Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor

We can't afford NOT to invest in our nation's education system. NCTAF still wants to hear your ideas on an Education Stimulus Package. Briefly share your ideas – two or three paragraphs – that explain the concept, its rationale, benefits, and approximate cost. And then join your colleagues across the country in a dialogue about how we can make this happen...Time is running out.

An Education Stimulus Package?

Could a National Education Stimulus Package help us create the schools we need to meet the needs of 21st Century learners?

Across the country significant school improvement initiatives may be shelved or cut as a result of drastic tax revenue and education funding shortfalls. If an education stimulus package were to be enacted, which of these initiatives are of the highest priority? How could they be quickly implemented or scaled-up, and how much would they cost?

Looking beyond the need to fix the schools we have, how can we create the schools we need? How can we transform schools into genuine learning organizations that develop students who are ready for successful participation in a 21st century economy and a complex world?

If you could create an education stimulus initiative, what would it be? Think expansively. How would you apply a rapid infusion of education funding? Your stimulus ideas should be accelerators that generate jobs in education that can significantly improve the participation of students in college, work, and community affairs. It should be possible to ramp your ideas up quickly – within two years - with large-scale investments that produce near-term benefits that will be sustained over time.

Briefly share your ideas – two or three paragraphs – that explain the concept, its rationale, benefits, and approximate cost. And then join your colleagues across the country in a dialogue about how we can make this happen.