Teaching is not as popular as it used to be

A couple weeks ago the Des Moines Register ran a story about the decline in enrollment in education at Iowa's colleges and universities.

The pattern threatens to fuel teacher shortages in some subjects and toughen competition for top talent, officials say. Iowa is a longtime exporter of educators.

"People view teaching as something that is not really as rewarding as it used to be," said Judy Jeffrey, the state's top education official. "It's very troubling."

At the heart of Iowa's trend is an unprecedented dropoff in new elementary schoolteachers.

Candidates for teaching endorsements in elementary education have dropped by nearly a third since the 2003-04 school year, a new Iowa Department of Education report shows.

I see the cause of this is twofold.  One reason is the increased pressure to increase test scores due to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which was passed in 2001. The efforts by educators to increase test scores isn't always matched by parents in the community.  Many schools have cut the amount of time teaching art, music, science, and social studies in order to focus strictly on teaching reading and math because those are the subjects being tested. This creates a stressful and negative work environment where creativity is looked down upon because it might hurt test scores.

Second, teacher salaries remain low nationwide.  A teacher with their masters degree makes far less than other profession who have master's degree such as engineers, accountants, and lawyers.

Until teachers are seen as valued professionals in the community, fewer people will decide to go into the profession.

Loebsack’s 21st Century Green High Performing Public Schools legislation Passes

I heard Rep. Dave Loebsack speak in March and talked about trying to get a bill passed that would provide money for school modernization and green schools. He argued the bill would create jobs, create better learning environments for students, and save money in the long run. 

Last week, the bill finally passed.

Congressman Loebsack’s 21st Century Green High Performing Public Schools Act Will Provide $6.4 Billion in Funds to Repair and Modernize Schools

Green High Performing Public Schools Act Will Create and Save Jobs While Creating Long Term Cost Savings for our Schools

WASHINGTON DC – Today, the House Education and Labor Committee approved Congressman Dave Loebsack’s legislation to provide districts across the country with $6.4 billion for next year for school modernization and repair, increasing academic performance, cutting costs for our schools, and creating good paying jobs. Congressman Loebsack’s 21st Century Green High Performing Public Schools legislation provides $6.4 billion to improve and repair our schools, making them more energy efficient and cost effective. This legislation will help make America’s public school facilities more safe, healthy, energy-efficient and technologically advanced, while creating thousands of new jobs in construction and green industries. Modernizing school facilities have also proven to increase academic performance and will give our children hands-on learning in new and emerging energy industries.

“By modernizing our schools to make them more energy efficient we increase academic performance, student health, teacher retention, and cost savings for our schools. This legislation also comes at a critical time for our construction industries, which are losing jobs at an alarming rate,” said Congressman Loebsack. “Greening our schools creates and saves good paying jobs while improving student performance. I have been an advocate for Green Schools since I have been a Member of Congress, and I am pleased that my green provisions were included in this bill, giving us the tools we need to provide our children with a world class education in a safe, environmentally friendly learning environment.”

Because all students deserve to learn in safe, healthy, and up-to-date school facilities, Congressman Loebsack has been a champion of Green Schools since he was elected to Congress. Congressman Loebsack worked last Congress to pass this legislation with a bipartisan approval of 250-164. In re-introducing this legislation, the Congressman hopes the bill will once again be approved by the House and that it will also be approved by the Senate so that it can be signed into law.

“The quality of our classrooms has an immense impact on the quality of education our children receive,” noted Congressman Loebsack. “According to the Government Accountability Office, 79% of Iowa schools need to repair or upgrade their buildings and facilities. Our students deserve more from us. I will continue to work on behalf of Iowa’s children and I look forward to working with my colleagues to get this legislation signed into law so that we can provide improved learning environments for our students, create new jobs, spur local investment, and create long term cost savings for schools.”

Think Big

From an education blog I visit called Dangerously Irrelevant...

The time has come. We cannot wait anymore. For years, we have hidden behind our own small thoughts or let ourselves be held back by other small thinking people who don’t believe in us. Worse still, we have been rejected as marginal, unrealistic, dreamers, idealists, maybe even delusional. Family, friends, colleagues, and others (not to mention our own selves) have tried to negate us, eliminate us, and silence us. We will not stand for it anymore. We say – bring it on. Our personal revolution from small thinking to big thinking is now. We will make public our aim to think big about our goals, our intentions, and, yes, our dreams.

