Education & the New Administration

After last week’s historic election, Washington is switching gears to focus on President-elect Obama’s transition to power and his plans once he is sworn in as the 44th president. The major issue on everyone’s minds these days is, of course, the economy. In this morning’s New York Times, Nicholas Kristof writes about the importance of focusing on education, even in these tough economic times. While we at NCTAF and Mr. Kristof may quibble about what exactly should be done to improve education, we could not agree more that education must be a high priority in the Obama administration. Improving the education of our nation’s youth will create adults who are college- and work-ready and able to compete in the global economy.

We hope that President Obama will focus on education as the way to bring sustainable, systemic change and to strengthen our nation’s workforce. Here are a few initiatives that Senator Obama has mentioned during his presidential campaign that we hope he will make a priority as president:

• Improving math and science education: Recruiting more college graduates with math and science degrees to teaching will strengthen the teaching force and deepen the content knowledge of our secondary teachers. In addition, we must strengthen our K-12 math and science curricula to ensure that students graduate from high school with the 21st century skills they will need in a rapidly changing workforce.
• Recruiting teachers: Creating incentives for teachers to teach in high-need schools and subjects will broaden the pool of teachers. Innovative compensation systems will also attract more people to the field and encourage them to grow as teachers. This is especially important in high-need urban and rural schools that struggle to attract the best teachers and whose students need the most support.
• Supporting Teacher Residency Programs: Teacher Residency programs in places like Boston and Chicago have shown strong promise as a way to prepare teachers. With retention rates in the 90% range (while the average 5-year teacher retention rate hovers around 50%), these programs provide teacher candidates with deep clinical experiences that allow them to become successful teachers.
• Supporting mentoring and collaboration: Expanding mentoring time and offering incentives to schools and districts to give common planning time to teachers will create stronger professional learning communities that are able to collaborate to improve education outcomes for students.
• Expanding the role of service and service learning: Creating a way for retirees to engage in service projects will create a cadre of experienced individuals who will bring expertise in their respective fields to improving their communities. An increased emphasis on service learning will allow K-12 students to apply their classroom knowledge in practical applications that also benefit their communities.

As NCTAF blog readers, do you agree that these are the most pressing education issues for President Obama in January? If not, what issues do you think should be his primary focus?