There’s more. We will collaborate, cooperate, and join forces with other big thinkers to bring about the larger revolution our society needs if it is to survive.

You want to think big. I want to think big. Together, we will think even bigger. [The Think Big Manifesto, p. 34]

This has many connections to politics. Now is not the time for small changes our nations problem. We must think big to come up with solutions. We must consider single-payer health care, we must consider cap and trade or a carbon tax, we must consider connecting our nation's biggest cities with a high speed rail network, we must expand broadband access to rural areas, we must reform education. Think big.

Precautions Being Taken in Marshall County as 39 Samples are Sent to be Tested for H1N1

Students in the Marshalltown Community School District were able to sleep this Monday morning, as precautions are being taken to protect children from getting H1N1 (Swine Flu).

The county had 6 probable cases, with 1 more in neighboring Tama County. However, 39 tests for H1N1 had been sent over the weekend to Iowa City to be tested.

From the Des Moines Register...

By Sunday, however, the remaining probable cases stood at seven, and six of them were in Marshall County. The seventh was in neighboring Tama County.None of the new illnesses was severe enough to require hospitalization, but the count could climb. Staff members at Marshalltown Medical and Surgical Center had swabbed the noses of another 39 sick people by midafternoon Sunday and had sent the samples off for testing.

Confirmation of the seven probable cases was awaiting the results of tests being performed by an overburdened federal lab in Atlanta. In the meantime, patients who appear to have the flu are being given anti-viral medications and told to rest at home.

Marshalltown Schools Superintendent Marvin Wade said he was optimistic that the suspension of classes would last only a week. He said the response to his decision seemed positive. "I think people are accepting of the fact that this step has been taken in order to protect the children and the rest of the community," he said.

He was unsure if the district would need to extend its school year to make up the missed days.

Teachers in the district have been told they may be going to back to work later in the week, if there aren't many more probable cases, but students are off through at least May 10th.

Staff at Marshalltown Medical and Surgical Center are taking numerous precautions as well.

The hospital has also set up an emergency flu clinic in a remote area of the facility and is moving up its protective access hospital-wide to Level 2, which will limit visitors to one immediate family member per patient. Access to the hospital is limited to the main entrance and the emergency room entrance.

Aside from the six probable tests sent from MMSC to the lab, five more new tests were sent Saturday and are pending results. Two other tests from MMSC have came back negative for the virus.

All visitors to the hospital will be screened and must complete a brief questionnaire before gaining access to the facility.

"These measures are being taken to protect everyone - the public, patients and staff," said La Rae Schelling, chief operating officer at MMSC.

**Update**
Radio Iowa is reporting that Marshalltown will have to make up the school days missed.

The Marshalltown School District has shut down all school buildings for this week after six probable cases of the H1N1 virus were discovered. While it's a public health emergency, Iowa Department of Education spokesperson, Elaine Watkins-Miller, says these aren't free days off for the kids.

Watkins-Miller says since they are shutting down all the schools in the district, they will have to make the days up to comply with the state law that requires 180 days of instruction. She says the district will have some options for making up the days. She says there are some options, but those missed days are typically added on to the end of the school year.

Marshalltown is scheduled to end the school year on June 11th. At a minimum, the district will miss 5 days of school due to H1N1, which would extend the school year to June 18th.

Summary of 2009 Legislative Session

I plan on writing some about the 2009 Legislative Session, but haven't had time.

Here's a great summary of the session that I found at Covering Iowa Politics.

BUDGET/BONDING: Lawmakers approved a fiscal 2010 general fund budget of $5.78 billion but added $500 million of federal stimulus help for total spending of $6.258 billion beginning July 1. That compared with a revised $6.11 billion for the current year and Gov. Chet Culver’s fiscal 2010 recommendation of $6.46 billion. Majority Democrats also approved Culver’s multi-year infrastructure bonding plan of $715 million and $115 million mostly for University of Iowa flood recovery. The bonds are funded from several sources, most notably about $50 million in annual gambling profits for 20 years. The proceeds are expected to finance hundreds of infrastructure projects and create at least 22,000 jobs.

DISASTER RECOVERY: Lawmakers tackled disaster recovery from many angles, offering tax abatement for property owners who improve damaged properties, authorizing the sale of bonds to finance infrastructure improvements and policy changes to requires cities to participate in programs to lower homeowners’ cost for flood insurance. Included in the relief was $45 million in bonds targeted to Cedar Rapids, the $56 million Jumpstart program to help homeowners and businesses and funding for the Rebuild Iowa Office to coordinate recovery efforts.

TAX POLICY: Despite bipartisan effort to raise the state gas tax, the effort was abandoned after Gov. Culver, who had expressed reservations, finally said he would veto it. Near the end of the session, majority Democrats rolled out a plan to lower taxes for nearly 60 percent of income taxpayers while holding another 14 percent harmless. The plan encountered vigorous opposition because it ended federal deductibility, a provision that allows Iowans to deduct what they pay in federal taxes from their state tax liability. Lawmakers did decide to cap business tax credits at $185 million a year and require more accountability for refund incentives. They also raised court fees by $16.7 million.

CONSUMER PROTECTION: Lawmakers expanded health care coverage for children with a goal of having virtually all kids covered by the end of 2010. They also expanded the ability of consumers to seek damages by bringing a private cause of action against fraudulent businesses. Iowa currently is the only state without that provision. They also beefed up efforts to prevent dependent adult abuse and strengthen the state’s response when allegations of potential mistreatment arise – action triggered by the Atalissa bunkhouse situation.

LABOR: Lawmakers gave state labor officials and county attorney more tools to prosecute employers who fail to pay employees or violate child labor law. Maximum civil penalties of $10,000 can be levied per child labor violation and child labor criminal penalties were increase from simple misdemeanors to serious misdemeanors. Also, civil penalties were increased from $100 to $500 per pay period for failing to pay an employee’s wages. The time span for collecting jobless benefits was doubled for Iowans laid off due to the economic downturn.

PUBLIC SAFETY: Lawmakers overhauled the state’s sex offender laws, scaling back a law that bans some offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or daycare. The bill establishes exclusionary zones around schools and other public areas where sex offenders are prohibited from visiting. Lawmakers also voted to create a statewide electronic database to track sales of pseudoephedrine, an ingredient found in cold medicine that is used to make illegal methamphetamine.

EDUCATION: Majority Democrats protected the commitment to raise teacher pay to the national average by using a share of $386 million in federal stimulus money to fully fund a 4 percent allowable growth for K-12 schools and provide nearly $280 million for salary compensation. Money prospects were less rosy for other educational sectors that face spending cuts due to budget constraints. A couple of perennial issues lawmakers have argued over will be around for a fresh debate next year. The lawmakers again could not agree to increase the compulsory school attendance age from 16 to 17. Neither did they agree to change the start date for schools to prohibit schools from beginning classes before the fourth Monday in August.

AGRICULTURE: Efforts to ban so-called “puppy mills” appeared to have failed until funding for an additional state department of agriculture inspector was included in the catch-all $2.7 billion standings bill. Opponents said the bill would unfairly restrict reputable dog-breeding operations. Lawmakers also moved to restrict the application of liquid manure on snow-covered fields and frozen ground to keep it out of waterways. They also made changes to the grain indemnity fund to address volatility in the ethanol production market.

ENVIRONMENT: Gov. Chet Culver’s bonding plan passed by lawmakers includes $25 million for watershed, water quality and soil conservation projects, as well as flood rebuilding and prevention. Another $55 million would go to sewer infrastructure needs, in an effort to improve Iowa’s water quality. Lawmakers also approved incentives for small wind energy projects and for producers of wind energy components that locate and expand in Iowa.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Lawmakers cut spending for the state’s top economic development program, the Iowa Values Fund, by $5 million next fiscal year to $45 million. The bonding plan would spend $12 million for the Community Attraction and Tourism program and other $10 million for river enhancement projects.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Procedural hurdles and top Democratic leaders kept lawmakers from considering a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman. The issue is guaranteed to resurface in the 2010 election-year session given that an Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage becomes effective next week. Several labor-backed changes that stalled this year are likely to resurface next year as well. Bicyclists likely will push a Senate-passed safety measure that stalled in the House. Likewise for a biodiesel mandate, expanded mental health insurance coverage and vehicle emission standards. Efforts to raise the state gas tax may rekindle next session but more likely in 2011.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan To Speak at UNI on Friday

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will speak at UNI on Friday at 11 am. The speech will be at Gallagher-Bluedorn and is free and open to the public.

Earlier this week, the Des Moines Register interviewed Duncan. Duncan emphasized the need for high quality teachers.

Q. The No Child Left Behind law sought to ensure teacher quality, but U.S. classrooms still have a mix of teachers in terms of effectiveness. What policy changes are needed at the federal level, and at other levels, to assure there's a great teacher in every classroom?

A. There are a number of things we have to do. We have a chance to recruit the next generation of great teachers into the classroom [because of the wave of baby boomers who will retire]. We need to bring the best and brightest around the country into teaching. We have to do a better job of supporting that great talent when it comes to teaching.


Q. Do teacher-education programs in general need to become more selective about which applicants they admit, both in terms of academic standing and the right personality?

A. Yes. I think many schools of education have to do that. [A strong teacher-education program must be sure it is] giving students the practical experience of working in classrooms. Some schools of education do an extraordinary job of making sure their education is relevant, and some are a little too distant from the reality of what is going on in classrooms.

I don't agree with Duncan on everything. However, I do agree that our education system needs to be reformed and am glad that Duncan and Obama are willing to get input from all sides on this issue.

Study Shows Stressful Childhoods Affects the Achievement Gap

Another reason all children need health care and we need to expand access to education for children and parents from age birth to 5.

From Wired...

Growing up poor isn't merely hard on kids. It might also be bad for their brains. A long-term study of cognitive development in lower- and middle-class students found strong links between childhood poverty, physiological stress and adult memory.

The findings support a neurobiological hypothesis for why impoverished children consistently fare worse than their middle-class counterparts in school, and eventually in life. [...]

"A plausible contributor to the income-achievement gap is working-memory impairment in lower-income adults caused by stress-related damage to the brain during childhood," they wrote.

To test their hypothesis, Evans and Schamberg analyzed the results of their earlier, long-term study of stress in 195 poor and middle-class Caucasian students, half male and half female. In that study, which found a direct link between poverty and stress, students' blood pressure and stress hormones were measured at 9 and 13 years old. At 17, their memory was tested.

Given a sequence of items to remember‚ teenagers who grew up in poverty remembered an average of 8.5 items. Those who were well-off during childhood remembered an average of 9.44 items. So-called working memory is considered a reliable indicator of reading, language and problem-solving ability — capacities critical for adult success.

When Evans and Schamberg controlled for birth weight, maternal education, parental marital status and parenting styles, the effect remained. When they mathematically adjusted for youthful stress levels, the difference disappeared.

Turning Schools into Community Centers

This sounds like a common sense idea.

From Future Majority...

Sec. of Education Arne Duncan appeared on the Charlie Rose show a couple weeks ago discussing how rethinking the use of our nation's schools could open up several doors to our communities.

Secretary Duncan outlines his vision of schools serving as "community centers," in which facilities are not limited to educating children during the day, but also holding functions at night to improve the community. Duncan points out that schools are one institution in our society that has a plethora of resources -- "classrooms, computer labs, libraries, gyms, and pools" -- and they're all the taxpayers'. Duncan also sees this effort not falling solely on educators' plates, but instead being pursued by a partnership of school officials and non-profits, especially the YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs. School officials would have class from 9-3 (or thereabouts, depending on the school system's schedule), with the partnership of non-profits coming in and running "academic, social, enrichment, and even medical services" from 3-9.

Century of the Common Iowan Turns 3 Years Old

I glanced at the clock and saw there was just 5 minutes till midnight. I had forgotten that Monday marked the 3rd birthday for Century of the Common Iowan and I only had 5 minutes to put up a post to sum up those 3 years. Yeah right.

Well here's what I got written in an hour...

As I look back, it is interesting how the focus of the blog has evolved over those years. In the blogs first year I wrote a lot about issues such as the rising cost of college tuition and Iowa's Brain Drain, immigration, and the need for a trade policy that protects American jobs. Year two was all about the Iowa caucuses. The following year I was able to sit back and watch the primaries play out and lead up to the general election. With the 2008 elections behind us, I have been able to write more about policies and topics such as the emergence of Millennials, social media, education, and the need to invest in a creative economy.

3 years, 2,226 posts, and over 132,000 visitors later and here we are in the best of times, in the worst of times. Our current economic and political situation find us in a situation where remarkable change can take place (and if it doesn't, it's because we didn't make them do it) . It is time for big ideas. In the coming year I hope to focus on the big ideas that desmoinesdem laid out that I wrote about last month.

• Clean elections
• Promoting clean energy solutions
• Local control of hog confinements
• Passenger rail
  
• Rural broadband.

These are not new issues. Many I have written about since I started this blog, but now is the time to stop talking about these issues and start seeing real action. On the campaign trail, Barack Obama told the story that one voice can change a room, one room can change a city, one city can change a nation. It is my hope that over the past 3 years, I have been able to change 1 person's viewpoint on these key issues and encouraged 1 person to take action on these key issues.

I'd like to end by repeating what Rekha Basu wrote about activism that I posted about earlier today..

Still, it takes courage to be an activist. It requires putting yourself out there in public, daring to take the unpopular position and getting hostile feedback... But those who understand history know well the role activism has played in winning rights and making a more just, humane and accessible America.

Join in. Post comments. Attend your local Democratic central committee meeting. Call your State Legislators. Get active in a community group or city board. Start your own blog. Heck, run for local office.

It's time to make a ruckus. Let's go!

Fix Our Broken Health Care System Now

I heard Lily Eskelsen, Vice President of the NEA, speak in January. She gave a great speech on the possibilities of the new Obama administration to strengthen the middle class, including reforming No Child Left Behind and fixing our broken health care system.

Educating Iowa's Students for the 21st Century

Dr. Scott McLoed, an education professor at ISU, is guest blogging at the Des Moines Register this week.

Yesterday, Dr. McLeod posted an must read article on why Iowa must change their education system to educate children to compete in the 21st century.

But we hear from American corporations that they’re having great difficulty finding workers who possess the skills needed to do these jobs, which is why they’re either hiring people from other countries or taking jobs overseas.

If Americans wish to retain their economic preeminence, our schools have to change. The rest of the world is catching up to us and creative, innovative, problem-solving (which requires deep conceptual, rather than shallow procedural, understanding) is American students’ weakest area on international assessments. If Iowa workers are to be globally competitive, they will need schools to help them acquire a different set of skills than they have needed in the past.

Is the Iowa education system up to the challenge? Only time will tell. But a critical step to making this transition is the creation of curricula that emphasize student acquisition of 21st century skills rather than regurgitation of discrete facts and low-level procedural knowledge. This will be an extremely difficult change for Iowa schools to make. We all have mental models, primarily informed by our own school experiences, of what school should look and be like. We cannot hang on to those models and expect our graduates to be successful in a vastly different economic climate. We cannot simply sprinkle 21st century skills like fairy dust on top of what we’re already doing. Instead, we must fundamentally realign the curricula and instruction that occurs within our schools in order to produce the workers and citizens that we need.

The Iowa Core Curriculum, particularly the aspects related to 21st century skills, is intended to get us where we need to go. Iowa citizens need to educate themselves about the Core and start asking tough questions about vision, development, implementation, funding, training, and support of their legislators, local school board members, and the Department of Education. Inaction is not an option, nor is tweaking the status quo, as both are losing strategies in a rapidly-changing digital, global economy.

Iowa Gets $600 million for Education from Stimulus Bill

Tom Harkin spoke on Saturday at the DFA training where he stressed that it is time to invest in people through education and health care.

Later, Harkin held a press conference where he said Iowa will be recieving $600 million dollars for education from the stimulus.

The Des Moines Register outlined where that money will be spent...

State fiscal stabilization fund: $386.3 million for local school districts, public colleges and universities to help close budget shortfalls and make improvements.

Job training: $6.3 million for dislocated workers, $1.6 million for adult training, $5.2 million for youth training and $5.4 million for vocational rehabilitation to help disabled people prepare for and find employment.

Pell Grants: Increasing the maximum grant to $5,350, up from $4,860, providing additional grant aid to 113,000 Pell Grant recipients in Iowa.

Special education: $122.1 million for special education Part B state grants to help improve educational outcomes for disabled people. This will raise the federal contribution to nearly 40 percent, the level established when the law was authorized more than 30 years ago.

Title I: $65.6 million for Title 1 Education for the Disadvantaged to help close the achievement gap and enable vulnerable students to reach their potential.

Classroom technology: $3.2 million to purchase new computers and software, and for professional development to ensure that the technology is effectively used by students.

School construction: According to the White House, the plan provides funding sufficient to modernize at least 412 Iowa schools. Harkin's aides said a specific dollar figure for Iowa isn't available yet. Nationwide, the bill provides $23.4 billion in tax credit bonds for construction, rehabilitation or repair of school facilities.

Head Start: $5.3 million for Head Start programs in Iowa that provide development, educational, health, nutritional, social and other assistance to prepare children to succeed in school. In addition, $1.1 billion will be awarded nationwide on a competitive basis to new grantees for early Head Start expansion.

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

In the past couple weeks I have written about our rapidly changing future and about a school district in Iowa that is trying an innovative way to teach students.

Here is an amazing video about what students are going to be like in the future and how education must change to meet the needs of those students.

Wake Up! The Future is Right Around the Corner

Some amazing information to ponder...

21st Century Education in Iowa

On Sunday, the Des Moines Register ran an article about an amazing program at East Marshall High School. With the help from Mechdyne Corp. in Marshalltown, East Marshall acquired an obsolete virtual reality system.

The school, though, had no money to hire a teacher to teach how to use the machine. So Rex Kozak, the principal, decided to hand over the manual and let some students explore how to use it.

Education and business leaders believe it's the kind of technology that could transform Iowa schools.

Businesses are donating the machines for schools next year and have asked state economic development leaders to provide $200,000 to support the pilot. "It could be disruptive technology for education," said Rockwell Collins' Jack Harris. "It could mean not just evolutionary change, but revolutionary change."

The reason, say Harris and others: The students' desire to tap virtual reality's 3-D capabilities drives them to learn about challenging STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The East Marshall students' projects have ranged from a virtual working engine to a blood cell flowing through a human body.

"We call that discovery learning - this idea that students are uncovering the learning themselves with some guidance, as opposed to us throwing it at them and they spit it back at us," said Scott McLeod, an associate professor of education leadership at Iowa State University.

This is an example of why local control of educational decisions works. Mechdyne learned of the availability of the virtual reality system, contacted a local school, and helped them get the machine. East Marshall High School wasn't confined by outside forces and was able to see a future educational use for the virtual reality system. Now students at this small, rural district have an amazing educational opportunity that most college students don't have.

Last week, Iowa official adopted a statewide core curriculum. I hope the Iowa Core Curriculum provides the flexibility for a school district to test out programs like these.

Iowa Adopts a Statewide Core Curriculum

Iowa now officially has a statewide core curriculum. Iowa was the last state to move away from local control of standards and adopt a statewide core curriculum.

The state Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the final pieces of the statewide core curriculum for Iowa's 362 public K-12 school districts and accredited non-public schools.

With its action, state education officials have completed a set of essential concepts and skills in literacy, math, science, social studies and 21st century learning skills that all Iowa students are expected to know by the time they graduate from high school. The learning skills include civic literacy, financial literacy, technology literacy, health literacy and employability skills.

The statewide core curriculum must be fully implemented in high schools by the 2012-13 school year, and in kindergarten though eighth grade by the 2014-15 school year.

I have mixed feelings about this. Teachers need to know what is expected of them and a core curriculum provides the framework teachers need. However, I have heard the core curriculum expands what is taught and schools will have a hard time fitting everything in and still cover everything in an in depth manner.

Obama's Promise to Early Childhood Education

In the news, there's been more talk about merit pay and reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. However, the key to Obama's education plans is his promise to early childhood education.

As a 2nd grade teacher, each year I have students reading at a Kindergarten level. That means they are essentially 2 years behind grade level after 2 years of school. That doesn't mean their previous teachers aren't quality teachers. It means those students have not had the opportunities other students have had before entering school (such as quality pre-school and growing up in a literacy filled environment) and likely have obstacles that must be overcome (such as learning a 2nd language, living in poverty).

When you build a house, you start with the foundation. Obama wants to ensure that all children have the foundation needed to be successful in school. One of the failings of No Child Left Behind is that some students are already incredibly behind when the enter school.

From Lead from the Start...

10. Obama supports increasing funding for the Head Start program for preschool children. Obama has called on states to replicate the Illinois model of Preschool for All.

Campaign website, BarackObama.com, "Resource Flyers" Aug 26, 2007

9. We can start by investing $10 billion to guarantee access to quality, affordable, early childhood education for every child in America. Every dollar that we spend on these programs puts our children on a path to success, while saving us as much as $10 in reduced health care costs, crime, and welfare later on.
Source: Speech in Flint, MI, in Change We Can Believe In, p.249 Jun 15, 2008

Put billions of dollars into early childhood education
8. Latinos have such a high dropout rate. What you see consistently are children at a very early age are starting school already behind. That’s why I’ve said that I’m going to put billions of dollars into early childhood education that makes sure that our African-American youth, Latino youth, poor youth of every race, are getting the kind of help that they need so that they know their numbers, their colors, their letters. Every dollar that we spend in early childhood education, we get $10 back in reduced dropout rates, improved reading scores. That’s the kind of commitment we have to make early on.
Source: 2008 Democratic debate in Las Vegas Jan 15, 2008

7. Teachers don’t go in to education to get rich. They don’t go in to education because they don’t believe in their children. They want their children to succeed, but we’ve got to give them the tools. Invest in early childhood education. Invest in our teachers and our children will succeed.
Source: Take Back America 2007 Conference Jun 19, 2007

6. If you’re a progressive, you’ve got to be worried about how the federal government is spending its revenue, because we don’t have enough money to spend on things like early childhood education that are so important.
Source: 2008 Politico pre-Potomac Primary interview Feb 11, 2008

5. Children’s First Agenda: zero to five early education

High-Quality Zero to Five Early Education: Obama will launch a Children’s First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children from birth up to five years old.
Source: Campaign booklet, “Blueprint for Change”, p. 20-23 Feb 2, 2008

4. We’ve got to have early childhood education.
Source: 2007 NAACP Presidential Primary Forum Jul 12, 2007

3. We’ll invest in early childhood education programs so that our kids don’t begin the race of life behind the starting line and offer a $4,000 tax credit to make college affordable for anyone who wants to go. Because as the NAACP knows better than anyone, the fight for social justice and economic justice begins in the classroom.
Source: McCain-Obama speeches at 99th NAACP Convention Jul 12, 2008

2. Michelle and I are here only because we were given a chance at an education. I will not settle for an America where some kids don’t have that chance. I’ll invest in early childhood education.
Source: Speech at 2008 Democratic National Convention Aug 27, 2008

1. This clip really seems to show where his heart is on the issue of voluntary Pre-K. Hopefully, he won't forget.

The Future of Education

Here's a great article about the future of education in the 21st century that mentions two of my favorite authors: Ken Robinson and Malcolm Gladwell.

The article begins with one simple premise...

Schools are built for, and in the image of, the industrial revolution
Schools are not only built for an industrial revolution past but also in its image - my first ever teaching placement in the most deprived area of Scotland was marked by every period of learning being 53 minutes long, something more like a chicken processing plant's shifts than a stimulating learning environment, with students batched by age and subject to standardised tests for quality before shipping to the real world. Conformity has thus always had a higher value than diversity. Disciplines on offer are subject to a hierarchy (maths and native language, followed by the sciences with music and the arts chasing the coattails).

The article goes to say that schools need to foster creativity and develop entrepreneurial skills in students for them to succeed in the future.

Should Iowa Ban Junk Food from Schools?

The Iowa Board of Education is thinking about banning junk food from schools in an attempt to teach healthier eating habits. However, opponents say that snack bars are big money makers in cafeterias.

Now, I thought banning junk food was a pretty drastic step. Then I read this...

''I don't think anybody should tell you what you can and can't eat,'' said Megan Brady, 15, a student at Valley Southwoods Freshman High School in West Des Moines. ''That's horrible.''

Brady skips the lunch line nearly every day to buy vanilla ice cream and shortbread cookies from the snack bar.

If you are eating ice cream and cookies for lunch everyday then someone needs to tell you what you can and can't eat.

Ideally, a system could be put into place where a student can buy ice cream sundaes or nachos only after they buy a more healthy main dish.

Students need to learn about a balance diet and it seems schools could get creative and come up with point systems, punch cards, or tickets that could be used for students to earn a trip to the snack bar.

Are Area Education Agencies top-heavy?

In an editorial today, the Des Moines Register asks...

Why would the number of administrators at Iowa's Area Education Agencies grow to 95, nearly four times as many as there were five years ago?

I don't know the answer, but my guess the answer is because of No Child Left Behind.

Iowa's 362 school districts don't have the budgets to employ the necessary math and reading specialists to help districts when they are declared as a school in need of improvement. A math teacher I had in high school retired and became a math specialist for the local AEA. He traveled to school that were deemed in need of improvement around north central Iowa to help them develop building and district plans to improve tests scores.

Since No Child Left Behind is a massive unfunded by the federal government, the state is forced to pick up the cost. In Iowa that means they increased demands of AEA's and paid for it by raising property taxes.